The Past and Present of Free Comic Book Day

The biggest day in the direct market returns to fight another day.

As I’m writing this, parts of my province are on fire. Alberta’s emergency alert system has been going off with some frequency over the last few days warning folks to be aware of trouble, with some being told to evacuate entirely.

On Monday, Danica and I watched as a giant plume of smoke took to the sky - the result of a wildfire a short walk away from our home. It was brought under control in short order, but apparently flared up again yesterday afternoon while we were at work.

We’ve been lucky that response to these fires have been swift, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m a little on edge. Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow, and the world is on fire, and it’s only the start of May.

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Yesterday morning, I was doing another talk with another classroom. This talk is part of a program our city’s school system has put together, where speakers talk to classes of varying ages about what they might want to do as a career.

My talk doesn’t focus on telling the kids anything specific about what paths they might want to take. While part of my talk does focus on my own path, I don’t advocate for my path specifically. Instead, I tell the kids about how important community has been in my journey, and how important the people who surround them can be. I tell them that you can have everything under control on day, and find yourself lost the next, and how a lot of times, the thing that knocks you down is something you could have never accounted for. I tell them about how the communities that they build will carry them through these moments - that the people they choose to surround themselves with will reflect what you give them.

Today, I’m trying to listen to my own advice. There’s a lot happening right now. Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow. Then next week, I’m heading south for roughly four hours to attend a library convention where I’ve been invited to speak about the importance of graphic novels in terms of learning, and building a culture.

We’ve also been dealing with the ripple effects of my old workplace closing up, which has been… a lot. A few weeks back, I wrote about it, but decided to keep the post offline. Everything is too fresh right now, and at the end of the day, my thoughts and feelings on the matter aren’t important at this time. I’ll talk about it all someday in this space, but for now, it is just part of the wild gumbo simmering in my brain at the moment. But I digress.

I’m trying to take my own advice. I’m reaching out to my people, and telling all of you that I can feel my feet leaving solid ground. There’s a lot happening, some perfectly within my control, and some definitely outside of it. A lot of that is going to come out in this space over the next couple of weeks. In time, I hope to return to some more analytical commentary about the comic book industry without laying my baggage at your feet, but that day is not today. Today, you get this mess, alongside a treat from the past, and a look at the immediate future.

Please bear with me.

Today’s post was meant to be about this:

In 2001, Comics & Games Retailer printed a column from retailer Joe Field, which would become the basis for Free Comic Book Day.

The plan was simple, and it has been quite effective beyond the pandemic altering the very DNA of the event over the course of several years.

While the world wants to be “emerging” from the pandemic, and while we’ve relaxed rules quite a bit at the store in part because of the wild availability of vaccinations, we no longer go hard on Free Comic Book Day. There was a time when we had many guests and would do various signings - and those were great fun - but in these post normal times, we find it hard to justify crowing the day with a lot of bells and whistles.

That’s not to put any shame on stores that are tying on big events - each store has their own comforts and fits. Our shop has always been built with the introvert in mind, and our Free Comic Book Day event has reflected that in the past few years. We keep the books outside in a neat looking breezeway to keep things open, and we invite people to come into the store to make purchases should they wish. That’s roughly the extent of things.

Largely speaking, this has been met with positive effects. While we’ll probably never reach the insane heights we reached in our final pre-COVID event, the day still does amazingly well for us, even with the minimal pushing we do.¹ Free Comic Book Day still has power, and rightfully so - but as with all things in this industry, a shop needs to engage with it in a way that suits them best for it to be truly successful.

For years, I used to stress myself out about the day, having stress dreams for a solid week leading up to it. Now, even with everything that’s going on, I haven’t felt that tension in my chest like I used to. The tightness that would refuse to leave until just a couple of hours before closing. It has become a day to celebrate with the community - our community - instead of a spectacle. And whenever I’m surrounded by that wonderful community, I find peace. I find calm. I find support. I try to give it in kind.

Folks? I hope you all have a wonderful Free Comic Book Day tomorrow, no matter how you celebrate. As always, it’s going to be a good one.

That does it for me this week. Will I be back on Monday? We’ll see if my brain allows.

Talk with you soon.

-B.

1. The past two years, we didn’t make Free Comic Book Day official until a few days before the actual event - in part to try and limit participation. This year, we’ve given things a longer runway. We’ll see what happens.