Marsha Giroux of All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, Arizona had great results with Free Comic Book Day this year:

 

We are delighted to report that this years Free Comic Book Day was an even bigger success than last year.  We have been in the business for over 23 years and have hosted hundreds of events, but we have to hand it to Joe Fields for coming up with one of the best promotional events ever.  Thanks Joe!

 

Last year we were featured on the front page of the entertainment section of the Arizona Republic and were on a morning news show.  As a result our turnout was enormous.  We doubled our gross sales from the first Free Comic Book Day.  We didn't think we could beat last year's attendance and sales, but we are pleased to say our sales jumped another 30%!

 

This year Alan was on a local TV talk show as well as on the radio promoting FCBD.  Spider-man was also on hand signing autographs and offering photo opportunities with all the kids.  Spidey had cars honking and people pulling over to see him.  It was such a positive environment for families and everyone walked out with a smile on their face, a big thank you and a promise to return.  As is the goal for FCBD, we saw many new faces in addition to all our regulars.  The vast majority of people made purchases.  We sold thousands of comics, both new and back issues followed by extremely large trade paperback sales.  Statues, action figures, posters and other items moved as well.

 

We have to say the naysayers were all wrong about the fear that moving FCBD to July was going to hurt.  We were with the majority that felt it was a good sound plan to have it in on a holiday weekend after the opening of Spider-Man 2.  With the huge success of the movie it did spill over into tremendous sales on Spider-Man comics and merchandise.  We have to say FCBD was a total success and we had a blast!
 
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.