UPDATE (3/19/20):

With things changing by the hour so do plans for certain events and promotions. This is the case with Free Comic Book Day, which they had changed to Free Comic Book Day MAY. Unfortunately with many cities closing no essential business for the time being, Diamond Comic Distributors this morning have announced that the annual event has been postponed.

Here is the statement from Diamond CEO Steve Geppi via CBR:
“The severity and timing of the impact of the COVID-19 virus can’t be predicted with any certainty, but the safety of our retailer partners and comic book fans is too important to risk,” Diamond CEO Steve Geppi said in a statement. “As always, we appreciate your enthusiasm for and support of the comic industry’s best event and look forward to celebrating with you later in the Summer.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

Free Comic Book Day is one of my favorite days of the year. On this day which is usually the first Saturday in May, you can visit your local participating comic book shop and pick up some Free Comic Book Day special comic books. They usually preview what the publishers have in store for the rest of the year. Usually shops have contests, promotions, guest artists, writers and cosplayers to cater to the people there supporting the event. This year is going to be a little different.

This year’s edition of Free Comic Book Day has been modified in order to help comply with social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic. Via comicbook.com we have a statement that was sent to retailers on Wednesday from Steve Geppi, the chairman of Geppi Family Enterprises and founder of Diamond Comic Distributors.

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The message from Geppi reads as follows:

“With restaurants and other businesses closing and many areas implementing event restrictions, we know that Free Comic Book Day will be impacted to varying degrees throughout the world. With the books already printed and en route, we have worked with our publisher partners to give retailers as much flexibility as possible in their handling of this event.”

“To minimize the impact on our primary distribution operations, prioritizing the distribution of weekly new comics and restocks, a number of FCBD titles will be included with each regular weekly shipment for the next several weeks. These titles will be invoiced at no charge, as we extend the billing out approximately 90 days, to the first week in August. The books may not be in separate boxes from the rest of the shipment, except when full cases are shipping.”

“With a longer period to utilize the books before being invoiced, retailers will be free to use the books in whatever manner suits their individual marketing needs, beginning May 2, 2020. We anticipate stores needing to be creative in how they hold events, perhaps having to distribute the books in new ways or to smaller groups of customers than the single big day you typically experience. To that end, we will be referring to the event as ‘Free Comic Book MAY’ and retailers can use their online Comic Shop Locator Service / FCBD profiles to update customers on their plans.”

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This is great move by Diamond in order to help avoid the large crowds that usually come with Free Comic Book Day. With social distancing and suggestions to stay at home as much as possible, comic book shop owners are already having the tough task of figuring out creative ways to make sure they keep customers picking up comic books.

With this incentive they can possibly keep people coming back all month as they will have free comic books along with whatever books they also want to pick up off the shelves. These tough times have required every industry to adapt to be able to keep bringing in revenue. Thus the change from Free Comic Book Day to Free Comic Book May.

Are you still supporting your local comic book shops? Let us know in the comment section below!

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Source: comicbook.com