free comic book day

Since they finally showed up this week, I thought I’d go back to the eBay and see if they’ve been listed for sale. And sure enough, there are about a dozen listings for the Free Comic Book Day Iron Man Heroclix figure. “Super Rare,” says one.

Today we’ll be doing some last minute prep for Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day event…setting up the tables at the front of the shop, where our posted employees will be hand-distributing bags containing the free comic selections, and I’ll be making signs for the in-store sales we’ll be having that day.

Thursday I did have a group of high school kids show up and looked around, puzzled, at the shop. I asked them if they needed help, and one said “this is Free Comic Book Day, right? May 1st?” She wasn’t happy when I told her it was the 3rd…having “1st Saturday in May” on all the promo material seemed to cause some confusion at first, with some folks, but I thought we had all that straightened out. Apparently not.

I do love the calls I get from people who just can’t believe that Free Comic Book Day even exists.

Customer on phone: “So, this Free Comic Book Day…what do we have to do to get the free comics?”

Me: “Show up on Saturday.”

Customer: “…And?”

Me: “And nothing! Just come in and we’ll give you free comics!”

Customer: “Really? Do we have to dress up in costumes?”

Me: “All you have to be able to do is make it through our front door during our normal business hours on Saturday. We will then gift you with free comics, and lots of them. Honest.”

Yes, I did have someone ask if they had to wear costumes. I almost…almost…said yes.

I also had another person, a new regular, at the shop say that she and her husband weren’t going to come, because the husband was convinced we’d only give him one comic since that’s what happened to him at another shop last time. I had to assure her that, as supplies last, each person would get at least one of each FCBD book that was available. No, really, you’ll get more comics than you’ll know what to do with, I promise. I think I finally managed to convince her…it was the final bit where I said I didn’t want to store the leftovers, I want them in customers’ hands and OUT OF THE SHOP that got the point across.

We’re also still getting that thing where some folks think Free Comic Book Day is something just our store is doing, that it’s just a promotion we put together to clear out some dead stock. I’ve had to explain several times that it’s an industry-wide hoohar, and that many publishers produce books specifically for the event. This information puzzles some, alarms others. Comic book companies…working together? Joining forces? Trying to tempt the innocent citizenry with these devilish illustrated pamphlets? They must be stopped!

Anyway, if you want merciless coverage of what books you can expect to see, pal Dorian has put together his reviews for (most of) this year’s selection. As always, pal Dorian is cruel but fair.

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In case you were wondering, the “Did you see it” questions started to hit Thursday afternoon. And, as usual, I’m a smartass: “Not yet…but I’ve got my tickets for Made of Honor for tomorrow night!”

On that topic (of Iron Man, not that other film)…a conversation with Employee Aaron on Thursday:

Employee Aaron (jokingly): “Ooh, I don’ t know if I’ll have time to construct my Iron Man costume to wear to the movie tonight.”

Me: “Well, just wear your Stormtrooper costume.”

Employee Aaron: “Yeah, I can paint it red and yellow!”

Me: “…”

Me: “Someone, somewhere, is doing that very thing RIGHT NOW.”

Beginning to prep for the ever-approaching Free Comic Book Day, coming May 3rd. We were shorted our Gumby and Love & Capes FCBD comics, and the Nascar Heroes and Imaginary books have yet to ship to us. Here’s a sentence I never imagined myself saying: “Boy, I hope those Nascar comics show up next week.”

As in previous years, we divide up the free funnybooks into three age-appropriate bundles to hand out to equally age-appropriate customers: “Kids,” “Teens,” and “Grown-Ups.” This year the books are all allegedly more “general audiences” than in past years, to avoid any more penis panics, but the three-pack distribution has worked well for us in the past, so we’d like to keep up the tradition. And there’s still some necessary age sorting to do…I don’t particularly want to give the Top Cow freebie to kids, and I’m just assuming the Wizard giveaway isn’t for kids, since they haven’t been yet.

Since the sorting is fairly time-intensive, we’ve got to get cracking early…but that also means when the missing or late FCBD books finally show up, we’ll have to go through and dump them all in the bags after the fact, which is a little annoying. And, we’ll only have a couple days to do it.

In addition to the bags, we’ll have loose copies of all the freebies on our tables in the FCBD staging area at the front of the store, as well as leftovers from previous years. Plus, I’ve already spoken to some folks about providing leftover giveaways to schools and libraries.

