Anthony Furfferi of Empire Comics in Rochester, New York saw our article on the Free Comic Book Day retailer survey (see 'FCBD Retailer Survey Results In'), and feels it's time to look at other options:

Why continue beating this dead horse?  FCBD worked well due to the Movie Tie Ins.  Some did well with it that promoted it, others likely did just as well that day without it.

But, it only promotes one day of the year.  Whoopee!  Does the rest of the year just lie dead?  Is this the best that the industry of entertainment can do?  Give away merchandise that otherwise doesn't sell?

The results of the survey were actually poor.  A bunch of people looking for free books, some returning customers (low percentage of the whole), and repeats dropped off considerably.  Face the facts. It's anti climatic at best.

With so many other issues at hand in the industry, I would suggest we begin to focus on the other days in the year.

Hey, hats off to Joe Field, don't get me wrong.  Good idea.  But it's time to get creative and come up with some other ideas that have been placed on the back burners.  There must be many.

Retailers put on your thinking caps or get stuck in the year of the inception of FCBD.

It's time to move on.  Our industry is huge and we can do better, let's take advantage of it.

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