Did my mailman get a copy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles FCBD book before I opened? I’m not saying “no.”

§ May 6th, 2024 § Filed under free comic book day § 9 Comments


Another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone, making my…23rd, outing for the event? However many it’s been since it started, I did ’em all, and I suppose it depends on how you count that one year when the books were just released in dribs and drabs over the summer because COVID.

And I’m pleased to report that this was the busiest FCBD I’ve had yet at the shop, and the most financially successful. It was a little over 20% increase over last year, which had been the previous Best FCBD for me. Which is good, because like I am every year, I’m anxious about how it’s going to go, even though I’ve literally never lost money on the event.

“Money?” some will ask, because even though it feels like word gets out more and more every year, some folks don’t realize that it does cost the retailers a little bit of money to order these giveaways. It’s not a lot, like 25 to 35 cents apiece, but it does add up. Hence the storewide sale I hold at the same time, which, as you can surmise from what I stated above, easily covered the costs.

And speaking of which, I probably could have ordered more than I did on some of the books. I try to have at least a few leftovers to keep for giveaways the rest of the year, either to folks visiting the shop, or for schools and libraries, whatever. Due to the huge crowds I ended up running through a lot of books in relatively short order, so it’s time to boost numbers back up a bit. I did dip into the leftovers from previous years to fill up the tables, and moved a whole lot of those too.

Helping me out this year was, as always, my dad and pal Dorian monitoring the tables, posted out in front of the store, joined by former boss Ralph and my girlfriend Nora keeping tabs on the crowds inside. And yours truly manning that register.

And speaking of overused transitions, my dad took a few photos of the event, including this one of the line waiting outside the store for it to start:


Thankfully, most of those storefronts were closed on the weekends, and one didn’t open until after the line had cleared, so I didn’t annoy any neighbors too much.

Here are a couple of photos of inside the shop:


…including the one photo I managed to snap before I had to get back to being the register monkey:


And yes, in one of the above photos, you can see the short box where I kept extras of previous FCBD throughout the year but forgot to squirrel away before opening. Ah well.

Of special note, Lene of the long-running Shatner-centric Star Trek podcat “Look at His Butt” dropped by to say hello. This was our first face-to-face meeting after being online pals for…just checking the dates, and goodness me, about 18 years! Actually, she and her husband came in the day before, so that was our first in-person encounter…she walked in with a “Hi Mike!” and my immediate response was “I know that voice!” It was swell to see her, and hopefully she can come back in the future for another visit! And a few other readers of this very site dropped by, too, which is always a nice surprise.

So overall, it was a solid outing for Free Comic Book Day. A lot of effort went into it, and my body still feels a little wearied from it, but I should hopefully be recovered when it’s time to do it all again next year!

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