Free stuff!

Ah, my good ol battle cry at conventions. It's lured many a sucke-*AHEM* customer over to my table at conventions and trade shows. The comic industry knows well the power of my battle cry, hence we get Free Comic Book Day. This event has been going on for years now. Companies issue books that are be given away free in an attempt to get new readers. I did not venture out last Saturday when the annual event went down, but I did ask Joey at Comic Kings how it went.

He didn't do it. Sure there were a few copies of DC's "Blackest Night" thingie on the table, but the only reason Joey got any of those was because he was told it had something to do with the next big DC event. (Note: it does, but if you didn't get a copy you're not missing anything important.) Joey had a Yu-Gi-Oh event going on the same day and that actually made money.

You might be saying, "well if he had done the Free Comic Book Day he could have gotten some new regular customers" and you'd be wrong. Joey has done this event before. He did it for three years combining it with sales and free pizza and stuff. The people who showed up for the event did not return until the next year for more free stuff. This event has yet to get Joey a single new customer. His Obama stunt did better, even though it cost him more money. He actually got a couple of new customers out of that.

Here's the dirty little secret, the comics are free to the customers, but not free to the stores. So, for all of you who got free stuff on Free Comic Book Day, I really hoped you thanked the guys who actually paid for the books and gave them to you.