Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and has historically been cross-promoted with the release of a superhero film. Over two thousand participating stores give away millions of comic books annually. The event was proposed by Joe Field in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine and Free Comic Book Day was launched in 2002, coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. FCBD has become an official Children's Book Week event and has inspired similar events for German- and Dutch-language comics industries. The twenty-third edition of FCBD was held on May 3, 2025.

FCBD is organized and facilitated by Diamond Comics Distributors, guided by a committee representing publishers, industry journalists, retailers, and its own management. This committee selects the titles from publishers with the aim of providing a wide variety of what the industry has to offer. The committee also investigates potential dates for the event which are then decided upon by a vote among retailers.

Publishers subsidize the production of the give-away comic books and retailers pay a reduced price for the books that they order. Titles are divided by sponsorship level, price, age rating, and anticipated demand into two tiers; participating retailers are required to carry all titles from the top tier, and may carry any or none of the second-tier titles. In 2007, the costs to the retailer were 12 to 24 cents per copy for the top tier and as high as 50 cents for the second tier. The minimum buy-in is about US$50.

Free Comic Book Day was conceived by Joe Field, a California-based comics retailer, event promoter and partner in WonderCon. In 2001, Field noted how successful feature films based on comic book franchises were providing the comic book industry with a positive cultural and financial turnaround from the speculator bust of the mid-1990s. Inspired by Free Scoop Night at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor next to his store, Field proposed Free Comic Book Day in his August 2001 "Big Picture" column in Comics & Games Retailer magazine. The column received positive reaction and Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino suggested having the first FCBD coincide with the opening weekend of the 2002 Spider-Man feature film, in order to take advantage of the film's heavy promotion and related press about the comic book medium. The first event was held May 4, 2002, the day after the film's opening, and its first four free comic books were Marvel Comics' Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (a reprint of its issue published in 2000), Dark Horse Comics' one-shot Star Wars Tales: A Jedi's Weapon, Image Comics/Top Cow Productions' one-shot Tomb Raider #1+1⁄2 and the first issue of DC Comics' Justice League Adventures comic book (based on the Justice League animated television series). The event has usually been held on the first Saturday in May, and is often cross-promoted with the release of the first big-budget superhero film of the summer.

According to Diamond Comic Distributors, over 2,000 stores participated in the inaugural Free Comic Book Day and gave away more than 2 million comic books from 4 publishers. The following year, 29 publishers participated. FCBD 2012 exceeded one million attendees, with over 3.5 million comics given away. In 2015, 2,340 retailers ordered 5.6 million comic books to give away.

While giving out free comic books on FCBD, participating retailers often run additional promotions. This can include sales on selected merchandise, creator signings, prize raffles, cosplay contests, charity drives, karaoke, and art exhibitions. The event quickly grew to become a major celebration of comic book culture and fan clubs may volunteer to support local stores and help manage the crowds of people attracted to the event. Cosplayers may be enlisted to entertain the lines outside the stores and pose for photos.

Among some retailers, FCBD has been more grandly organized. An FCBD "shop hop" cross-promotion in London, Ontario, Canada, encourages people to visit five downtown comic shops for entry into a prize draw, and has evolved into a street festival. Cosplayers parade along the street, which is chalked with murals, and many other businesses along the route cater to the theme. Mesa, Arizona, and Portsmouth, England, have each expanded FCBD into a two-day comics convention.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of FCBD 2020. Alt Free Comic Days was held online on that weekend, streaming panel discussions with comics creators and artists. In mid-June, Diamond Comics announced that the planned titles would be released weekly as Free Comic Book Summer from July 15 to September 9. In 2021, FCBD was held on August 14, when COVID-19 restrictions had eased somewhat. That year's event was received as a big day for fans in the absence of comic book conventions and other major gatherings. However, delays in shipping led to the event being postponed for overseas retailers. From the twentieth anniversary edition of the event, held May 7, 2022, FCBD returned to the first Saturday in May.