Free Comic Book Day

[Tom Foolery]

It’s the first Saturday in May! You know what that means? Today is Free Comic Book Day!!

I didn’t get anything.

Fuck you, Covid-19.

[anarky]

I wonder how this will fuck up the plans of all the publishers who have FCBD first chapters to crossover events.

[Tom Foolery]

FCBD this year. I didn’t feel like digging thru endless boxes this weekend. Just wasn’t feeling it. But I went to four different shops and picked up the main Marvel and DC giveaways, as well as a dozen or so other free issues. Each shop was limiting to 3-5 per store, but one guy let me have 8, as long as I didn’t go crazy and take one of everything. I also spent a little $ at each place, but it was mostly filling in missing issues from the past couple months that had somehow slipped by.

The first shop I got the Fascimile of Amazing 129, and Venom 17.
The second shop I got a bundle of Superman/Authority 1-4 for $7, but it had the main cover of 1 and 3, and the variant cover for 2 and 4. Which is annoying to my brain. I also got Ghost Rider 12 and Shang-Chi 4 variant covers. I wanted the main covers, but that’s all they had.
The third store I found the regular Ghost Rider 12 and also bought a $30 blind box “worth” $100 but like last year it was stuff I already had or didn’t particularly want. Like a Disney keychain, a DC Multiverse figure of Bruce Wayne from the Batman movie(seriously? Peg warmin’ pos), a copy of Batman/Spawn, a couple variant covers of the Batman/Joker mini, and first issues of Scorched, Gunslinger Spawn, and King Spawn, as well as Spawn TPB.
The final store I found FF 3, Catwoman 54, and the Gotham Year One 6. I also got a Black Series Chewbacca for $25. I had found Endor Han at WM last week, and I just took his camo duster off. So now I have a Chewie to go with him.

It was a pretty meh haul overall, but I got the FCBD issues I wanted, so the outing served its purpose.

[Tom Foolery]

My wife decided to tag along this year, so each of the four shops we went to, I got twice as many FCBD books as I would normally get.
And like last year, I didn’t go crazy hunting thru dollar bins. I paid anywhere between full price to half off cover to $2 or $1 for what I did find.
Here’s what I got.

All Star Batman 3. Just need issue 1 from the completely unrelated Rebirth relaunch of the title in 2016.
Exiles 11 and 12. Just need the hyper-expensive first appearance of Captain Carter in issue 3 for a complete run.
Flash 36. From the Nu52 run. Only three more to find.
Freedom Fighters 10 and 11. Just need 1,6, 8 from the most recent maxi series.
Immortal Men 4. Finished the series.
Justice League 40. Variant cover. Finished the 2016 series I think.
JL vs LoSH 5.
Nightwing 47-49, 56, 84. Variant covers.
Photon 5. The last issue I didn’t realize I was missing.
Robin 14, 16, 17. Variant covers.
Runaways 8, 25-30, 34. Hooray! Only missing eight more issues of Rowell’s series. Best score of the day.
Scorched 6. One of the two Jim Lee homage covers I was looking for. Still need issue 4.
Mystery in Madripoor 3. Part of the Hunt for Wolverine mini.

I also got like 30 free comics.

[Tom Foolery]

Today’s haul was smaller than last year’s because my wife didn’t tag along.

I got the main freebs from Marvel; an FF/X-Men book, and a Spidey/Ultimate universe book. DC had an All-In flip book for their Absolute universe, and a new Superman ongoing.
The Energon Universe had two freebs, one was a prelude to a new series called Worst Bot Ever. Looked like an attempt at humor in the TF books. The other was the main Energon book that sets up stuff. I’ll expand on that elsewhere.
A couple SW freebs; a main SW book, and a kid friendly Young Jedi Adventures.

And like ten other assorted FCBD titles. One of them, Mark Spears’ Monsters looked good, but good luck finding back issues. It’s only on issue 4, but the first issues are already going for hundreds of bucks. Fucking thing came out in like December.

I also got 133 back issues for less than $70. I’m still sorting them. I list ‘em later in the Big Score topic.

[Tom Foolery]

Tomorrow is FCBD! It’s also Comics Giveaway Day! What is the difference you ask? Well, when Diamond folded, they had the rights to the concept and logo and whatever to FCBD. Lunar Publishing, who now distribute DC, Image, and several other smaller publishers, bought the domain for FCBD. PenguinRandomHouse, which distributes Marvel, Dark Horse and several other smaller publishers would have to pay some kind of licensing fee to Lunar to slap the FCBD logo on their free comics. Fiscally, it makes sense for them to just create their own brand and pay themselves the license fee. And thus Comics Giveaway Day was born.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my haul.

[vynsane]

PenguinRandomHouse, which distributes Marvel, Dark Horse and several other smaller publishers would have to pay some kind of licensing fee to Lunar to slap the FCBD logo on their free comics.

this is why we can't have nice things.

[anarky]

It's like Record Store Day--what should be a fun way to promote independent businesses is really a cynical cash grab by the giant conglomerates.

Fuck capitalism.

[Tom Foolery]

The FCBD/CGD roundup for 2026.

Avatar Legends from Nickelodeon.
Alien Predator Planet Apes primer.
Aquamanatee. Silly DC book for kids.
World of Archie.
Conan Tides of the Tyrant King
DC/Sonic reprint of the miniseries.
Flash Gordon.
Fort Psycho.
The Future is *****
Garfield.
Greatest American Hero.
Gun Honey Doubles Down.
Inanna:The Name She Lost.
Lego Batman:Legacy ot Dark Knight.
Locke&Key.
Masters of the Universe.
Minotaur.
Mister Magic.
Mark Spears Monsters.
Ultimate Oz Universe.
Power Rangers 0.
Sonic the Hedgehog.
Spidey and his Amazing Friends.
Stitch.
Street Fighter Forever.
Terrorbytes.
Toy box.

Energon Universe 2026. Four short stories setting up the next arcs for GIJoe, Transformers, Void Rivals, and the new M.A.S.K. series.

Avengers Armageddon/X-Men oneshot. Sets up two(of the three) Marvel summer events. Red Hulk has taken over Latveria and the Avengers are going to shut him down. And DNX, where the X-Men and the FF try to stop a new Legacy Virus unleashed by evil Hank McCoy.

Amazing Spidey/Queen In Black/Infernal Hulk oneshot. Setting up Peter’s mysterious new “cousin”; setting up the third summer event, Hela vs Knull, and the conclusion of the current Hulk series.

I also bought like 90 issues at the four LCS I stopped at. They’ll be in the ‘Big Score’ topic.