Free Comic Book Day report 2024
The rumors of comic books’ death have been greatly exaggerated?
May the 4th brought fans out in force for Free Comic Book Day, as most of the reports I’m hearing from the day are of strong sales and large turnouts.
At Speeding Bullet Comics, our experiences reflected the national trends, as we had a very strong day as well.
While our straight count of bodies through the door didn’t reach its absolute highest number from pre-pandemic years, it was still a very respectable number – definitely the highest of the year, and about 20 percent over 2023. And when you look at people who made purchases, it was our top day in several years and one of our top-five days of all time.
There has been a lot of talk online about comics being in peril or comics sales being down. And there have been reports of some notable shops closing as well. However, I think there’s still interest in comic-book content and direct-market comic shops.
We welcomed Breyden Boyd of “Shape Man” as our guest for Free Comic Book Day this year, and his cool retro stylings resonated well with many of our fans.
The Marvel books did extremely as giveaways, with a few people noting to me their excitement about the upcoming X-Men relaunch. Another big hit was “Snoopy: Beagle Scout Adventures,” proving there’s still a lot of interest in the classic “Peanuts” comic strip.
Both “Star Wars” related titles were picked up heavily. I believe when May 4 and Free Comic Book Day fall on the same day, it adds some additional oomph to the event. Also, no major comic-book film release didn’t seem to hurt the event and may even have helped, as there was more time on Saturday to schedule a trip to the comic-book store.
Some of the other titles that did well for Speeding Bullet included “TMNT,” “Popeye,” “Monster High,” “Jonny Quest” and “Gatchaman.”
We often push Free Comic Book Day to our younger patrons and again this year had a good turnout of young people. The “Batman/Scooby-Doo” title was likely the most popular pickup beyond the free items in the under-12 age group.
Dynamite made a good move launching “Space Ghost” just prior to FCBD, as it benefited from the additional traffic, as did Marvel’s “Blood Hunt.”
What can publishers and retailers do to maintain this momentum going forward into 2024? For us, we are going to do our best to highlight titles we enjoy and that we think our customers will dig, and we are going to try to be a fun, engaging place to enjoy your hobby.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma.