Reports on Free Comic Book Day 2007 from a variety of blogs:
Neptune Comics, Waukesha Wisconsin:
Another successful Free Comic Book Day! This year was the best so far!!! Lots of fun.
Sadly the local comic shop (in my subway station) didn't really take advantage of the fact that it was a beautiful day and there were tons of parents and kids running around the neighborhood. They only had one a poster saying "free comic book day" that wasn't visable until you were already walking in the door. It would have been nice if they had a bigger display outside or on the street that encouraged pedestrian traffic to stop in and check out all the free cool stuff. But then I would have also recommended they organized the store a bit better and cleaned the place up to be a bit more welcoming to kids and parents in the first place. Why can't all stores be like ROCKETSHIP?
I fear that the only people who take advantage of Free Comic Book Day are people who already frequent comic shops. Which is good for convincing fanboys to try new things but doesn't further expand the readership of the medium (which I think was the original plan).
Look at all those free comics! The crowds started as soon as I raised the gate, and kept coming all day long...
Genius in its simplicity, Free Comic Book Day fosters a unique sense of community in stores across the country. It also entices people who have not yet discovered comics -- or who have long since left the comic scene -- to journey inside their local shop. It's the one day of the year when comic shops are bustling, if not bursting at the seams. Our local shop, Alliance Comics, was so crowded that navigating its two floors was somewhat challenging.
Bookery Fantasy: Yay for Free Comic Book Day. They gave us each a small Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer poster as we entered the store. Inside, there was a line of folks waiting for their free books & stuff. I stood in line and got a sack full of free comics, 4 of which we picked out ourselves. Wound up with a total of 15 free comics and 1 Batman Hero Clix figurine. Cool. Got my DWM and Astonishing X-Men and headed on to the next place on my list.
As we entered the main store downtown, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many kids there were lined up to pick out their free comic. Ron's was allowing two free books per person. By the time we got there, the Virgin Comics book and several other small press books were long gone. Several of the kids were picking out Spider-Man and Justice League. When I asked why, it was because of the recognition of seeing Spider-Man on the cover and enjoying the movie. I was very fascinated to see how the art really influenced their decisions.
Today was free comic book day. I've never seen the place so packed. Some idiots were standing in front of the "free comic" counter READING the damn things, blocking them so Number Two and all the rest of the kids there couldn't see what was available. Jerks.
I stopped by the Big Planet store in Georgetown which was not only a nice store but was letting folks pick up 10 of the free comic books each. That seems awfully generous compared to other stores I've checked out in past years.