We’re using these FCBD comics for their intended purpose: promotion. Getting them into the hands of as many people as possible. Maybe…just maybe, getting a new reader or two out of it. Or getting old readers into something new. (I’ve discussed the apparent effectiveness of the event here.)

That said, here’s a quick survey of 2008 Free Comic Book Day comics I’ve found on the eBay, current and ended auctions, as of this writing:

• Multiple listings for “full sets” of all of this year’s FCBD comics (one set sold for about $30)
• One copy of this year’s Marvel Adventures: Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man with a minimum bid of $7.99 (wholesale cost, by the way: 20 cents)
• One copy of this year’s Hellboy book, minimum bid about $2 U.S.
• One copy of this year’s Broken Trinity (Top Cow) book, minimum bid $2 U.S.
• Two copies of this year’s Sonic the Hedgehog book, sold for $2.50 and just over $3

There ain’t no law sayin’ they can’t, but it still feels like a shame. At least it’s just one or two books here and there, and not, say, case lots of FCBD books like I’ve seen in previous years. Hopefully the people selling these still have plenty more of them in stock to give away.

And I just looked at this next auction because I was wondering why a copy of the FCBD Ultimate Spider-Man #1, from a previous year, was listed at $24.95. Turns out the seller is also accepting “best offers.” Given that other copies of the same book have sold for a penny (well, half a penny, in this case)…well, good luck.

Anyway, the auction that I actually wanted to draw your attention to is this one, and don’t look at it if you’re somewhere where web page sound is gonna be a problem.

So, did you look? “What th–!?” — right? Startled the heck out of me. Here’s the site responsible (sound, natch).

So, I’ve been off for a week. What’d I miss?

Oh, okay, I know I missed a lot. There was that whole New York comic convention boondoggle over the weekend, which, from what little I managed to read about it, made that Wizard World con pal Dorian and I went to look like just a bunch of guys trading comics in a garage somewhere. Well, it is a little closer to the center of the American funnybook universe, so there’s that.

A few of my blogging buddies attended the show, and have been updating over the weekend. I imagine we’ll see more comprehensive reports once they recover (or, in Kevin’s case, sober up), but Kevin Church has a brief wrap-up here, Chris Butcher has some photos and will speak about the con on NPR Monday morning (here’s the show archive if you miss it), Johanna has run-downs of what she was getting up to Friday and Saturday, and Bully…

…Bully, the little stuffed bull what loves the comics was at the con all weekend, and here’s the photographic proof. I think I just about died when I realized Bully was wearing a tiny backpack. Oh my goodness.

Bully also got shots of the Watchmen action figures, the Mike Sterling Memorial Comic Book Rack, and The Rack‘s Benjamin Birdie doing his Flash impression and Kevin Church doing what Kevin Church does best.

There are some little bits ‘n’ pieces of actual comic news from the New York con that I’d like to point out (with links to the Newsarama articles):

• Dude, all you need to know from this Grant Morrison panel is this:
  MORE SEAGUY.

• New ongoing Secret Six series, written by Gail Simone. Simone’s previous Secret Six stuff was a lot of fun, and she somehow pulled off the miracle of making people interested in Cat Man, of all characters, so I’m really looking forward to this series.
• “Marvel Apes?” Most folks’ immediate reaction seems to be “we didn’t like this when it was called ‘JLApe’ either.” I mean, I’m all for more monkeys in my comics, but DC always struck me as your go-to company for primate funnybook action.
• I like Frank Miller ‘n’ all, but I’m gonna need to see more of The Spirit movie before I can decide how I feel about this. The poster didn’t help matters much, and while I like the look of the trailer:
  
  …I’m hoping there’s a bit more of a lighter touch in the actual film. I do appreciate that the trailer says “BASED ON THE COMIC BOOK” in BIG, BIG letters, though.

• There’s a new Supergirl comic aimed at younger readers supposedly forthcoming. Hopefully kids will still want a Supergirl comic, after DC did its best to drive away budding Supergirl fans with their regular offerings.
• The best news out of the convention is that the Gordon Lee case has been dismissed, especially after the peculiar behavior of the prosecution the last time a trial was attempted. For more information, please check out the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website.

