Saturday isn’t just going to be Free Comic Book Day this year. When Diamond screwed up and killed itself, Universal Distribution Network took over the event. However, the same exclusivity that gave Diamond near-absolute power in comic distribution is also what killed it when they ticked everybody off too many times, including the publishers after artificially extending the 2020 Plague rules so nobody could distribute comics even when stores could open up. At a time when comic stores were already getting hit that was very bad timing on their part. No exclusive contracts were renewed and many publishers took their business elsewhere entirely.
One of the places they went was Penguin Random House, usually known for publishing novels more than comics. Still, they have a comics division and this year they decided that, rather than work with Universal to push the Free Comic Book Day brand, to go their own way. Time will tell if that was a good idea or not. They’ve posted a list of what comics are being offered for their “Comic Giveaway Day”, happening the same day as Free Comic Book Day to the convenience of customers, but it’s not a very good listing. Unlike Free Comic Book Day, which sadly gave up the PDF samplers, the Comics Giveaway Day site is just a list of comics and covers for what they’re offering. No summary, no credits, just a list in an article. That’s kind of weak, really.
What’s worse is I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to get anything. According to their store map neither of the comic stores I can properly get to for my free comics is taking part. Their websites and Facebook pages just list Free Comic Book Day, so I may not be able to get any of these. That’s not a good start, and I know they get their comics from Penguin that aren’t available elsewhere. I’ll be asking both owners about that and I’ll let you know what they say. (I’m friends with both of them because they’re awesome. One’s a former DC editor and the other I’ve gone to for decades until I lost my income. The former editor used to work there before going to DC, getting tired of their nonsense, and coming back to open his own comic store.)
So this article is going to be a bit different. SInce there’s more guesswork involved as to what, if anything, I can get or will even want, we’ll just go over what I’d like to get, though I might have to explore digital options.
