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Books Sci-Fi Entertainment

Does Free Comic Book Day Help Retailers? (freecomicbookday.com) 47

An anonymous reader writes: Today comic book stores around the world celebrate "Free Comic Book Day," offering free comic books to anyone who pays them a visit. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the event is offering 50 free titles this year, including Doctor Who, Serenity, The Simpsons, Love and Rockets, and a brand new comic from Stan Lee. Marvel is giving away both an Avengers/Civil War comic and a separate one featuring Captain America, and there's also comics with Grumpy Cat, The Tick, and even a Street fighter V comic.

But the Los Angeles Times notes there's different opinions about whether the event creates repeat business (though one comic shop owner told them "as far as that one day goes, it's a great day.") Another store owner says he even stopped participating temporarily because "It's just the hyenas looking for free stuff," while a third described it instead as a way to give back to the community of comic book readers.

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Does Free Comic Book Day Help Retailers?

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  • and I live in a small town, so I would have to travel an hour or three to get to the nearest comic book store

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dutch Gun ( 899105 )

      Just getting people in the door once is a tried and true strategy for businesses. The other day I got my vehicle's state emission tests done at a local gas station that's a lot closer than the one I used to go to (thanks Google!). They gave me a free car with it, and I may go back there every once in a while to get my car washed now, as I discovered the basic wash is only three bucks. I'm certain I never would have discovered or used that place otherwise.

      Online retailers or services use the same principl

      • The other day I got my vehicle's state emission tests done at a local gas station that's a lot closer than the one I used to go to (thanks Google!). They gave me a free car with it, and I may go back there every once in a while to get my car washed now

        stealing a car from them and then going back to the same place to have them wash it? bold move, sir.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 07, 2016 @11:02AM (#52067041)
    This is *the* place to be today!
  • Yes 100% Yes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by huckamania ( 533052 ) on Saturday May 07, 2016 @11:04AM (#52067045) Journal

    Anything that promotes literacy will help comic book sales. I'm taking my 3 kids and hitting at least one shop. Reading is the most important thing anyone can learn to help them with the rest of their lives. Getting them early is important.

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday May 07, 2016 @11:31AM (#52067133)

      Reading is the most important thing anyone can learn to help them with the rest of their lives.

      Understanding human relationships is also important. Everything I know about women, I learned from reading about Archie's problems with Betty and Veronica.

    • Comic books aren't the best material for building reading skills. They're mostly composed of short two-to-three sentence snippets of dialogue, and children should be comfortable reading that sort of thing by the third grade. The next step is learning to read sentences with several dependent clauses, the kind that can stretch on for three or four lines, and you won't find those in comic books because they are simply too long to fit into speech bubbles. I'm not saying comics don't have meaningful and powerful

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Comic books aren't the best material for building reading skills. They're mostly composed of short two-to-three sentence snippets of dialogue, and children should be comfortable reading that sort of thing by the third grade. The next step is learning to read sentences with several dependent clauses, the kind that can stretch on for three or four lines, and you won't find those in comic books because they are simply too long to fit into speech bubbles. I'm not saying comics don't have meaningful and powerful

    • I just took my three sons to a local store an hour ago - I'd always meant to go but never did until today, and my sons were impressed with the store's offerings. They didn't care that much about the comic books - more about trading cards and action figures and such. Meanwhile I bought a ~$25 book (Asterix and Obelisk omnibus), and my sons said they want to go back when it's less busy (the store was packed), so I'd say yes it's a great idea!
  • It bugs the hell out of me that apparently, at least the most outspoken US comic fans, just seem to think of superhero comics whenever they talk abour comics.

    A little enlightenment:
    Superherocomics are a smaller subgenre of comics in general, and, if I may say so, a rather shallow one at that. Comics encompass a huge superset of superhero comics, the bulk made up of so-called franco-belgian comics, covering a huge variety of genres and target audience demographics. Resulting in the fact that comics are consi

    • by Anonymous Coward

      A person named Clint.

      Do you mean like Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye, Ronin) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkeye_(comics)

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

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