Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about his Free Comic Book Day experience, and the role of the Diamond Previews.
 
Last Saturday was Super-Fly Comics & Games best Free Comic Book Day ever.  There was a line of people waiting in line to get in at 10 a.m. when we opened and once we did some of them stood in line for up to forty-five minutes.  I was there so I can testify to the long wait, which was not only completely unexpected and unprecedented but something of a hassle for me, personally.  That is until it dawned on me what exactly this meant.
 
There have been days in my brilliant retail career where I couldn’t give away a free comic book and in spite of all the recent bellyaching and negative waves about our graying, shrinking audience (a good portion of which had admittedly been coming from me) there they were.  Early on a Saturday morning, a good representative cross section of humanity, men, women and children, all patiently waiting just to get a free comic book.
 
We gave away almost twenty boxes of free comics.  And after they got their free comics they bought stuff, in abundance.  We doubled our take from last year's FCBD and earned more than we did at this year's C2E2.  But just as importantly it was also a good time; the entertainment that evening included performances by nerdcore rocker Adam Warrock and comedian Viet Huynh.  But I couldn’t stay as I had plans for the rest of the day.
 
I went to a matinee of Iron Man Three (that's how it reads on the end credits anyway), but with some time to kill before the next showing I did something I rarely have time to do these days, I went to the library.  The parking lot was absolutely jammed and I walked into a "May the 4th Be With You" celebration full of kids (and at least one staff member) dressed in homemade Star Wars costumes--or at the very least capes.  Next year I'll have to remember to drop off some Star Wars FCBD comics.  And not that there was much doubt I enjoyed the movie, at least up until the point where I got up to go to the bathroom.  When I sat back down I somehow ended one row shy of my original seat which is how I ended up putting my hand on a strange man’s leg.  He did not care for it.
 
One of the things I picked up while I was at the comic store was the latest Previews, but then, I usually try to schedule my trips to Super-Fly Comics & Games on the week the Diamond Previews catalog drops.  Because, and this is an uncomfortable confession to make, over the years it’s become an important touchstone in my life.  I don't believe that I’m overselling it when I call it the single essential syllabus for the comic book industry and even before I was a retailer it proved to be an indispensable resource.  Ever eager to find out what was next and new in comics I obsessively poured over every page.  After that came the truly arduous process of deciding which titles to get (i.e. which ones I could actually afford).  Then, finally, there was all that wonderful merchandise in the back that I would never be able to afford to drool over.
 
But after comics became my profession I studied Previews cover to cover even more intently because at this point it was now the monthly prospectus my job relied upon.  What had once been done strictly for fun was now (mostly, anyway) business because every entry meant a decision, and by "decision" I of course mean gamble.  With somebody else’s money, something I've always taken deadly seriously.
 
And now that I'm no longer spending several hours a month doing the ordering for a comic book shop I’m pretty much back to my original fan position; nothing has changed, except the delivery.  For a couple of months now I'd been seeing ads in Previews for its digital edition ("convenience, mobility, freedom," said the ads) powered by the Digital Comics Reader.  Well I finally broke down and got a digital copy of my own.
 
On the upside there’s the immediate gratification aspect, it's hard to beat something you can have right now and the digital copy is certainly lighter and easier to hold.  Plus for Comic Book Guys of my age I cannot downplay the advantage of being able to increase the size of the text (which can get awfully wee in the print version).  On the other hand you can't flip through it or go to a specific publisher or page, which is a definite minus.  Long story short; while I can definitely see the upside of the digital I think I'll stick with the paper, at least for a little while longer.
 
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.