Free Comic Book Day media coverage was up around 45% from last year, reflecting a record year in comics given away and attendance, organizer Diamond Comic Distributors announced.  Overall, Free Comic Book Day was covered by over 1,000 broadcast programs and over 4,000 news outlets, well up from last year’s 240 TV news shows, 460 news outlets, and 720 online sources.
 
The event generated an estimated $3.2 million dollars in free publicity (up $1 million from last year), due in part to the unorthodox marketing of Dave Downey of World's Best Comics and Toys.  When three teen thieves who stole a Flintstones replica car from the front of his shop were caught, he made them dress up as the Flintstones on Free Comic Book Day and hold signs for 10 hours to help promote the event in exchange for no charges.  The story was picked up by multiple TV news outlets, including CBS Network News.  
 
It’s only twice, so we’ll wait until 2015 to declare a trend, but last year’s biggest post-event exposure also came from a FCBD-related crime, as Jimmy Kimmel joked about a man who attacked a Stormtrooper and a Ghostbuster outside Coast Comics in Portland, Maine (see "Kimmel Jokes about FCBD Assault").
 
Social media ballooned as well.  Last year’s event generated 66,000 tweets, while this year over 108,000 tweets with hashtags #FCBD and #FreeComicBookDay kept those topics trending nationally on the Day from 8:30 AM until 3:00 PM on Twitter.  The FCBD Facebook page also saw a huge increase, with 390,000 fans interacting with the page. 
 
The official webpage also had record-setting traffic, with over 554,000 visits from April through the beginning of May.  The Comic Shop Locator was used by more than 490,000 visitors, up 115% from last year, Diamond announced.
 
Diamond reported that 2100 participating comic shops around the globe distributed a record 4.7 million comics to over one million fans, up from 4.6 million last year (see "Free Comic Book Day Sets Attendance Record").  In FCBD survey results, 40% of participating retailers said they had over 500 attendees for their events, and 87% rated their FCBD as "extremely successful."
 
Next year’s Free Comic Book Day will be Saturday May 2, 2015.