We here at Hobby Hysteria are huge fans of the printed word, and we love it even more when the printed word is accompanied by the beautiful art and colours in our favourite comic books. Every year the industry gets together and has a day devoted to getting new readers exposed to this great hobby and expose readers to some different work that they may not spend their disposable income on of their own volition.
It’s like “Pusher Day” if we were to celebrate the distribution and sale of gateway drugs, because trust me, once you try some of these great books you may find yourself at the FLGS checking out other titles than you have in the past.
Since the organizers of FCBD can explain it better than I ever could, I’m going to pass the torch on this one:
So with just over a week to go before FCBD 2013, I would strongly suggest you check out the list of free comics that are going to be available and use THIS tool to help you find a participating store near you!
For me, I will be visiting Heroes World, my local haunt and where I always take my daughter for us to grab our FCBD swag. Thanks to Jon, Andre and Neil for being the great staff they are and always making sure my pull bin is full with great things to read.
May all your blades be sharp,
– Northblade
My comic book store always limits to two picks, can never decide which two!!! It’s horrible! Mouseguard or 2000AD? Steam Engines of OZ or Atomic Robo? The Tick or Star Wars?!?
And why aren’t more of these titles on the shelves ALL the time? 😉
Dale, as a comic book store employee, the reason, in my opinion, that stores often don’t stock the books that are on offer on Free Comic Book Day is because they are often niche titles that aren’t very popular. Store owners have to make tough calls when it come to what the stock on the shelves, and FCBD is great way for both readers and retailers to ‘try’ new books. However, just because all 50-100 copies of a particular book are gobbled up, doesn’t mean all those customers will come back to buy the next one. Its up to you to let the store know that you’d like them to carry a particular book so that they know there is genuine interest in it.
I also understand why they limit how many books you can grab…even though they are free to you, it still costs the retailer ‘something’ to bring in those books, so there are only so many to go around…and we want as many people to be able to walk away with something on FCBD.
Hope that helps!