Well, that is a lot of comics. Diamond just announced the following in their retail newsletter.
Comic book specialty retailers worldwide expect record attendance at this year’s Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) and have also pushed their ordering to record levels—with more than 4.6 million free comic books to be available the day of the event, May 4, 2013.
Nearly 2,000 retail accounts have signed up this year as participating stores for Free Comic Book Day—also a record number of participating stores—and expectations are high.
“FCBD is the day after the opening of the Marvel’s Iron Man 3 film, and thousands of comic book shops across North America and around the world will look to share the magic of comic books with their communities,” said FCBD spokesperson Leslie Bowser. “It’s really a wonderful time for comic shops as they are clearly energized from a full year of strong sales and will look to continue that positive trend going forward in 2013.”
Comic book publishing heavyweights Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, IDW Publishing, Image Comics and Marvel Comics are among the many sponsors delivering special titles for Free Comic Book Day 2013.
Free Comic Book Day is designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, including action-packed superhero stories featuring DC’s Superman and Marvel’s Infinity title; sci-fi adventure set in the Star Wars universe; humorous comics featuring SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons; and comics especially for kids and younger fans featuring The Smurfs, Sesame Street, and Strawberry Shortcake.
Customers can check out the full list of available titles on the Free Comic Book Day website, http://www.freecomicbookday.com, and use the just-launched FCBD Store Locator to find a participating comic book shop in their area.
If 2000 stores are participating and ordered 4,600,000 comics, that’s an average of 2,300 comics per store that will be given away free on May 4th. With an average cost of $0.26 per free comics to retailers, that’s an average of $598 that retailers are spending to not only participate but have a good number of free comics to give away. Well done, retailers.