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In other news:

• Speaking of Benjamin Birdie of The Rack fame…he now has his own fancypants website, located at, where else, Benjaminbirdie.com. Already he knocks it out of the park with the first of an ongoing series of posts discussing single pages from assorted comics (beginning with a sequence from Marvel Boy #4). Good, insightful reading, from someone who knows what he’s talking about.
• Regarding that terrifying post of mine from yesterday, reader Ironbear left a comment describing how the sound function on those toys worked:
  

  “The cool thing was the weird sound technology: the Patented Talking Tape was embossed plastic, attached at one end to the inflatable. The sound was embossed in the tape in thousands of grooves along the length of the tape. To play, you’d simply run a fingernail along the tape: the very lo-fi sound came out of the inflatable itself.”

  Huh. I was pretty sure I hadn’t heard of this, until I looked at this page about “talking tape” and suddenly it seems oddly familiar. I don’t think I ever had anything that used this technology, but I must have heard about it at some point. Anyway, here’s a short YouTube video demonstrating one of these talking tapes in action:

  
  Sorcery! SORCERY!

• We received most of our order of Free Comic Book Day comics last week, with the balance to arrive this week. Haven’t had much of a chance to go through too many of them, but the Hellboy one is nice — all new stories, though the BPRD story is is for the Long-Term Fans Only. The EC Sampler is pretty cool, even if it only exists as an advertisement for the $50 EC Archives volumes, but it’s hard to fault anything that gets old EC comics into the hands of kids. And the Archie entry is essentially a blatant ad for the Geppi comics museum.

  Also, I did my usual search on the eBay for people selling this year’s new FCBD books, and, sure enough, there are a few folks out there desperately missing the point, who’d rather make a quick buck or two in the short term rather than take the chance of giving the comics away to someone who might become a regular reader.

  After the FCBD event is over, I’m…well, the market will out, I suppose, on the FCBD books, but I think selling them even after FCBD is over for the year is still missing an opportunity. We use them throughout the year, giving them to libraries, passing them out at the store, and so on. It’s a great promotional tool, and it’s a shame some folks don’t see it that way.

  I may have more to say on FCBD this year, but if not, you can read previous musings on the topic here and here.

So, last night, I was finally able to give the sets I’d put aside of Free Comic Book Day comics to my girlfriend’s nieces, aged 9 and 10. They were excited, of course, because hey! Free comics! Of the comics I gave them, they were pretty happy about the Simpsons and Archie freebies, but they were most thrilled about the Marvel Adventures Hulk/Iron Man book, the Spider-Man comic, and, prepare yourself for a shock, the Justice League of America #0.

Yeah, I know I said this continuity-heavy, non-linear narrative could possibly be offputting to new readers. But seeing my girlfriend’s nieces parked on the living room couch, reading the comic aloud to each other, and occasionally asking me questions about who certain characters were and what they were up to (not in an “I don’t understand this comic” way, but more in a “this is pretty neat, tell me more about it!” kind of way)…well, I was certainly happy to be wrong.

Mentioning this to pal Dorian, he shared with me his opinion that this comic may be ideal for younger children, as the free flow of ideas and mysterious events and whatnot is exactly the type of thing that can grab the interest of young, inquiring minds. I still wish, in the JL#0’s case, that there was more of a linear narrative, but the girls loved it, and that’s the important thing.

Huh…young girls gravitating toward and enjoying superhero comics. Whaddaya know?

I also gave some comics to the four-year-old nephew, but he was more interested in practicing his soccer (football, to you civilized countries) technique inside the house. Ah, he’ll get to ’em eventually.

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Commenter Chaz asked in response to yesterday’s post:

“…Did you see the post-early-90s crash coming, and was there anything you did differently that allowed you to survive/stay healthy? It seems like you avoided milking it for all it was worth, but I didn’t see anything else in those two posts that would answer my question.”

We didn’t really see the crash coming, at first. I remember seeing some indicators that things were going awry (like that one month’s distributor catalog that was ballyhooing at least three new ongoing “superhero universes,” causing me to wonder who was going to support all those; the excessive reliance on gimmick covers; Rob Liefeld). Comic sales were so high for such an extended period of time, that…well, we sorta took it for granted, and when the occasional dog of a comic began to turn up (like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 or that Adventures of Superman #500), we took ’em as flukes. “Well, we learned our lesson on those turkeys…thankfully everything else is selling so well, we can absorb the losses!”

