Is this Saturday May 3 the Last Free Comic Book Day? Possibly... but probably not
And also a tentative special Joe Casey signing on June 26; mark your calendars!
Drop by Fantastic Comics 1708A MLK Jr Way in Berkeley from Saturday 12-3PM or until supplies last because it is free comic book day
Free comics for the youths!
Free comics for the olds!
Free comics for all!
We’ve got bags on hand, but bringing your own is definitely appreciated.
(Speaking of cool bags, if you’re a biking enthusiast, May 15 is Bike to Work day and they typically give out very nice canvas bags at energizer stations in the mornings.)
And of course it’s not just Free Comics we’ve got on hand; we have books you can actually buy. Gizmo won’t be attending this year, but you can still support him by bringing cash because for the first time this year, it’s the return of our dollar book bins where gems await your digging.
You can also help Uel build his dream of a curated library by building yours with a tentative…
Buy 2 Trade Paperbacks, Get a (lowest priced of the) third Free scheme.
Why not just a straight discount that’s logistically easier to punch into our checkout system? Because we want you to get that third Dragonball volume you had your eye on! Take a chance on that book you always wanted to get by having it paid for by those books you absolutely have to get. Uel needs the space for something special to be explained in a future issue…
If you’d like to make a 1/4 or 1/8 marathon of the day, I recommend taking the Ohlone Greenway for a leisurely and scenic walk to our Friendly Neighborhood Comic Shop.
Speaking of which, we’ve never quite figured out what the limits of our neighborhood are. It makes sense that anything in comfortable walking distance is in our neighborhood, but some of our patrons can walk a long way!
Hurrah! But is this the last hurrah?
For those following the tumultuous industry news, you know that Diamond has given up the ghost and been locked in drama as to who will buy and possibly carry on operations, but in good news at least for this Free Comic Book Day, while they own the FCBD branding, they’ve been giving up the reins to competing distributors and made sure most of the books and orders got sent out before their operations got completely disrupted. We’ve gotten most of the books this year outside of Diamond, and expect to do the same next year.
So no, the industry is set up to keep Free Comic Book Day going, but in this topsy turvy world, anything can happen. As you might know a big chunk of comics printing comes from our friends from the Great White North, and there’s a lot of uncertainty about whether tariffs might make Free Comics a bit too expensive a proposition in coming years. 25¢ a comic is something we can happily eat as a retailer, but if that rises to 50¢, a dollar a book, then Free Comic Book Day starts to look not-so-free anymore. So live each Free Comic Book Day as if it were your last!
THE JOE CASEY SIGNING IS COMING JUNE 26-ish
We’ve got a signing coming up soon with Mr. Casey (tentatively June 26, 4-6PM — stay tuned to Uel’s YouTube show for updates) and if you’ve got a book you’d like signed and you can’t make the shindig, we’re also making a tentative cutoff of June 4 to order one. This is the first time Uel is handling something like this, and he doesn’t want to let on how nervous he might get, but I think it’s gonna go great. Get your Casey books lined up and probing questions index-carded and let’s make this a regular thing!