TALKING SHOP: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2007

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

Free Comic Book Day was so successful this year that every store we polled for this month's installment of Newsarama's Talking Shop said their crowd was as big as or bigger than last year, and most said it was the biggest crowd they had ever experienced.

"There were a lot more people than last year, and last year's turnout was excellent," said Gerry Gladston of Midtown Comics in New York. "Free Comic Book Day at Midtown Comics was an absolute madhouse. There were 100 people lined up outside our door in Times Square an hour before we opened, and a similar number ourside our east side location."

Patrick Brower, general manager of Graham Crackers Comics in downtown Chicago, said there were far more people this year than last. The store had Robert Kirkman signing for a few hours early in the day, particularly his Astounding Wolf-Man title that was offered among the free titles, but Brower said crowds continued after the creator left. "It wound up being our highest grossing Saturday in recent memory, possibly ever, and directly contributed the best single week of sales we’ve ever recorded," he said.

Jason Pierce, owner of Alter Ego Comics in Muncie, Ind., said that even small stores like his experienced a big day. "I am a relatively small store and handle things by myself most of the time. But about an hour after opening, I was freaking out and scrambling and needing help badly," Pierce said. "I got someone in here, and things rolled well. A lot of people were taking advantage of sale items and having a great time."

"Definitely more people this year than last. We had almost 25 percent more sales transactions than last year," said Lisa Lopacinski, co-owner of Neptune Comics in Waukesha, Wisc. "This was our best Free Comic Book Day so far, and our best day in total sales for 2007. We had a great turnout with a mix of new people and current customers."

Like the Kirkman appearance at Graham Crackers, Neptune Comics had Mike Norton, artist on The All-New Atom from DC Comics, signing at their store on the afternoon of Free Comic Book Day, something several stores reported as helping to attract people to their stores.

Cliff Biggers, owner of Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore in Marietta, Ga., said his store had Mark Bagley, Brian Reed, the Dabel Brothers, and Joe Pruett. "Everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity to get signatures and talk to people who actually make comics happen," he said. "Free Comic Book Day is always a big event at Dr. No's, but it has never been bigger than it was today. We had over a thousand people come through the store, many of them newcomers to comics."

But the biggest star-sighting reported at the stores we surveyed was none other than the movies' famous webslinger himself, a promotional tactic that garnered a lot of media attention for Atomic Comics in Phoenix.

"We didn't do much advertising at all," said Jake Bell, director of marketing for Atomic Comics. "Instead we relied on promotional coverage for bringing Spider-Man to town. We had the official Sony-licensed Spidey fly in Thursday night and took him to an elementary school where the local Fox affiliate came to do live shots all morning. In the afternoon, he was deputized by Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the Phoenix Children's Hospital, after which the two handed out free comic books to hundreds of patients. Finally, we had teams handing out fliers and free comic books to people waiting in line for evening Spider-Man 3 showings at five different movie theaters. By the end of the day, Atomic Comics and Free Comic Book Day had been mentioned on just about every TV station in Phoenix not to mention the newspaper and radio coverage we got as well."

The Phoenix store also hosted the full crew from Image's hit Death Dealer: Joshua Ortega, Nat Jones, and Jay Fotos. "There were some hardcore fans who drove in from Los Angeles and Tucson to meet them and have their #1's signed," Bell said.

While the Spider-Man level of media exposure was rare, most shops did mention media coverage and utilized their own promotional advertising. Neptune Comics hung a banner at the local movie theater, mailed and handed out fliers and did promotions with local libraries. Dr. No's had a feature article appear in the Buyer's Edge section of the Atlanta paper. And Midtown Comics, while reluctant to have too much advertising because crowds can actually get too big for their stores, said the New York Times ran an article on Free Comic Book Day the day before.

And all stores benefited from USA Today doing an article about the Unseen Peanuts comic. "That definitely brought in some new people," Lopacinski from Neptune Comics said. "It is always great when comics and these kind of big events can get national press that drives people into their local comic book stores."

Pierce said he also thinks the fact that Spider-Man 3 opened this weekend didn't hurt. "I sent a press release about Free Comic Book Day to local papers, but It really helped that I was interviewed by the paper for Spider-Man 3 the day before," he said. "So that got me out there."

Although most consumers are under the impression that comic shops receive the comics free of charge, this isn't the case. So on top of the promotional costs, retailers also have to spend money on the comics, although at a lower cost than their normal price, as well as deciding which comics to buy in which quantities. Because of this cost, most stores limit the number of free comics that are handed out to customers.

"Consumers don't know that retailers actually pay for the books, and the shipping is very costly as well," said Gladston of Midtown Comics. "Midtown Comics gives out a package containing every title to every consumer while supplies last, and it is very costly and we consider it a marketing expense, and we're happy to do it. Not every store can do that."

