Mahdi and Nizar Abrahams of Readers Den Comic Shop in Cape Town, South Africa had their best day of the year on Free Comic Book Day (see 'FCBD 2005 in the Books'), and called it 'a smashing success:'

Free Comic Book Day 2005 was a smashing success!  Once again FCBD turned out to be our best business day of the year, despite a slightly smaller turnout of people -- about 600 as opposed to last year's 700.  Everyone had great fun, from the regular customers to new faces, as well the extra staff.  As in previous years (we participated in all FCBDs), we offered discounts and sales on most of our merchandise.  The lucky draw competitions proved very popular, as well as the costumed characters we arranged for the day.

The FCBD promotional material arrived in time this year, and the early arrival of the FCBD comics definitely helped our planning.  The timely arrival of all FCBD material is critical to the success of the day, and we hope this will be the case in all future events.

Regarding the controversy of the date for the event, we have no problem with FCBD standing on its own two feet.  FCBD should not depend on a comic book movie tie-in.  On this side of the world, South Africa, it's not the easiest thing to work with movie theatres for promotional events.  A fixed date for the event (first Saturday in May) is the way to go -- the incoming positive reports prove this.

On to FCBD 2006 !!!