So, yeah, Free Comic Book Day was yesterday, and our shop’s event went swimmingly, I felt. It seemed a little busier than previous years, with a mix of familiar faces and plenty of potential new customers, and we gave them all boatloads of comics.
We had some left over (we always do), but that’s planned…we order extras for use during the year, to hand out to any kids that come in, to supply some of the local libraries that we do business with, and even to pass out to the kids at the Sunday church groups my girlfriend runs. Yes, a church group…I’ve done it every year FCBD has been running, and it’s always gone over really well. (No, I’m not giving them Fantagraphics’ Funny Book!)
Another benefit of FCBD is, of course, exposing the regular customers to new and different titles they might not have been inclined to try otherwise. In previous years, books like Courtney Crumrin, Queen and Country and Adventures of Barry Ween greatly benefited from FCBD exposure, as our regulars snapped up the trade paperbacks, added titles to their comic saver lists (when applicable), what have you. I’m not sure which title will be the breakout one this year (I’d like to think Owly, or maybe Flight), but it’ll be interesting to see.
An interesting side effect of FCBD…we tend to sell a lot of trade paperbacks on that day, especially to our regular customers who pop in for the freebies. That certainly helps to subsidize the promotional cost of the event!
Now all I gotta do is get a hold of our window-painter guy to take the “Free Comic Book Day – May 7th” picture off our window and replace it with something else. Maybe it’s time for the “25th Anniversary” image to go up, at last.