And when sales began to drop across the board, there was some measure of belief that it was just a temporary dip in sales…after all, so many folks were buying comics, surely they all weren’t going to give up on them all at once! So orders were kept up, assuming that the dip was temporary and that people would probably want to be able to get the back issues they missed once they started picking up their comics again.

Had this been a normal market shift, a typical ebb and flow of comic readers, that could very well have been the case. But this was a massive departure of readership, for whatever the reasons may have been (and that could fill yet another post), and they weren’t coming back. Eventually high hopes had to give way to the reality that those high sales were history, and we had to adjust our orders accordingly. Thanks to the judicious use of cycle sheets, we were able to track orders and actual rack sales, so we were able to adjust quickly and avoid throwing good money after bad for too long, after the full effect of the crash was obvious.

I think I may have touched upon this in other posts, but there were a couple reasons why we were able to ride out the lean years of ’90s.

First, we were a comics and games store. After a local games store went out of business many years ago, people started coming to us and asking for their role playing and tabletop war game supplies, and since folks were asking, we decided we’d try to deliver. Soon, about half the store was devoted to gaming items, and when the comics thing took its dive, the money brought in by the games took up the slack.

Second, we still carried a full line of comics and related items. When other stores in the area (and there were a lot of them, popping up here and there to take advantage of the then-current faddishness of comics) began to either shift their focus primarily to toys, or go out of business altogether, their customers who were still interested in reading comics began to come to, or return to, us. Thus, we still were able to do some comic book business…not nearly on the scale we were used to during the boom, but we were able to maintain our reputation as the place to go to for your funnybook needs, and make a small bit of money besides.

Third, we took in some significant coin of the realm by carrying POGs, but let us not speak of that again.

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NOT IN THE JOB DESCRIPTION: Explaining to someone on the phone how to use Google in order to find a comic-related product we didn’t happen to have. ALSO NOT IN THE DESCRIPTION: Telling you how to spell the search terms you need to use. Are you kidding me?

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SEEN AT THE STORE: Former employee Josh (second Josh, not Amazing Race 4 Josh), stopping by the shop to say hello to us poor schlubs what are still in the comic book mines. He was a bit bruised and battered, having participated in some fisticuffs with an unruly gentleman at a party recently* as Josh defended the virtue** of the right and good All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder***.

I gave him some leftover Free Comic Book Day comics, which not only make good reading for my girlfriend’s nieces, but also have mystical healing properties****, so he’ll be good as new in no time.

* True.

** Not true…he was actually trying to calm down some belligerent jerk. Didn’t work, apparently.

*** Absolutely true. ASB&R is fan-tastic…don’t let anyone tell you any different. Or Josh will beat you up.

**** Of course that’s true. Free comics have magical powers. Surely you knew this?

Before you say anything…yeah, that pic is from last year’s Free Comic Book Day wrap-up, but I took the picture, I liked how it turned out, and I’m using it again. So there.

First off, thanks to pal Dorian for lending a hand, a foot, and at least one lung to our FCBD event, helping me manage customers, pack up bags of FCBD comics, and so on. Even with Dor there, we had more business than nearly all of us could handle…this may have been the busiest FCBD we’ve had yet.

Speaking of packing up those bags…as per previous years, we had our selection of books divided up and packaged together according to appropriateness for particular age groups (i.e. children, teen, and grown-ups). Thus, when people popped in looking for those four-color handouts, all we had to do was hand them the right bags. And, of course, if they were old enough, they got one of each bag for maximum Free Comic Book Day participation.

To make these prepacks, we started sorting and bagging nearly as soon as the cases of FCBD mags arrived at the store a couple weeks back. We ended up preparing hundreds of these packs, and I thought that would at least get us through part of the day, leaving us time on FCBD itself to sort and create even more packages as necessary. Well, by about a half-hour past opening, I learned the kids packs were already down to critical levels and we had to rush more of the packs into production. In fact, most of the morning and early afternoon was devoted to just barely staying ahead of the customers in our prepack production frenzy. That’ll teach me…um, something, I guess.

Other random notes from the day:

• Prepared a box of FCBD books (multiple copies of the all-ages titles) for a school teacher…and have another school teacher and a doctor coming over the next day or two for their own assortments.
• Surprisingly few problems during the day…I thought a mom and daughter walked out the store with one of the Classics Illustrated Junior reprints without paying, so I ran outside, looked around for them, came back in, and noticed the comic in question still on the shelf where it was in the first place, making me feel just brilliant.

