Free Comic Book Day 2013!

Saturday May 4th, 2013.

It may not be a day that lives in infamy, but it sure will be remembered as the latest celebration of Free Comic Book Day happily coinciding with Star Wars Day. And yes, I heard a couple of people actually say "May the 4th Be With You."

: Newbury Comics Assistant Manager Keith Cooper

The first stop on my geek nirvana trip with my brother was at the Newbury Comics branch located at 331 State Road in North Dartmouth.

We arrived about an hour before the store opened and were able to get inside to get some photos of the display of free books being offered. There was also a second stand filled with all sorts of Walking Dead offerings including a large number of the trade paperbacks. I had the chance to speak to the store's assistant manager Keith "Coop" Cooper to get his take on everything comics and FCBD. While Newbury Comics is definitely more geared towards music and pop culture these days, Coop is the store's go-to comic guy.

He told me that the store has been involved with the FCBD event since the beginning in 2002. When asked about the extra effort that goes into Free Comic Book day he said, "Usually it is only staying a little bit later the day before to set everything up, then come a little bit early in the morning to make sure everything is all perfect. Have a few extra staff in the morning to cover all the extra people coming in...not too much extra work."

After taking the initial photos, my brother and I waited outside with the rest of the small crowd of people that started to gather. There were people both in front and back of us that we shared conversations with, the best part being that it was parents who were sharing their love of comics with their children.

The doors opened and Coop let the crowd know the basic rules of the day which included a limit of one copy of any 5 titles. There was also an Iron Man Heroclix figure available as well as a sale of 25% of comics and graphic novels. They were well stocked with trades and graphic novels with a large bookshelf set up opposite the free comics display that was chock full of books to be had at a discount.

The crowd found their way in the doors and the comics were soon being snapped up left and right. The special issue of The Walking Dead that features 3 brand new original stories that supposedly won't be reprinted in the trade collections was the hot item of the day.

While there were a number of people coming in with their children, the costume contest the store was running didn't draw many people while I was in the store. We saw two brothers, one as one of the Pokémon characters and the other dressed up as The Riddler. Another youngster came later in the day dressed as Captain America.

According to Coop, the first two hours of Free Comic Book Day are extremely busy for the store and it certainly lived up to that billing this year.

The store took part in Record Store Day two weeks ago and the line for that was out the door and all the way down to the end of the building. When asked about the expectations for this year he said that people had been talking about it, "more so than most years" and that he was "hoping for at least half the size" of the line they had for Record Store Day.

Obviously we grabbed some of the freebies for ourselves, but it was interesting to see what everyone else was grabbing as well. After the books were picked up, more than a few customers wandered the rest of the store to possibly make an extra purchase or two.

Speaking with the customers, you found a mix of reasons for why people were coming in. Josh Costa brought his son Carter "just to get him started reading. He's been reading books, he's in kindergarten so we figure the more we can get him to read the better." Carter cited Spider-Man and The Hulk as his favorite comics to read.

Ed Pacheco brought his daughters Ashley, April and Marissa. He admitted that it was more of a dad thing than for the girls but that he was trying to drag them into the comic world. He was particularly interested in The Walking Dead comic and grew up "enjoying Superman as a kid."

One mother brought her son Sam to the store and while she likes a lot of alternative comics and The X-Men, Sam isn't too fussy and pretty much likes to read whatever he can get his hands on.

Richard Tedesco came from Tiverton, Rhode Island with his wife Anna and daughter Erin for their second year of Free Comic Book Day. "Last year, it was Dad dragged them along," he told me, "but then my daughter got into it. She likes anime a lot."

Coop, who counts Mind Mgmt., Batman Incorporated, Deadpool and Hawkeye among some of his current favorite titles, noted that there may be some, but not really a lot of crossover between the store's music and comic fans. He also said that Free Comic Book Day brings in a mix of established fans, new fans and people who are drawn to the free aspect of the day but that he finds "that a lot of people do start coming back that I've never seen before after Free Comic Book Day. They'll like it or the kids will like it, so they'll start subscribing to one title and then start building and building and building."

