www.freecomicbookday.com

appears to be a national event - just about anyone can get free comic books on May 4.

Maybe this should be in the hot deals forum?

Ok, I started a hot deals thread on this, but the purpose of THIS thread is to discuss:

Is this a good marketing deal?

Will this encourage people to buy more comics?

Is this good for the comic, or book industry?

I like the idea of it, but whether or not it'll suceed is up in the air in my mind.

Pros:
- *Free* is always good
- The tie-in with the Sci-Fi Channel is good exposure
- It being held close to the release of the Spider-Man movie is good exposure

Cons:
- People will have to seek out the local comic store, which may or may not exist anymore
- How will the right comics get into the right hands? For instance, the person who might enjoy a story like Queen & Country ends up getting Ultimate Spider-Man or Justice League Adventures? and vice versa?
- It being held close to the release of the Spider-Man movie only reinforces the idea that comics are "funnybooks of people in tights" in the mainstream mind.

I also wonder if the existing fans aren't going to somehow end up pillaging a substantial number of those free issues especially since most of the titles involved are "Comic Book Day" versions.

Overall, the optimist part of me hopes that Comic Book day will suceed beyond everyone's wildest dreams.

The pessimist part of me wonders if it'll make any difference beyond attracting back some of the old comic book fans who had quit. I don't see comics being something that kids nowadays being all that interested in, unless it's in the form of a movie or videogame.

Edit: edit from "Sci-Fi" to "Sci-Fi Channel"

The owner of my local comic store said he probably wouldn't even do free comic day, coz he had to pay for the free comics. I don't feel that this is a particularly wise business decision for him, given the exposure and marketing that went behind hyping free comic day.

my dealer complained as well, but then said he paid 18 cents per comic --- that does add up.

Well, that is just a cheap & ignorant owner of a comic book store to say that. I work in my comic book store & one of my best friends owns it so I understand & know about the retailers perspective. It only costs 15 cents a comic & any comic book store that doesn't take advantage of free comic book day is an absolute fool. The bottome line is most people don't read comic anymore b/c it is to expensive & even if they might be motivated to check some issues out, the price may scare them. My store has already had dozens upon dozens of calls from random people wanting to know exactly what day it is & if the comic really will be free or is there a catch. It's win win for retailers, many new customers will be coming to the store that day, at least a few will enjoy a free comic so much they will want the actuall issues & at least a few people coming into the store are bound to find something to buy, not counting the already regular customers who will try a new comic b/c it is free. I see no negatives in this promotion.

How many more times will Marvel repackage and re-release that first issue of Ultimate Spider-man?

They've been going on 2 years with reprints of that first story-arc.

BUMP.

You can check to see if there's a comic book shop in your area by going here: http://csls.diamondcomics.com/

I wish this would get stickied around the 2nd or 3rd of May (I wish in Other), just so people would know about it. The comic industry really needs a jumpstart.

BUMP for today. Get thee to a comic shop.

For those of you who don't have a participating comic book store near you, you can get them online...

http://www.comicbooksetc.com/

There is a heafty $6 shipping charge, but if you get some other stuff, it isn't so bad.

weren't too many choices at my place -- rather than pick up spiderman unlimited, I just went with the star wars one.

Tuan Jim

We didn't have it in the UK but, so as not to threadcrap, I'll say that Saturday I picked up Comics International and Spectre 16 (not read 1-15 yet and may even be missing the odd issue).

It was a good promo that I hope to see every year. Unfortunately, I doubt that many people knew about it, especially the younger kids. But I'm not sure cause I don't get around much : P