the vynsane asylum

I always try to spend money on FCBD. Because I know the "free" books cost the LCS money. It's not like Marvel and DC donate the books. So I try and drop $40 at least. Might be tougher this year because I'm a broke-ass broke MF, but I'll do what I can.

I will be unable to go, but the only book I care about is Transformers 80.5. I think I've gotten that taken care of, but will double check.

i, too, won't be able to go. the only book i'm truly interested in is the Atomic Robo FCBD issue, which my usual store didn't carry last year anyway. i'll be sending my annual email to Red 5 Comics begging for them to send me one...

The store here has never carried any new Red 5 comics. Kinda sad; they've got to be at least in the top ten publishers just based on Atomic Robo alone, right?

it's definitely the top book from Red 5. according to this site the first issue of the most recent miniseries (Atomic Robo: The Ghost of Station X) ranked #276 with 4,456 sales. the most recent issue, (Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures #1, being an anthology series) actually did even better somehow ranking #263 with 4,899 sales.

where all those numbers put it within publisher rankings, i don't know...

Consider this: of the top 275 books, 110 are Marvel, 110 are DC, 30 are Image, 20 are Dark Horse, and 5 are IDW.

Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

Request cancelled. Surprisingly, my LCS said he'd hold one for me, which is awesome.
Thanks anyway, man. I appreciate it.

Avengers & Atomic Robo for me. We walked down & I saw about the rarest form of wildlife one will ever see whilst at the store: a new reader... who was female... and not a 400lb basement troll (she wasn't a knockout either, don't get me wrong, but well under 400lbs).

I thought we had a topic for this already. And look, I was right. I got a whopping 15 freebies from two different shops. I also got a shitload of cheap books, but I'll go over those in the Big Score thread.

Atomic Robo teams up with Dr. Dinosaur. I won't ruin it.
Avengers Age of Ultron. Just reprints a 0.1 issue from last year. Weak, Marvel. Weak.
Burt Ward, Boy Wonder Bluewater, as a publisher, needs to be cancelled.
DC The New 52 New Event Super Baddie gets an origin story. And then a bunch of ads.
Dinosaurs vs Aliens Grant Morrison writes a decent yarn.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo You've read the book and seen both movies. You know what happens.
Image 20 Previews of three uninteresting books. But now I know where Todd Nuack got off to. I like him.
Lady Death The Beginning Wanna know the beginning? Lots of villagers with pitchforks.
Mega Man Bought it for the boy.
Serenity/Star Wars The best of the bunch. The Serenity story was like watching an episode. I could "hear" everyone, the writing was so spot on. "Ha ha! Mal got shot!" Simply beautiful. Dammit, I miss Firefly.
Sonic the Hedgehog Also for the boy. It's a super fast hedgehog. You know.
Spider-Man Season One I don't want to give it away, but the nerdy gets bit by a spider. Shocking, I know.
Transformers 80.5 Recaps the original 80 issues with a montage of flashbacks. And Soundwave starts some shit and rekindles the war.
Valiant 2012 Previews of X-O and Harbinger. And interviews about Bloodshot, Rai, Archer&Armstrong and Eternal Warrior. Did what it was supposed to and piqued my interest. All the series look solid.
Voltron Tiny anime comic from Viz. eh. It was alright.

I was out and about earlier. There was a comic book store on my way back. I thought I'd pop in to look for that GI Joe Classics book. There was a line out the door and a food truck in the front of the store. I didn't even try to go in.

GOD DAM IT I AM POSTING FROM GEL!!

THOSE ASS WHOLES LYED 2 ME! THEY SED IT WAS FREE COMIC BOOKE DAYS SO I WENT IN AND GRABED A COMICK + WALKD OUT. THE GUY SAYED WHAT R U DEWING, U HAEV 2 PAY 4 THAT, I SAYED NO IT IS FREE COMEK BOOK DAYS! HE SAYED THE ONES THAT SAY FREE KNOT THE 1S BEHIND THE CAUNTER RETARD. I TOLED HIM IT IS NOT NICE TO CALL SUM 1 A RETARD + TOER UP THE BOOK + SAYED WHAT U GONNA DEW NOW FAGG?

