Comics retailer Marc Hammond, of Aw Yeah Comics in New York, reflects on the chaos — and comfort — of the annual event, coming Saturday…
Aw Yeah Comics, Harrison, N.Y.
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UPDATED 4/30/25. This piece first ran just after 2024’s Free Comic Book Day, but it’s a wonderful rumination on why the event is so special, making it the perfect time to reprint it. Also: Click here to check out our FCBD 2025 HOT PICKS! Dig it! — Dan.
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By MARC HAMMOND
I could type out 10 different posts about this year’s Free Comic Book Day, or really just about the yearly event in general. Now that I have been able to throttle back a bit, and the shop is all put back to normal, maybe I can string a few coherent thoughts together.
I, like many retailers, have a weird love/hate relationship with FCBD. It is time intensive, a massive allocation of every resource you have, and (for me, anyway) dominates my brain for weeks leading up to it. I can never sleep the night before, and I get here as early as the first train heading to Harrison, New York, allows. I am exhausted by the time I get home, and I know the following few days will be blur of catching up on the necessary routine of ordering, restocking, social media, live sale planning, and a hundred other things done regularly.
Aw Yeah on FCBD
However, it’s all worth it. I’m not talking about the sales numbers, though we’ll do a deep dive into that in the coming week, too. It’s a confirmation of the importance of comics, of our place in the community, and the community of comics we have fostered in this place. It’s a family walking in for the first time, or better yet the second! It’s people rearranging their work schedules to be with us on that day. It’s the opportunity to take a comic we love and put it in the hands of someone we hope will read it and fall in love with it the way we did. That’s the part I love.
Marc Hammond
For a few days, my feed on Facebook will be filled with recap posts, and photos, and other shop owners like myself thanking their crews and their guests. It’s kind of amazing.
To my partners, to our crew, to our guests, and to everyone who came out to support this little shop with the funny name, thank you won’t ever be enough but it’s a start.
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MORE
— HOT PICKS — FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 Edition. Click here.
— HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week! Click here.
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Marc Hammond runs the Harrison, New York, location of Aw Yeah Comics, a string of shops led by cartoonist/writers Art Baltazar and Franco, Archie Comics editor-in-chief Mike Pellerito, our old pal Christy Blanch, Marc, as well as others. This column was adapted from a Facebook post.
May 8, 2024
I love FCBD, not for the free comics, but for the dollar back issues, cheap graphic novels, cheap toys, and just seeing so many people at my LCSs excited about comics. It makes me excited again.
The actual FCBD comics? They absolutely cement my opinion that modern comic books are not worth the price. $4-$5 for a six minute reading experience… absolutely not worth it. Plus, most of the Marvel/DC output wastes the opportunity pushing their 78-issue summer crossover… they are absolutely unreadable, and I’ve been reading comics for 50 years. The kids’ comics are the only beacon of hope.
May 9, 2024
It seems like most of the free comics produced for the event are just advertising for their ongoing series and don’t actually contain a complete story. I’d rather just be able to get an issue from the dollar boxes for free.
April 30, 2025
Free Comic Book Day should be “speed dating for publishers.” It’s a VERY quick opportunity for a company to get a completely new reader on board. You’re in, you have their attention, you either keep them or lose them. It’s that simple.
I’ve been doing FCBD since 2002 and haven’t missed a single one. After 23 years, I’d say the best books have been a very clean, complete story with some form of convincing you to keep coming back. My absolute favorites? They’re defunct now, but Bongo Comics’ annual Simpsons (and later Spongebob) stories. They were mostly anthologies, but gave a good spread of the characters and were hilarious. Makes me nostalgic for when Bongo was still around–those were easy comics to grab for my kid when she was little, and she’d devour them on long car rides.
The absolute worst I can remember was a promo book for Legendary comics which was really text-heavy advertising for future books. Very little “comic” about them.
I’d say Marvel and DC’s offerings have been weak for a long time now. The split format (e.g., Spider-Man/Fantastic Four) leaves you half of a preview for an upcoming storyline rather than a compact sampler that feels complete but invites more.
April 30, 2025
I’ll be signing at Aw, Yeah for FCBD this Saturday (2025)! It’d be great to see some 13th Dimensioners there.
April 30, 2025
Marc is a true professional– so happy to have crossed paths in the past— and hopefully, the future! Have a great FCBD!