A Shop of Ideas: Ideology part 2, My Free Comic Book Day
By Aaron Haaland
A Shop of Ideas: Ideology Part 1
Hey Fandom! Welcome to part two or the five part weekly “A Shop of Ideas: Ideology”! Last time I gave an overview of our doctrine, which can be summed up in “Entertainment Trumps All”. Then I spelled out our no more back issues
ideology, how to blow out an inventory, and a little bit on what to do
now that you have time to promote comics. This article I’m focusing
squarely on that one day a year that comic shops actually have the
opportunity to promote themselves: Free Comic Book Day! We like the
idea of Free Comic Book Day, but have enriched it because of its
limitations. To us Free Comic Book Day is based on outdated modes of
social interaction and the relic of the “comic collector/investor”. We
do Free Comic Book Day, but we have a program where Free Comic Book Day
could be any day!
The idea behind FCBD is sound, comics should be promoted nationwide and
a free sample is cool. From there things go south for us. Herding
people to your shop all on the same day once a year isn’t ideal. It’s
kind of like Woodstock or some massive peace gathering from the 60s. If
you get enough people together you can change things. Well,
logistically, we can’t have a great one on one connection with any of
these potential new readers. Believe me, we try, but many times the
shop gets overwhelmed. Think about what are we giving these potential
new readers. While the FCBD output varies and may be getting better, is
it really the best we have to offer as an industry or is it mainly all
ages and pop culture novelty books? Has there ever been a Vertigo
FCBD personalities
FCBD
book? Why hasn’t there been a Walking Dead book, it actually gains
readers on its own and is perfect for horror movie buffs. I understand
the need for all ages books to hopefully win the next generation, and I
love Tiny Titans. However, we also need to show people over 18 that we
have product that will wow them, like a Y The Last Man #1.
Also, what is FCBD’s purpose? What is it trying to change or
accomplish? Is it trying to get the average person, who may enjoy
reading the occasional comic book, to try one and change their mind
about what entertainment value comics may hold for them? That’s a goal
we can wholeheartedly support. Go to the official FCBD website
and find out for yourself. See what they say about the “two very
different audiences” for comics. First there’s “The child”, then “the
comic-book collector: the more sophisticated reader, who
maintains, preserves, evaluates, and files a growing collection”.
That’s basically an ad taken from a website about collecting anything
from stamps to comics. Also, you learn, “Before you buy any comic to
add to your collection, you should carefully inspect its condition.
Remember that every blemish or sign of wear depreciates the beauty and
value of your comics. The serious collector may buy extra copies of
popular titles.” Oh, and the super exciting fun of, “wash your hands
first, eliminating harmful oils from the skin before coming into
contact with the books. Lay the comic on a flat surface and slowly turn
the pages. This will minimize the stress to the staples and spine. With
these guidelines, your collection should enjoy a long life and maintain
a reasonable condition and value.” That was an unpaid ad for Overstreet
Price Guide. So, the big event where we put our best foot forward is
literally endorsing what caused the crash of the '90s on its official
website. Hey everybody, buy our stuff and YOU make money (buy extra
copies too).
We believe FCBD should have nothing to do with collecting at all. It
should be a day to get someone to sample a comic and, if what is
between the pages means something to him or her, they’ll buy another
one and follow the story. It’s not a day to train new possible readers
to be collectors; it’s not a day for old school comic shops to try to
move their collection (back issue inventory). If you could make money
by collecting new comics, why would there ever be the need for a FCBD?
Why would comics ever need to be free? Now couldn’t we just collect
these free comics every year and cash in later, never spending a buck?
We have the solution to all these problems, My Free Comic Book Day. http://www.myfcbd.com!
MYFCBD is for the Myspace, Youtube, DVR, on demand generation! On any
day, if an individual wants to come into the shop and get any one comic
they desire, they can! We leave MYFCBD cards all over town and have the
card printable online. People come in, talk to us, and get a spot on
suggestion. This program works great; we have the used cards and the
repeat business to prove it. People can’t use a second one, its limit
on per lifetime, but they certainly can and do give them to their
friends. A comic fan may not be able to drag all their friends to the
shop on Free Comic Book Day, but they can, over time, drag these
friends in to sample a free comic book. The program lives out our
“there’s a comic for everyone” belief, we just go one step further and
say the first one is free. It’s also perfect to give a MYFCBD card to
everyone that comes for the publisher pre-selected comics on FCBD for
them to use when they return.
Any comic shop is welcome to be part of this program. We aren’t saying
shops shouldn’t do Free Comic Book Day; we have big plans for it at our
shop this year. We are saying a store’s goal that day should be
entertaining new readers, not training collectors. Also, we think
stores should see the limitations of outreach on a single day and
perhaps do our MYFCBD or come up with something else for the other 364
days of the year. What do you guys think? Should Free Comic Book Day be
a day to promote price guides, back issues, bags and boards, and
collecting with the publishers free offerings? Is a clear “comics can
add value to your life” message better for new people? Should the
official Free Comic Book Day website change? Thanks for reading, next
week we talk about our views on format and variant covers.aaron@acomicshop.com or jason@acomicshop.com“A Comic Shop” is located at 114 S Semoran Blvd Winter Park, FL 32792 (407) 332-9636