SO HE CALED THE COPS. ALL OVER SUM DUM ASS "HEROS FOR HIRES ROOT BEER" WITH SUM BLACK DUDE ON THE COVER IN A BRAKEDANCE SUIT. HE WONTED 200 DOLERS 4 IT CAN U BELEVE IT? DO U NO HOW MANY CANDEY BARS 200$ CAN BYE? AT LEAST TWELV!!!!

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that FCBD is a joke.

First, the dealers have to pay for the books. And they have to get enough to meet demand, which is higher than normal demand. And an awful lot of the customers won't be cool and buy something else. And most won't come back until the same day next year.

Plus, the retailers don't want to pay for stuff they don't know for sure will move. Anything by the big five publishers is probably going to be there. Anything else, crapshoot. It's tough to find, say, Atomic Robo unless you have a frickin' awesome comic shop.

However, they've got the catch-22 of "customers" being pissed if something isn't in their selection at all, or is gone before they get there.

Next, the publishers. You have to be a certain size before Diamond will even let you participate. And Diamond controls the whole shebang. Also, the bigger you are, the more hype Diamond gives you (even though you're less in need of it). So it's the opposite of "exposing readers to new comics they wouldn't have checked out otherwise."

And the marketing. Holy shit, what a clusterfuck. I've talked to several people who would be prime potential comic readers in the past week, and they had no idea FCBD existed! NONE! Ten fucking years, and never enough hype to expose it to a sizable number of new people. I thought that was the whole point? Diamond can't take out some fucking TV ads or something?

And back to publishers, on the "new readers" angle. How many books are truly new-reader friendly? Okay, of those, how many are actually new? Very, very few. Even a "catch-up" issue like Transformers 80.5 isn't geared toward totally new readers.

This isn't me bitching because I have nothing better to do or hate the idea. I think the idea is great. The execution leaves a lot to be desired, though, when it comes to doing what its supposed purpose is.

Free comic with the purchase of a regularly priced comic book day just don't have the same ring. My store is quite small, a local small-city store. He had way more than enough of every avail book to meet the demand. I can't imagine he paid too much for them either, no way in hell he would had that haul otherwise.

But since you've opened the door to discussion - how would you improve it?

My own personal experience here in the Quad Cities. We have five main Comic Shops in the area(and a few smaller ones). The two shops on the Iowa side (including my regular guy) didn't bother with FCBD. The three on the Illinois side did. The one guy goes all out, and has the local rock station broadcasting, has local artists doing art, has pizza, hot dogs, soda, etc. His place is packed every FCBD because he puts the effort into promoting it.
The second guy's store has been around the longest, so he's got a pretty large customer base and his store was fairly packed.
But our local Newspaper didn't have a single mention of it. Not even in their Weekend section. So in that respect, whoever's job it is at Diamond or wherever to let AP know, missed the boat.

For selection, they always have plenty of every book, but I did have to ask at the first shop for TF 80.5. He had held a few back because he knew little kids would go for that one first. And whatever they don't get rid of, they can put out next year. I always see last years selection on the table, and even stuff from two years ago.
As with all things, some of it is reader friendly and does its job. Some of it doesn't work. That can hardly be placed on the Retailer or Diamond. If Image is selling shit titles, a Retailer can't know what their Freebie is going to be enough to know NOT to order any.
I do think the FCBD books cost less than regular orders. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I think it's just the production costs. The Publishers "donate" the salaries of the writers/artists by paying that all internally. And I don't think Diamond takes a cut either. I could be wrong though.

My guy gives away 2 free books per visit. The signs were posted & he was telling everyone as they came in. He was also telling people they could get 2 more if they came back tomorrow. It was quite apparent you could only get 2 today. Guess how many fucktards I saw at the counter with one of nearly every free comic getting sent back to choose 2? Well, to be honest it was only 1, but that was 1 too many.

EDITED: Loved the Robo. So much fun in 1/2 the size of a normal comic.

EDITED PART 2: Oh, and thank you Marvel for going back to the regular sized book this year. You didn't look nearly as much like the money grubbing bitches you are.