Ned Stacey of Cosmic Cat Comics, Games & Anime in Tallahassee, Florida sees Free Comic Book Day (see '2005 Free Comic Book Day in the Books') as a great long term investment, and 'a great idea:'

 

Free Comic Book Day this year for Cosmic Cat Comics, Games & Anime in Tallahassee Florida turned out to be a good time for all.  The local paper, The Tallahassee Democrat, ran a front page article on how comics have grown up over the years, featuring our store, on Saturday morning.  Nothing better than free advertising.  We also ran some very small ads in the Friday entertainment section of the paper.  During the day, 2 local television stations sent around crews for stories in the evening edition of the news.  These evening stories did not help us in getting customers in on FCBD, but did get the word out about our store.

 

This year we had a number of members of the Star Wars 501st Legion, the world's largest Star Wars costuming group.  We had on hand a Biker Scout, 2 Stormtroopers, an Ewok and a pregnant (really) Padme Amidala in costume from Episode III. They worked the crowd and of course were a favorite of all the kids.  Special thanks to Joyce Young, who again was able to get the local chapter out to the store.

 

Blake Kandzer was on hand to sign his newly released issue of Raze #6.   Blake has been self-publishing Raze for several years; he worked on the cover of #7 while showing off his original artwork.  Another local artist, Billy Penn, spent a little time also showing his work, while self publishers Shawn Walker, Quita Reed, Jaime Brown and Maxwell Walker handed out free copies of their work, Shounen Sugar's Division Syrup Anthology.

 

Throughout the day we handed out the free Heroclix of Batman, then followed up with demonstrations in the evening for whomever wished to return.

 

Whether this year was as good as past is questionable.  Overall it did not feel that we gave out as many comic books and sales for the day were not overly impressive.  As in years past, the cost of putting on FCBD was considerable considering the number of employees needed and the cost of print advertising.  Short term many stores may see the day as not a good investment, but over the long term considering the amount of free publicity by the front page story and news reports, FCBD is a great idea.