  Also, our entire section of Spider-Man funnybooks probably needs to be put back in order, given the number of people I saw pulling books and putting them back seemingly at random.

• I haven’t confirmed this with the guys, but I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the selection of free books this year. In years past, I heard the occasional “Oh, these are the free books? Thanks anyways.” For whatever reason, even if it’s just for the sheer number of freebies available this year, people were more impressed by what was actually being offered for free, rather than grabbing random books off the new comics rack or the graphic novel shelves and trying to get those for free instead.
• Set out a small shelving unit and used it to hold small piles of various leftover comics from previous FCBDs…got rid of a good number of those extras that way.
• Still a good number of people who seem to think that FCBD is something that our store made up, instead of an industry-wide event. Despite my temptation to encourage this belief (“Why, yes, that’s right…no other store cares enough about you to give you free books!”), I set them straight.
• Speaking of temptation…sure, we have to give these comics away for free…but no one said anything about us CHARGING ADMISSION AT THE DOOR! Ah HA HA HA HA…okay, I didn’t do that. Next year, though….
• Thankfully…thankfully…it wasn’t just us giving out books for free. We had plenty of customers dropping some cash as well, making it a very good day financially. In fact, our take more than paid for the cost of the FCBD books…which is a good thing, because we ordered a lot of them.

Overall, it was another successful Free Comic Book Day event. Nonetheless, I’m glad this year’s brouhaha is now behind us. I think I’ll be dreaming about sorting comics by age groups for a while.

…and the people did rejoice mightily, and they did journey from far and wide to visit their local funnybook emporiums, to partake of the glorious bounty that awaited them. They found Unseen Peanuts, and saw that it was good, and took them by the handful. They saw mounds of Owly: Helping Hands, and seeing that it too was good, their hands did help indeed themselves to it. They saw the Worlds of Aspen, and…um…and they did take that, too, for it was free and what the hell. Yea, verily.

In other words, get your hinders into our shop and get free comics, because I don’t want to have to find a place to store the leftovers. And, um, you might find something you’ll enjoy, too.

Yea, verily. And so on.

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Since I’ll be busy with the aforementioned event, and since (as I’m writing this) I just got back from seeing Spider-Man 3 and totally need to go to bed sometime soon so that I have more than five hours of sleep in me before going to work in the morning, I don’t have much content for this post. Well, except for this next little thing. You know what happens when you’re killing some time and you just happen to search on the word “nerd” on the eBay? You find this:

“Star Wars NAKED NERD photo set to raise money for C4 – Fanboy exploits own body to get the SW CELEBRATION IV”

“…My ‘NAKED NERD Charity Drive’ of sorts to gain funds to attend what could be the defining moment in any STAR WARS fan’s life: THE STAR WARS CELEBRATION IV, taking place in Los Angeles, CA, May 24-28, 2007 celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the start of GEORGE LUCAS’s opus Sextology(?) STAR WARS: Episode IV: A NEW HOPE!!!!!!!

“A life-long fan of the films, as many of you fine citizens may also be, I cannot bear the thought of missing out on this , the ultimate fan experience due to lack of funds. You see, I have recently relocated and as many of you know, the act of moving one’s self and possessions can be a taxing strain on one’s bank account. Try as I might I just can’t seem to raise the necasary fundage to finance such a journey…at least not though the traditional routes.

“Instead I have taken a page of wisdom from the 2nd greatest film of all time: DETROIT ROCK CITY starring Sir Edward Furlong and have decided to do what so many Sorority Girls and Single Mothers before me have done to get what they need and desire…….SHAKE WHAT THE GOOD LORD GAVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!”

[…]

“Let me give you potential bidders a little bit of info on what you will be bidding on:

“What I have for you is a set of nearly 40 digital photos of me stripped down to my underwear (Boxer Briefs) in various HIGHLY EROTIC poses designed to stimulate and titlulate everyone…including the deceased. These pictures are strictly cheesecake ABOLUTLEY NO ACTUAL NUDITY is contained within these photographic records of a desperate man.

