Dean Phillips of Krypton Comics in Omaha, Nebraska saw the results of the Free Comic Book Day election (see 'May Wins Hands Down') and explains his concerns about the results:

Well, the voting is final.  May won.  For better or worse, the next Free Comic Book Day is going to be held in May.  I personally voted for tying into the upcoming Batman movie.  The response I got from the theaters, newspapers, and TV news for the Spider-Man 2 movie was incredible!  We gave away 4,000 copies of the Spider-Man comic book alone.  To me it makes sense to tie into a movie even though it feels like I am advertising for the movie and not the other way around.

Having FCBD in May has a few problems for many stores: Graduations tend to fall in early May.  This hits a large group of our target readers.  Younger people are looking forward to getting out of school for summer vacation.  The biggest problem I see with a May FCBD is this: The comic book industry is taking a chance on a stand-alone day.  The industry voted as if the general public cares about when FCBD is.  I hate to burst the bubble, but they don't care.  Not even a little.  Will the media cover FCBD if it doesn't have multi-media appeal?  I think it will be difficult to reach our audience without mass media coverage.  I truly believe in this medium, if not in the backward industry itself.  Comic books are fun.  Free comic books are really fun.  My goal is to get comic books into the hands of the most people.  To people that may have never read one.  To make May work promotions will have to be heavy.  This means TV, newspaper, radio and

flyers.  As usual, the advertising falls on you, the retailer, the guy making just enough to get by.  Will the local theater let you set up a table if there is not a movie coming out the same time period?  Will the newspaper do an article on FCBD?  Will the TV news crews flock to your store?  Man, I hope so.

I am actually considering moving FCBD to coincide with the Batman movie in my store.  In Omaha, mass media is the best outlet for potential customers to find me.  If I have difficulty in obtaining support I am sunk.  On the other hand, I voted for Spider-Man and got my way, so maybe I should just promote the heck out of May and see what happens.  A lot is riding on this FCBD.  Who is right?  Stand alone day or multi-media tie in?  Get out your wallets.  This industry just rolled the dice!