Today is only three days from geek Christmas. That’s right, this Saturday, May 1st is the 9th annual Free Comic Book Day. In honor of this wondrous day of  complimentary 4 color excitement let’s look at the origins of this magical day and see what it means for the comic industry moving forward.

Free Comic Book Day began as the brain child of retailer Joe Field (who owns Flying Colors Comics) back in 2001. The idea was to have a day that could help the industry to attract new fans who might not otherwise pick up a comic, bring back old fans, and reward current comic book aficionados. In 2002 Diamond distribution picked up the idea and ran with coordinating the first FCBD.  Ever since then, the First Saturday in May (with one exception in 2004) has been a day filled with free books.

In the years since FCBD began, over 2000 different retailers across America and 30 other countries have participated in the event, and more than 12 million books have been given away. The publishing initiative has spawned several offshoots and copy cats in a variety of industries as well; Germany is starting their own FCBD, and there is now a Free Magazine Day and a Free Role Playing Game Day (Which sounds interesting and terrifying all at once).

Publishers have used the day to increase awareness of properties and upcoming events. Marvel has used the day to promote upcoming films (the first FCBD was just before Spider-man), as has IDW (with Transformers). DC has set up events like Blackest Night. Smaller publishers like Red 5 have used the day to springboard into the public eye (Atomic Robo was a big hit last FCBD).

Many retailers have turned FCBD into full-on events for shoppers. It’s not just a day to get free swag, at some stores you can meet comic professionals (and collect a signature or two if that what you are looking for), get some free food, and commiserate with like minded funny book enthusiasts.

So has FCBD worked out? Well, it’s hard to tell. Obviously one of the major goals for the day from the retailers’ standpoint was to increase comic readership and comic buyer-ship (yeah, I’m pretty sure I just made that word up).While FCBD has generally provided retailers with a sales spike in May, there is no concrete evidence to show that the free comic books have generated a stronger market for comic books. The same goes for the publishers, there is no data that proves that FCBD helps or hurts publishers.

Despite the lack of evidence one way or another about the effectiveness of FCBD, it does not seem to be in any danger of going away. Every year the event has taken place, more retailers have gotten involved, and the number of free comics available has increased as well. Plus the fans (myself included) love it.

So this Saturday, go find your local FCBD participating retailer (you can find which retailers are involved on the FCBD website) and check out some fun stuff that you wouldn’t normally check out. Oh, and don’t forget to actually buy something while you are there, those retailers still have to pay for the comics even though we don’t. I personally will be going out to 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga to celebrate the day. Thanks for stopping in everyone, and enjoy Free Comic Book Day!

Happy Friday Semantinkerers!

First off, if you live in southern California, I hope that you are weathering the weather okay, it has been crazy this past week!, Secondly, it is time once again for another cover of the month feature, huzzah!

For our big guy cover of the month I actually have a couple of choices:

First, we have the cover to GARRISON #1 by Francecso Francavilla from DC/WILDSTORM. I love the use of negative space to define the main character, and the way the background montage gives us plenty of plot points to ponder until the book comes out.

My second choice is DEADPOOL #10 from Marvel comics and artist Arthur Suydam. Suydam is best known for his MARVEL ZOMBIES covers, but having the Merc with a mouth threaten me with silverware tickled me pink.

For the small publisher cover of the month I also had a tie this month:

I absolutely love this cover to ATOMIC ROBO AND THE REVENGE OF THE VAMPIRE DIMENSION #2. Scott Wegener handled the art for this book from Red 5. I love the whole Toy Story vibe that’s going on with this cover, and big robots always make me happy.

My last cover this month is OKKO: THE CYCLE OF AIR by Hub and Archaia comics. The use of color on this cover is amazing, very reminiscent of an old Japanese painting and the overall composition of this cover really did it for me.

Well, that’s it for this installment of Cover of the Month. Thanks for stopping in, I’ll see you tomorrow!