“You will see photos of me in various states of undress striking HOT poses on the hood of my 1996 HONDA CIVIC…..WHITESNAKE STYLE!!!!! In The shower sudsing up for a night on the town. Relaxing on the couch……comfortably. Being caught UNAWARE whilst traversing the rooms and corridors of my palacial NERD ESTATE.”

Friend, you had me at “WHITESNAKE STYLE!!!!!”

Sample photos at the link. Oh, yes indeedy. Safe for work, I guess.

So I spent my Thursday afternoon unpacking and sorting the Free Comic Book Day books…approximately one quadrillion of them, give or take a trillion.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate slightly, but I was hip-deep in thousands of the things, and the whole time I was thinking about the other retailers I’ve read comments from, who balked at the fifty buck buy-in in order to participate. I mean, we got more than fifty bucks’ worth of just the Gumby giveaway.

I haven’t had much of a chance to look through this year’s offerings, but Owly, as always, is a quality item, and the Nexus book is a sight for sore eyes, after being gone from the stands for too long. It’s mostly reprints, catching readers up on the character, but features a few preview pages for the new series.

Unseen Peanuts from Fantagraphics is a fine package, not only featuring (as the title may imply) strips previously unreprinted until Fantagraphics’ recent Complete Peanuts series, but also provides commentary for several of the strips. It sorta makes me wish there was a Complete Annotated Peanuts, but I think producing the Complete Peanuts just by itself is causing enough gray hair and headaches.

By the way, a quick look at the eBay once again reveals people selling this year’s FCBD offerings. Someone’s even selling a complete bag of the Star Wars Clone Wars miniature figures…they ordered the bag for FCBD, got it in from Diamond, and immediately tossed it on the eBay as is. Now that’s just a shame.

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For the first Spider-Man movie, I was informed in no uncertain terms by my girlfriend, whose favorite comic book character is ol’ Web-head, that “penalties will ensue” if we did not see the film on opening night. After driving from theatre in theatre in a panic, desperately trying to find a showing that hadn’t sold out, we managed to luck onto a 10:45 PM screening that still had a few seats left. And that’s why I live to tell the tale today.

Anyway, I’ve learned my lesson, and for Spider-Man 2, I bought the tickets about a month ahead of time. For Spider-Man 3…I’d almost let it slip by me, but last Monday I swung by the theatre for tickets for a late evening showing on the film’s May 4th debut.

I totally forgot that May 5th was Free Comic Book Day, which means I’m going to have to get to the store early to prep things for the event. I may be one tired funnybook salesman that day, it seems.

It just occurred to me that, aside from my mention of folks not understanding when the event actually is, I haven’t really said a whole lot about Free Comic Book Day.

Well, I don’t know that I have a whole lot to add beyond what I’ve already said last year (before and after), so aside from some comments about some of this year’s offerings, and any horror stories that may arise from the day itself, I’ll probably not be talking too much about it.

That said, I do want to note some things: Marvel’s offering this time around has the potential, for once, of actually being good. A new, full-length, Dan Slott written and Phil Jimenez drawn Spider-Man story, which will be out about the time of Spider-Man 3…barring any inappropriate content for younger readers (always possible, given Marvel’s usual “two giant steps backward for every tiny step forward” publishing strategy), this could make a nice all-ages giveaway.

On the other hand, we have DC’s Justice League of America #0.

Now, there’s a joke I use at the store every once in a while, when a customer asks me about trying jump into a new Marvel or DC series. If the title in question is one of those that requires extensive knowledge of that company’s “universe,” or just of the book’s history…if it just requires plain ol’ geeky knowledge, I’ll refer to the book as being “for the advanced reader.”

I would say that Justice League of America #0 is “for the advanced reader.” On top of needing to know your DC continuity (or whatever passes for it, nowadays), you need to be ready for the fact that the story jumps back and forth in time, from panel to panel. Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed the comic when it was originally released, and the DC dork that I am got a kick out of all its continuity-candy. But it’s a real “preaching to the converted” offering…this is one of those FCBD comics designed to get folks already reading comics to try yet another comic they might not be reading. Non-comics fans, or even casual readers, may not be ready for a non-linear, continuity-heavy superhero book, particularly if their only regular exposure to comics is the comparatively more straightforward storytelling techniques in their local papers’ funnypages.

DC is also offering a comic based on their Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon, which makes up for it. This type of comic is a very effective tool for outreach to kids. “Hey, you watch that Legion cartoon? Here, have a comic based on it!” Replace “Legion” with “Justice League Adventures” or “Teen Titans,” and you have DC’s successful giveaways from past FCBDs. (I left out the Batman Strikes comic, since, well, our customers don’t seem to react well to that cartoon.)

I am looking foward to the FCBD Gumby Special (because the new Gumby comics rule your school), Owly & Korgi (because Owly is cuter than a cute thing that’s cute, with a side helping of cuteness), and the new FCBD Nexus Special (because Nexus is one of the Most Perfect Comics Ever, particularly with Baron ‘n’ Rude back at the helm, and you all better read this series or I’m going to your houses and giving you serious noogies).

So, any FCBD titles you guys ‘n’ gals are waiting for?

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When I was a junior in high school, lo these two or so decades ago, I was in an art class, and one of our assignments was to draw a face, with an emphasis on shading. Well, it just so happened that I was reading a certain book at the time, and thought the author’s photo on the back cover would make a good subject for this particular project.

Normally, I wouldn’t whip out old, embarrassing drawings of mine…the eyes are a bit off-center, I realize, and it sorta looks like a cross between Bob Ross and Sidney from M*A*S*H…but, for Kurt Vonnegut, I can bear a little public humiliation. Besides, this drawing, for all its flaws, remains a favorite of mine, if only because it reminds me of Vonnegut and my love for his work.

It’s been a while since I’ve read, or reread, one of his novels, come to think of it. I suddenly have the urge to read Slapstick again.

So long, Kurt.

Some final comments on this year’s Free Comic Book Day:

I’ve had a few reports show up in my comments sections from over the weekend (1, 2) which make me very glad things went as smoothly as they did our store. Commenter Jamie in particular has my sympathies, judging from his description of how his local event went, with people grabbing comics out of kids’ hands and loud, obnoxious people driving out other paying customers.

Fortunately, we also didn’t have any problem with people assuming everything was free and walking out with a pile of, say, the new Infinite Crisis. We avoided that problem by setting up a couple big tables right by the front door, spreading out all the FCBD books, and having the people manning those tables let people know as soon as they walk in the door “hey, all the free comics are right here.” And, as in past years, we divided the comics into three age groups – kids, teens, and grown-ups – and packed the comics into color-coded bags. Kids got the bag with all the kids comics, teens got the teen bag and the kid bag, and adults got all three. Thus, no panic grabbing…comics were handed out in an orderly fashion, and if people didn’t want all the comics, they could pick and choose off the tables.

I had a question from someone asking if our business improved for that day…business as in “taking in money,” not just “warm bodies milling about the store,” and the answer is, yes, sales were up for that day. I know that wasn’t the case for everybody, particularly those stores afflicted with the magpies who just want to grab the free stuff because it’s free. However, we had enough new faces come in the door that day who took a look around the shop and found items that they hadn’t been exposed to before and just had to buy. For example, we had that boxed set of DC Direct Justice League action figures that had been kicking around the shop for a while…a dad came in with his kids, saw the set, thought that was just the neatest thing he’d ever seen, and purchased it for his children. We had another fellow who used FCBD as an opportunity to finally come in and ask about work by Los Bros. Hernandez and Dan Clowes…and came back the very next day to use one of our discount coupons to buy one of Clowes’ books.

I know there is some concern as to whether or not FCBD actually does anything to generate new comic book readers to any sizeable extent, and the only real answer is “I don’t know.” Like Tim says, there is no industry-wide method of keeping track of new customer influx aside from, say, someone like me noticing a fellow like the guy who came back and bought a Dan Clowes book. And maybe, in the short run, no, the industry as a whole may not get a whole lot of new converts to the cause, but if we got a couple, certainly there must be a few more, somewhere. At the very least, FCBD does the job of increasing the general public’s awareness of comic books. I don’t think I’ve had the comment of “oh, comic books, they still make these?” in quite a while.

Even if it doesn’t bring in a lot of new people, there’s still the chance that, as I’ve noted in the past, regular customers will be exposed to comics they wouldn’t otherwise have tried. Queen & Country and Courtney Crumrin benefited from FCBD in previous years. It’s too soon to say which will be the breakout title this year…but it better be Owly. That was my favorite from this new batch.