Wrapping up the time at Newbury Comics, I checked out with my offerings and picked up a copy of the new Deep Purple album as well.

The second stop of the day was at New England Comics, located at 2184 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have my own personal comic subscription folder here.)

Once we got there, the line filling the inside of the store was split into two parts. There was the line getting to the free comics and the line to check out.

I spoke with store employee Palmer Chase who, on this day, had the task of handing out to people coming into the store their single copy of The Walking Dead comic. He told me that the business had been involved with Free Comic Book Day since the beginning and that they publish their own comic, The Tick. He listed Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the Ultron miniseries as his current favorite reads as well.

When asked if Free Comic Book Day is a harder work day than normal, Chase said that "its no so much a harder work day, its busier than a normal Saturday. We open up a half hour earlier and close an hour later than we normally would at this location." He added, "Usually the prep is done the night before. Fridays are usually our late night because of Magic tournaments. So Friday night we kind of set everything up when customers stop rolling in. There's not really too much extra prep, especially in a store this size...bigger stores obviously there's much more effort."

The store limits the books offered to two titles per person from the new books (plus the Tick book for everyone) and two comics from their extras bin. The sales for the day were part of the store's general sale that started a week early including 30% off rack comics, bin comics were 50% off and wall comics ranged from 30% - 50% off. Trade paperbacks were 20% off and general items around the store were 20%-30% off.

While waiting in line to check out, I noticed that the usual mix of gamers coming in and making their way to the game room for both Heroclix and Warhammer action.

: New England Comics' Palmer Chase

Also while waiting in line, I got to see a sight that struck me funny. A kid came in with his parents. The father had a copy of The Walking Dead which was apparently going to the kid (age related issues prevented the distribution of the comic to younger kids). But the father started to fold the comic and the kid damn near had a heart attack. He quickly grabbed his dad's hands to stop him from continuing to fold the comic over. I laughed and the kid looked at me and said, "this is why you buy THESE" as he pointed to the bags and boards in his mother's hands. It all struck me funny because usually it is the adult who freaks out because a kid is folding a book. The reversal was priceless.

On hand working the cash register for the day was Bob Polio, the art director for The Tick. Everyone who came into the store got a copy of the book and he signed it upon request and occasionally did sketches for customers as well.

Palmer told me that "normally this store only has one employee working a day unless we're training someone. Generally Free Comic Book Day is the only time we'll have two people on, mainly because of crowd control."

When asked about the expectations for this year's event, he stated that "the chain has been promoting it, several stores in our chain are going to have guest artists. Customers have been really excited about FCBD. There's gonna be the preview of the next Marvel crossover coming out later this year called Infinity, and the preview of the new Jim Lee / Scott Snyder Superman book that will be out there." He added that he was "really anxious to see what's going to happen with the Superman book because Scott Snyder has been doing such a good job on Batman and my love for Superman...I've just been waiting for that book. I'd be pushing it regardless but I want to know as much as I can about it now!"

In regards to the makeup of the customers on Free Comic Book Day, Palmer said that it "brings in the established ones (comic fans), it brings in new people and it brings in the people that see the word "free". Though the latter, was not as much as the years have gone on. New and established people come in on days when they aren't normally coming in, spending more money. It's been a real good thing for the comic industry, otherwise they would've stopped this a few years ago."

Because I give out comics to the kids at Halloween, I pre-ordered 10 copies of 13 different FCBD titles. I picked them up today along with my regular weekly stash and the first issue of a new series called Ten Grand written by J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5). For the most part, the comics are a big hit at trick-or-treat time and I've heard my house referred to as "The Comic Book House" by some of the kids.

Free Comic Book Day 2013 brought out fans and potential fans at the two stops I made. They took advantage of the sales to stock up on new comics reading material besides the freebies. You had sons and daughters as well as moms and dads at various points along their way to fandom and everyone I spoke to seemed really happy to be taking part in the day. Whether it was their only plan of the day, or part of a longer shopping trip, people were happy and smiling as they got their hands on their books and looked forward to a day of reading and hopefully finding something new to put their comic buying money towards each month.

Hard to argue with smiling happy people!