Mark Bowker of Alter Ego Comics in Lima, Ohio sent us his report on his first Free Comic Book Day at his store:

This year's Free Comic Book Day was the first held at Alter Ego Comics in Lima, OH and we also celebrated our one-year anniversary.

FCBD 2006 exceeded my expectations, with over 500 people coming into the store and over 2000 comics given away.  Sales-wise, it was our best day ever, but we actually broke even due to the cost of advertising the day and buying the free comics -- which is perfectly fine with me, because we heard a lot of people saying that they didn't know about our store and how cool it was.  The exposure that we received is priceless!

Artists Billy Dallas Patton (Zoom Suit) and Dan Davis (Green Arrow, Batgirl) were on hand to sign comics and draw sketches for folks, and we had a couple members of the Ohio 501st in costume to entertain the people waiting in line.  We scored a very nice segment on the evening and late night news and hit the front page of the Region section of our local paper on Sunday morning as well.

We learned a lot from our first FCBD and we're already looking forward to FCBD 2007!