FCBD Open Forum

Opening the conversation up to share. Talk about what ever FCBD stories you like. 
Let’s hear what free comics you picked up?
Back Issue deals and steals?
Cool events going on at your local comix shop?
Or anything else you want to talk about.

35 thoughts on “FCBD Open Forum”

  1. I just saw a pic or a speculator and it seemed EVERY single book from the day. This is just wrong in my opinion. FCBD was designed to get people into the stores and introduce them OR reintroduce them to comics. I have speculated on FCBD books before, I am no saint. I have over the years just given up on the crazy of the day, mainly because it is just filled with the crazies looking for the deals, and the LCS looking to move backstock. All I hear is everyone jerking off onto a plate looking for the 70% off sales and the BOG at the LCS. The point of FCBD has been lost to all. Take your kids and introduce them to fun.

    1. There’s definitely some douchenozzles out there, but here in Vegas there’s a lot of people dressed up, games, mini shows and of course deals. I take my kids every year to a few different shops and they have a blast, but you bet your ass I’m looking for those deals. That’s like icing on the cake. I will agree though, there are a few people that go in and are kinda rude and they take the day as a F U to everyone but themselves.

      1. That is the main point I am making. I agree, the deals are great, but it just annoys me more when “that guy” grabs as many books as he can and acts like he is entitled to be a douche. I do not and am not saying there are not fun activities and cameraderie going on, I guess I just notice the douchebaggery more than the smiles.

        1. I sat and talked to Joe Pruett for 30 minutes and Paul Jenkins. My day was made by that alone. Joe talked to me like we were old friends. Spoke to other creators as I am wearing a rob Zombie tshirt. It’s been all fun. 

        2. I think the thing to remember is that while it’s called free comic book day it’s not free to the retailers. They actually pay a lot of money for those books

      2. Most of my local shops limit the books to 10 per family or person. Dragon’s Lair allows everyone to grab just one of each, not a handful for those looking to sell.. I go in, grab the books I want and get out most of the time. One shop always has great back issue sales so yeah, I hit that up as well while having fun.

  2. I picked up Alias #1 for 25 cents and New X-Men #31 for $2. I love FCBD!

  3. 10 per person?? And I felt bad taking three (1 for me and one for each of my sons that were with me) although I will admit I am relatively new to collecting (2-3 years) and this is the first FCBD I have been able to go to since I typically work weekends

  4. My LCS does it right, and customers line up all the way down the street and around the corner to get in. Many are families with young children that are not regulars. He limits books to 3 per person. I always go later in the day, and make a point to buy something to do my part. This year, Nate Powell (March artist) will be there signing whatever you like for free, and I will purchase one of his books too. My LCS puts a complete set of FCBD books together for a few of his regulars for no charge, so that makes it easy for me!

  5. Lancaster PA , awesomeness at The Comic Store.
    Tuscan Raider, Scout Trooper, Storm Trooper, Chewie, Dr Who , Harley & Joker , Darth Vader and an incredible 3PO/ R2 combo.
    Grabbed some Pokemon swag for my two main dudes Ryder & Max, a Pokemon pocket comic , Camp Midnight.
    It was a good family- dad/ sons event. I didnt look to make a dime or spec. at all. For me today was all about showing love BACK to the greatest hobby and culture ever and to hopefully instill some more seeds in my sons.
    Thanks Anthony and CHU for all that you do for the hobby

  6. Great day today. I took my boys out and they had a blast. There was a person dressed as the white ranger and wanted to take a picture with my boy but my boy got scared lol. They got there books and where very happy. My LCS had 30% off back issues so I took advantage of that and got Amazing Spider Man # 529, Batman # 40 1:25 variant, Uncanny X-men # 266, Walking Dead #107& 138 and Guardians of Knowhere #3 variant. Overall great day since my boys had a blast.

  7. Dave, the owner of my LCS, Dr. Volts was handing out grab bags for answering trivia while waiting in line. I answered “Ultron” to “Who created The Vision?” And received a grab bag with an Edge of Spiderverse #2 first print in it. Unbagged, unboarded, but in solid shape for a raw copy tossed into a grab bag.
    Sheez. Also got a set of the Civil War DORBZ. I don’t collect figures anymore–a couple marvel KidRobot Labbits in my office– this was my shameless spec and flip.

  8. Lot of people out at my LCS…didn’t get there until around 3 and there was still a line for the free comics (3 per person). Got Rom just becauae I liked the series back in the day. Found a Vikings #1 Cover C on the shelf.
    Was a pretty nice day out and about!

  9. One LCS gave a set of every FCBD issue to the first 5 people in the door. Another LCS gave out complete sets of 50 FCBD issues to the first 150 people in line, but the line started on Friday evening. Got several creator signatures at one store, but I heard the store owner explain that artist Bart Sears was two hours late and still unaccounted for. Went to one MovieStop store that allowed 7 books per person but had to hand write a list of what comics each customer picked. Employees at another local MovieStop store were vocally complaining that their store carried comics but wasn’t participating in FCBD this year.

      1. Moviestop in my area carries the Hastings variants. The manager told me a while back that they’re basically a Hastings shop now without changing the name of the storefront

  10. My best pick of the day so far was a Magnus Robot Fighter 0 with card for a dollar. Nice clean NM book. Picked up a lot of dollar books(silver and current) ranging in retail price from 5-30-all 1.00. I only got 2 free comics this year. Not too shabby.

