Saturday marks the 22nd Free Comic Book Day, as Showcase Comics and Hobbies celebrates the industry.
Dylan Purcell says it’s a way to say thank you to all the people that buy comics locally.
“We put everything on sale. We put RC car parts on sale and boardgames on sale. It’s not just Free Comic Book Day to us. It’s a huge sales day. It’s a huge day to celebrate customers, which I think was the intent behind Free Comic Book Day from the beginning.”
“If you look at the timeline of when Free Comic Book Day started in the early 2000s, they wanted to say thank you to people that bought comics at a time when comic readership and comic subscriptions were dive bombing. It’s the same as everything, less people are reading newspapers, magazines and comic books. The key for comic books is to stay relevant, but I think after 80 years of people buying your comics, saying thanks to them by giving them a free comic book on Free Comic Book Day is not a bad idea,” says Purcell.
From a public relations standpoint, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics and all the indies use Free Comic Book Day to promo everything that’s coming for the next year. “The free comics we give out are all preview issues of stuff that’s coming up,” notes Purcell.
Marvel Comics, for example, has its entire “X-Men” launch. “It’s relaunch of ‘X-Men’ is coming post-Free Comic Book Day. That is a very deliberate timing.”
Image Comics’ Todd McFarlane has numerous new “Spawn” comics coming out after Free Comic Book Day. “That’s a very deliberate plan. When you come in, you get to be on the ground floor of some cool new story lines, that’s from a reader’s standpoint plus sales. Who doesn’t love sales?”
According to Purcell, the nice thing about Free Comic Book Day is it’s so busy. The store not only sees a huge percentage of its regulars, but there are people only seen on Free Comic Book Day. “They come in and grab their free comics and maybe they buy a boardgame or maybe something else. The hope is always they will buy something else.”
“We see a lot of people that just come in for the free comics. Here’s the thing, it’s for them too. I always look at it as if 1,000 people grab free comics on Free Comic Book Day and don’t buy anything else, but what if in 10 years the kids that grabbed those free comic books, what if they come in the store and buy some comics or graphic novels or boardgames. What if they get immersed in ‘nerd’ culture and start playing ‘Magic: The Gathering’ or ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ or anything else we do?” adds Purcell. “What if they saw an RC car while they were in the store and 10 years down the line, they decided they wanted to do RC cars and they remember Showcase sells them? That’s what’s important.”
It helps build new ‘nerds’ for the future, says Purcell. “Which help keeps, certainly our store, running for future generations. But it keeps other stores running for generations. Honestly, if you just get comics into kids’ hands, I think that’s how you build a sustainable comic book industry.”