Elisabeth Forsythe of Things From Another World with three locations in Oregon and one in California experienced a wonderful Free Comic Book Day event and sent in this accounting of the day.

Here's our account for FCBD--we had a wonderful time!

This year was Things From Another World’s biggest and most successful Free Comic Book Day ever, thanks to Diamond Comic Distributors, the publishers, who put out some excellent free comics this year, and all of the creators who participated in signings.  We had 18 creators between our three Oregon stores and our California location.  Of course, one of the most important keys to our success was the local comics community, who turned out in droves!

Each of our stores was packed full of comics fans, who eagerly scooped up free comics and stood in line to meet creators like Terry and Rachel Dodson.  We noticed a big upswing in families, with parents sharing their love of comics with their children.  We scheduled a massive 60% off sale and a back issue sale to coincide with Free Comic Book Day, which proved very successful!

When we started planning our Free Comic Book Day event back in February, we were surprised at the number of creators who were already committed to signings.  The event has clearly been growing in popularity over the years.  However, we were able to attract an excellent roster of creators: Stan Sakai, Marc Andreyko, and Drew Johnson signed at our Universal CityWalk location, and Terry and Rachel Dodson, Steve Lieber, Dave Stewart, Scott Allie, the Pander Brothers, Darren Davis and Bluewater Productions, Erika Moen, Shannon Wheeler, Jamie S. Rich, Joëlle Jones, Lee Moyer, Jason Martin, and Shawn Cruz appeared at our Portland, Beaverton, and Milwaukie stores.  Each and every one thrilled our customers by signing comics, drawing sketches, and chatting about comics.

One highlight of this year’s event was our entertainment: we asked the pirates of PDX Yar and the Stormtroopers from Cloud City Garrison to gather outside our stores and attract extra attention to Free Comic Book Day.  Passersby couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw pirates sword fighting and Stormtroopers marching in formation!

We were able to get a lot of eyes on our event, in part because April is Portland, Oregon’s official comics month!  We spent the entire month spreading the word via posters, flyers, social media, newsletters, radio, and TV to make sure everyone knew they could come in, bring the family, get free comics, and have a great time.

We want to thank the Portland and California comics communities, the comics fans who came out for the event, and all of the local artists and guests who participated.  We’re really looking forward to next year, and so are our customers!

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.