  11. I have shopped at my LCS for about 15 years. They always have one of the best shows in the country, bringing in guests from all over. This year, I would say he toned it down a bit in regards to the guests (His list included: Angel Medina, Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan, Wil Quintana, Tom Nguyen, Tommy Castillo, Sergio Cariello, and Tom Raney to name a few this year.) In years past he has brought in people like: Greg Land; Phil Hester; Billy Tan; Mike Perkins; Mark Texeira; Ron Garney; Aaron Lopresti; Tim Townsend; Meghan Hetrick; Gail Simone; Mark Brooks; Billy Tucci; Greg Horn; Jimmy Palmiotti; Amanda Conner; Mike Deodato; and plenty more. He always runs the day like a convention with no admission. He runs a decent sale, holds a costume contest, and invites local businesses and vendors to set up and promote themselves at the same time. It truly is a great event for families in our community. The greatest thing about the owner is his commitment to the guests and (hopefully) future customers. He has no problem watching people walk out of the store with their free comics and knows some of them will never come back. If he gains a handful of new customers every year, he is happy. He just loves the business and wants to promote it. It does suck that the event is not free for the retailers.
    This is the first year I have gone to another store in the area in addition to my LCS because they had Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner (and I wanted to get some more books signed by them. If you’re not reading Super Zero, you’re missing out on a great book!). The store that they were at had a sale on graphic novels and novels only and they weren’t willing to deal on any back issues on their wall. Which stinks because I had my eye on a few key issues that I would have gladly taken off of their hands. Instead, I went and put the extra money back in the pockets of my LCS (I had already bought a good amount from them earlier in the day).
    All in all, I enjoy this day because I get to share it with my family. My kids love to see the costumes and enjoy talking to the characters. My LCS always offers that. Not many other stores in my area do.
    Thanks for reading my rant.

    1. Not really a rant but a good story. Thanks for sharing. Love that dads are taking their kids. I did not take my kids this year. When I do signings I can’t have hem there and control the books at the same
      Time.

      1. It is definitely tough to watch the kids while doing signings. I brought my youngest (he’s five) to meet Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan and explained to him that these two men created Bane. My son loves Bane. He privately asked me before we met them if they were Bane’s daddy’s and where Bane’s mommy was. Dixon and Nolan got a kick out of that. My son told them both that he has a Lego Bane and that he has his Lego Robin beat Bane up. They were thrilled to hear about his love of Bane as well.
        I told the creators about how I would read and reread the Knightfall story as a teenager and how much joy it brought me and thanked them for allowing me to share it with my family.
        My son then saw a Spider-Man cos-player and wanted to meet his daddy. I guess we have to go to Mega Con here in Orlando later in the month to meet Stan Lee now!

        1. Awesome story man. I have taken my oldest year after year to Baltimore comic con and will be taking my youngest this year. I have a Grendel tattoo on my chest. Joe went over to Matt Wagner (who I have met numerous times and was there with his son) and said, did you do my daddy’s tattoo. Matt not missing a beat said I didn’t do it but drew it for him b

  12. ComicsXposure has them up for order. 1 per customer. I think its $6 for shipping.

  13. Good pickups making the rounds today aside from a bunch of FCBD editions:
    $1 each: X-Men Sword Of The Braddocks, Captain Marvel 14, St George #2, X-23 #1 (Marvel Next), Justice Machine Annual #1, Punisher #1 (Marvel Knights Ennis), Batman 655, Outcast 1 (2nd), Outcast 2 (1st).
    My pre FCBD hunt yesterday scored a Henchgirl #1 for cover price that looks to be a 9.8. I don’t know how that was sitting on the shelf for months with nobody grabbing it

  14. This year was pretty amazing. Free face painting and sketches. Good limits on the comics. Great deals. BOGO. Saw some Famous Monsters and Eerie issues for 4.99 each! Walked away with super happy worn out kiddos that got everything they wanted and their dad with things he didn’t need but got anyway. Nice!

  15. Decent day for me. 2nd year in a row that my local shop has offered discounts on new books. 25% this year. I picked up my pull today and got it all for 25% off. Such a great sale! All toys were also buy one get one free so I picked up a couple of pops. I felt guilty for not bringing my kids with me this year. I’ve always brought them and let them pick a book off the paid wall and get whatever free books they could. Timing just didn’t work out this year for me to really bring them. Shop was crowded so that was good to see and I got there pretty late. I’m told it was packed earlier in the day.

  16. Went to Jesse James in Phoenix. Should’ve came way earlier in the day, most FCBD were gone but didn’t know they were doing 50% off comics so i stocked up. Amazingly gwenpool 0/1, moon knight 1 variant, punisher 1 variant, and many other titles I initially passed on but wanted to try. My fav LCS.
    I picked up civil war, love and rockets, wcngh FCBD issues for myself. The rest were chosen by my daughter. I love dc superhero girls. They are really cute and I don’t have to be concerned letting my 4 year old girl have it. She is a WW fan and the main title is too adult but this dc girl stuff is great

  17. I enjoyed the day. I stopped by some shops I like to check out the free comics and offer a helping hand at setup (some of them opened mid-morning but I was up early that day so just made my way over). It was really fun to see both young and old picking-up books, and from my purely anecdotal experience it would seem FCBD helps spur sales. There was a young kid and his mom who grabbed the FCBD Suicide Squad comic and bought a trade and some other comics of the characters as he was excited for the upcoming movie and didn’t want to just have one comic about the characters when there was a ton of stuff on sale (the shop this happened at was wise enough to make sure the books that tied-in with free comics were easy to see).
    Some shops were a bit quieter, with all the free books but no big sales, others had local artists doing sketches for free, and some had snazzy sales. All in all seeing the wide range of ages, genders, races, and so forth enjoying free comics made me feel happy to see how much joy these books bring people.
    For real though, some people were polite and asked if it was okay to take 3 comics as if they were worried about being rude, and others just grabbed everything in sight with nary a care. I myself grabbed a chunk of stuff, but only the books that actually interested me.

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