Free Comic Book Day roundup and notes, 2025
Word Balloons #1267: A fun, busy celebration of comic books was held
Despite this being a zany year behind the scenes in comics retail, this Free Comic Book Day went mostly according to plan.
Free Comic Book Day, held annually on the first Saturday in May, is a worldwide event in which participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away selected comic books free to visiting patrons.
At Speeding Bullet Comics, we had three comic-book artists in-store for the event this year: Breyden Boyd of “Shape Man,” plus Mario Wytch and Michael Adams, who had work in this year’s “Keenspot Toybox.”
Boyd’s Shape Co comics are fun and retro, and we gave away, I believe, all the available copies he had.
“Keenspot Toybox” also did exceptionally well for us; it was the first time we’ve had artists signing an official FCBD release on-hand.
We had a local Superman and Spider-Man on hand for pictures with the kids, and Superman visited a local elementary school with us on Friday to talk about literacy and give some comics to the kids.
A “stealth release” was the latest comic from Oklahoma comics artist Don Rosencrans, who shared a few of his latest issue for us to give away in his return to comics after a break. We hope to get Don in-store to sign some copies and meet with folks when his schedule allows!
All-ages comics continue to be our strongest category. Dr. Seuss and Minecraft were picked up heavily. On the teen side, Star Wars and Spider-Man did very well. Both Keenspot titles, Mark Spears Monsters and Keenspot Toybox, did exceptionally well for us, I’m sure aided by our “Toybox” artists on hand.
Good weather was a positive for us, as was an experienced group of staff and volunteers.
We limited our sale items to a couple of specials and focused mainly on the giveaways and signings. I think combining major discounts with FCBD just creates too much congestion for our space.
In behind-the-scenes shenanigans, we seemingly had more mishaps in shipping product than in previous years, with three books we appeared to have ordered never arriving. We were also missing many promo items and all of the T-shirts.
Our personal schedules were also very full this year, leading to a more limited amount of time to prepare. This led to a few hiccups getting the day started, but I think they were mostly invisible to the consumer.
People seemed generally engaged and excited, and nearly all the interactions were very positive.
We heard from a good number of people that this was either their first time in our store or in a comic store at all, which I hope bodes well for the future.
At the end of the day we ended up with numbers very similar to our 2023 totals. We were down a bit from a huge 2024 FCBD, but still had our second-best day of the year behind the “Hush 2” debut.
While Diamond’s bankruptcy proceedings may affect Free Comic Book Day in 2026, I hope the new owners as well as the publishers, distributors, creators and retailers involved across the comics industry can continue to make the first Saturday in May a huge holiday for comic book fans.
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.
You all looked like a smooth, well oiled machine when I stopped by. Keep up the great work!