Among the titles offered, most stores named the Spider-Man: Swing Shift comic as a huge hit, as well as Astounding Wolf-Man and the Unseen Peanuts comic.

"Obviously the Spider-Man book was the big hit," said Bell of Atomic Comics, "but a lot of kids were excited about the Legion of Super-Heroes animated book and the Marvel Adventures Iron Man and Hulk book. A lot of already established fans were also picking up Robert Kirkman's Astounding Wolf-Man book."

"The first book to vanish [at Dr. No's] was The Unseen Peanuts, due to some high-profile media coverage," Biggers said. "We ran out of the book within an hour, in spite of the fact that we ordered a large stack of them. Other books that zoomed out of the store: Owly & Korgi, Comics 101, Sonic the Hedgehog, Lone Ranger/Battlestar Galactica, and Spider-Man (you'd think there was a movie or something!)."

As for how to improve selections next year for comic stores, there were several suggestions.

"I'm hoping Marvel hypesIron Man as hard as they have Spider-Man 3 and put out a Free Comic Book Day Iron Man book with an artist as hot as Phil Jimenez on pencils," Bell said.

"In fact, I think there were too many titles this time around," said Brower of Graham Crackers. "Sadly we can’t afford to let everyone take a copy of every FCBD comic, so the customers had to carefully choose what they really wanted and the sheer number of choices made that difficult at times. The buzz surrounding some of the titles built heavily after our orders were placed, so when we knew that specific titles, such as Dark Horse’s Umbrella Academy, would be in high demand, it was too late to get more."

Pierce of Alter Ego pointed out that it would be helpful to have more original material for Free Comic Book Day -- comics that you can't get unless you come to the event. "The original Spider-Man comic was a huge success in my store," he said, "as well as The Astounding Wolf-Man. I would love to see other companies start doing original material for Free Comic Book Day."

Gahl Buslov of Midtown Comics in New York agreed. "The increase in new, original content, that offer good 'jump on' points, really helps to bring people in and we hope this trend continues," he said.

"A few less titles and maybe some all-original content in more of the books. So many of this year’s titles were either reprints or previews," Brower added.

Lopacinski thought the comics that should be most readily available to shop owners for the day should be the titles that are accessible to all ages, with mature titles available, but not among those comics that have quantity requirements. "I think that in the future all Gold sponsor books should be all-age titles -- not kid titles necessarily, but friendly to all ages," she said. "Then the other sponsors can have more mature themes. This way the comics participating retailers have to purchase a specific quantity of would be able to go home with anyone, and the comics we can pick and choose from would be separate."

But overall, the owners were thrilled with the huge crowds and positive response from fans -- even to the point that they're making plans for next year's promotions. "It was so crowded at one point that the owner of a dry cleaners in our shopping center complained to a customer that we had too many people. We were hogging all the parking places!" said Biggers of Dr. No's. "I'm going to point out that these are a lot of people who have never been into our shopping center until now. Maybe next year, she'll put together some bags with coupons for her cleaners that we can give to customers along with free comics!"

[James Seals]

Now that's awesome!

"Spider-Man" giving out free Spider-Man comics. You know those kids died and gone to heaven. I'm actually a tad envious...

-James

[NightRiver]

That is really cool. Those kids look like theyre on cloud 9! Thats great.

[chimpscomix]

We also had a record day with consumers and sales. We are located in Warsaw, IN. Warsaw is pretty small, but has a lot of orthopedic companies. We held a canned food drive for the local Salvation Army and received 334 items to give to the charity!

We gave away over 500 free comics! You would get your first 2 comics free and any additional required a canned food donation.

We here at Chimp's Comix can't wait until next years Free Comic Book Day!

[Psycho Andy]

It's weird seeing images of a comic store I used to visit every week (before moving) on the Internet...

Free Comic Book Day is honestly one of the best ideas that the industry has come up with, in recent years, and I attribute the growth in the market, at least in part, to the event.

Honestly, I was kind of surprised that there weren't FCBD trailers playing before Spider-Man 3 on Friday, maybe with a "Call 1-800-Comic-Book to find a store near you!"

Then again, given how exhausted some of the people working in the comic stores were by early afternoon, any MORE advertising may have just hurt the poor employees even more. Heh.

[jsf]

Originally Posted by chimpscomix

We also had a record day with consumers and sales. We are located in Warsaw, IN. Warsaw is pretty small, but has a lot of orthopedic companies. We held a canned food drive for the local Salvation Army and received 334 items to give to the charity!

We gave away over 500 free comics! You would get your first 2 comics free and any additional required a canned food donation.

We here at Chimp's Comix can't wait until next years Free Comic Book Day!

I have to say that's the coolest version of FCBD that I've heard so far.

Way to go!

[bigdaddyhub]

Originally Posted by NightRiver

That is really cool. Those kids look like theyre on cloud 9! Thats great.

Cloud 9? Call SHIELD! They need to be wearing combat boots and marching with a pulse rifle! OR is that NOT how the SHRA works?

[SmartComics]

The photos look very cool, but I'm wondering if the Spider-Man in the pics is the "official" one. If it is, he might want to consider upgrading his costume to something more akin to the movie version.

[CCMD]

Thanks again guys for comming out to the store Collectors Corner www.collectorscornermd.com in Parkville MD. I got a sample of a few pics here but we will have a slide show and some videos on youtube soon!


The turn out was better than even we expected, 20 pizzas in 2 hours, over 4000 FREE COMICS gone by 2:00PM, and everyone was gloating over all the artists and their work and the quality of the event itself.


Partial headcount up til 5PM was over 570+ People including many, many children and families!


We recorded the event and took over 100 photo's of the models, artists and the event so we will be posting them soon and posting a video of the event on youtube and MYSPACE for all to see.



Special thanks to DOMINICS PIZZA of Parkville for working with us and all the ARTISTS that came out and sketched all day for the event!


thanks to Collectors Corner customers, old and new for helping us make this the largest event in Maryland in the history of the event!


Looking forward to next year which will be even bigger!

[funjoe]

Originally Posted by NightRiver

That is really cool. Those kids look like theyre on cloud 9! Thats great.

I agree 100%. That picture of the kids crowding around Spidey makes me very happy.

[Ben543250]

Originally Posted by James Seals

Now that's awesome!

"Spider-Man" giving out free Spider-Man comics. You know those kids died and gone to heaven. I'm actually a tad envious...

-James

Spider-Man doesn't kill.

[nyhardcore]

FCBD was great this year. In years past it always felt like kind of a waste. Reprints of comics that no one really wanted. This year the publishers did the right thing by putting out new free books like Wolfman and the Spidey book. I think that, coupled with the buzz from the Spidey movie helped make FCBD a real success this year. I know I got up a few hours early to make sure I got the books I wanted.

The store I visited was packed with kids and adults alike. Most of the shops in my area had big sales as well and just about everyone that I saw walked out having purchased something with their free books.

Hopefully next year will be even bigger and even better.

[Charlie Hustle]

Every single comic book company site and comic book related site should have links to free comic book day's website until it's the top result whenever anybody types in anything related to comics.

[Mercer]

I think it's great that FCBD went off so well. Didn't do nearly as well in my hometown... but my local store doesn't have the resources to promote it. Still, I love the exposure the event brings.

I'm with Psycho Andy... this is probably the best thing to happen to the comics market in recent memory.

[AbacusComics]

Good stuff. That's the kind of thinking and promotion this industry needs!

[Police-dude]

Originally Posted by James Seals

Now that's awesome!

"Spider-Man" giving out free Spider-Man comics. You know those kids died and gone to heaven. I'm actually a tad envious...

-James

Uhm.. You know it's just an actor in a costume right?
I hate to burst your bubble, but i wouldn't like to see you die next to all those kids
Anyway, FCBD was a very nice day. Mostly cause all the comics where free!
... What you say...? just a few selected ones where, and NOT all???

...

Ill be right back..

[chairhead]

I snagged one of every free comic at one shop I went to. is that bad? I mean some shops sounded like you could one have ONE comic at all.

[Marc_Spector]

Originally Posted by chairhead

I snagged one of every free comic at one shop I went to. is that bad? I mean some shops sounded like you could one have ONE comic at all.

Not bad if you are actually interested and plan on reading them all, very bad if you're not.

[H.W.]

Free Comic Book Day 2007
It was a lot of fun seeing all the fans and kids coming into Paradise Comics. Not to mention getting sketches from Francis Manapul, Nick Postic and Agnes Garbowska, who where the real reason why people came to the shop. Heh. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hi. Here's some photos for you to check out.

[Charlie Hustle]

Originally Posted by chairhead

I snagged one of every free comic at one shop I went to. is that bad? I mean some shops sounded like you could one have ONE comic at all.

as a regular shopper i personally didn't get any freebies, i figured i'd leave those to newbies to make sure they got plenty. but to each his own.

[Ken]

Great article. I just want to point out that Spidey looks like he has a giant blue nose in the last picture (the one with Asian baby).

[chairhead]

To my defense I did buy a lot of comics from the shop I got freebies at. They didn't have any sales on either so I didn't feel bad about getting all the comics. I did read them all and my girlfriend did as well. I liked the Umbrella Academy a lot.

[crunch-o-matic]

I scaled my FCBD back quite a bit from what it had been in previous years. Normally I hand out about 3000-4000 comics but it is just too crowded and way too hot.

This year I did just a bit of advertising and still gave out 1000 comics without having to destroy the store and put in a 15 hour day.

The day doubled out, it was twice the business of a regular Saturday but not back-breaking and everyone had a good time. It was almost entirely new faces and almost all young-ins, which made me happy.