Another question I had was just how much it would cost a retailer to participate. Well, the minimum buy-in is $5 worth of each Gold Sponsor book, for a total of $50 (which, assuming an average cost of about 25 cents, gives you 200 comics to give away). That doesn’t sound like a whole lot, which can make people wonder how some stores can claim they can’t afford to participate. I certainly thought that, until I considered something. Say you’re a store, and you bought the minimum number of books. You have 20 copies each of 10 different books that you’re going to give away on FCBD. If you have 200 people show up at your store, you’re either going to have to give everyone just one free comic (which will make most of the customers complain) or you can give 50 people four copies each, or 20 people one of each comic…or however you do it, you’re gonna run out in short order. So, realistically, you’re going to have to order way above the minimum…which may then be cost-prohibitive for smaller stores with smaller budgets. At least, I hope that’s the reasoning behind the folks who say it costs too much, and not “Fifty bucks!? Why, that’s seventy-two and a half 69-cent tacos! Forget it!”

We always order lots of extras, especially on the kid-friendly books, as we continue to use them throughout the year. I’m still giving away copies of Teen Titans Go from…was it last year? I don’t remember. Anyway, I’m still giving them to kids who come in the store, along with the Disney books, and they’re almost always well received. Plus, when our local libraries make their regular comic purchases from us, we also donate a bunch of the FCBD comics to them as well. And my girlfriend gives them away to the kids she teaches at Sunday school…we get plenty of mileage on the FCBD books all year long.

So was it a success? Well, we gave away a lot of comics, made a bunch of people happy, made some money, and hopefully got a new customer or two out of it. In the long run, that’s good for business, even if in the short run, it looks like it made only a small impact on expanding the customer base. It takes small steps, sometimes.

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That was a lot to plow through, so here, have a panel of Linus JUST SAYING NO:

Hotlinked by a Myspace user in 3…2….

Regarding the Twomorrows free magazine offer (extended through today)…I don’t know if there was a glitch in their system or what, but a fellow in Texas ordered a copy of Back Issue #10 which, somehow, was attached to my billing address (though the fellow’s shipping address in Texas appears as well). Therefore, my account at Twomorrows currently looks like I ordered a second free magazine (which is verboten). I sent an e-mail to their support department indicating that I ordered only one mag, I swear, and hopefully they’ll see that before they see that there are two free mags on my account and cancel them both.

At least, I hope it’s a glitch in the system and not someone deliberately screwing with me, which would make me very unhappy.

Did anyone else doing the free mag thing experience a similar glitch, or was I the lucky one?

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As for Free Comic Book Day:

It’s 10:15. The store is filled with kids and their parents. They’re just swarming all over the place. And it’s at that point a regular customer comes in and asks to go through all of our adult comic back issue boxes. It’s not like he announced it to the whole store or anything…he did ask quietly, but as you might imagine, I didn’t particularly want someone perusing the naughty books in full view of everyone. And no, I didn’t have anyplace else to put him. Luckily, by just having him flip through the comics in the boxes without yanking them up for all to see, we managed to keep it fairly discrete, but still, that wasn’t an issue I was expecting to deal with on FCBD.

Otherwise, it was busy most of the day, with the occasional welcome lull…and pal Dorian stopped by midway through the day with sodas and fries for all of us, which was nice of him to do, the ol’ softie.

No problems of note…no “are these the only free comics?” or “I want 50 copies of Superman/Batman…NOW!” or anything like that. Had a few kids acting up (a couple siblings chasing each other around with laser pointers — yeah, that had to stop — and one little kid really throwing a hissy fit for some reason), and a few folks trying to sit on the floor and mooch a free read off the comics we were actually trying to sell (for God’s sake, take the free comics and read those!).

So, alas, no bizarre stories…just people coming in, getting free comics, and the vast majority of them also bought something during their visit, which is a plus. Also, we included discount coupons with all the free books we gave away…which are only good from the 7th through the 31st this month, so the customers will have to come back to the store to use them. Eeeeeeee-vil.

Plus, FCBD gave us an opportunity to give away of a few of those $0.75 Alias comics that, um, haven’t performed up to expectations.

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Oh, no, not another Google video:

I kinda like the faux-silent film effect, complete with intertitles and fake film scratches. I also like how they had to censor some of the dirtier graffiti on a wall at one point in the film. However, I don’t like it when people spell “hee hee hee” as “he he he.” IT JUST ISN’T NATURAL.