It looks like we may have spoken too soon. Yesterday it was announced that Free Comic Book Day was becoming Free Comic Book MAY and would last throughout the month of May amidst concerns of the Coronavirus pandemic. Diamond Comic Distributors chairman and founder Steve Geppi has announced that Free Comic Book Day won’t be happening at all in May. The event has been postponed until sometime in the Summer.
The distributor planned to ship the FCBD 2020 titles throughout the month and delay billing until the first week of August. Here is Geppi’s announcement:
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. The severity and timing of that impact can’t be predicted with any certainty, but the safety of our retailers and fans is too important to risk. With that in mind, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the event to a date later in the Summer.
To minimize the impact on our primary distribution operations and prioritize 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 shipped.
We will follow up with more information soon regarding FCBD non-comic merchandise soon. We will also update our consumer-facing pages with this information and provide further information via email and Diamond Daily as it becomes available.
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!
Well, at least FCBD isn’t being canceled like some comic cons are this year. Here at DC Comics News, we’ll keep you updated on all of the latest comic book news concerning COVID-19 and beyond. Stay safe out there DC fans.
