What's the Deal with Free Comic Book Day 2023?

2023's premiere comic shop destination experience faces new challenges and opportunities for 2023.

Free Comic Book Day 2023 will fall on its traditional date, the first Saturday in May. For 2023, that means May 6. In previous years, comic shop owners would be ordering books a couple of months out, as is standard with initial orders and final order cutoff (FOC). But this year, the ordering date is WAY early. So early, in fact, that some retailers may miss it - or order down - or purposefully walk away.

FCBD ‘23 orders from retailers are due on 12/23/22 along with the December catalog initial orders at Diamond Comic Distributors. Final orders for Penguin Random House are due 01/16/2023. Lunar orders are due 3/5/23 (!). The official reasoning for the early ordering deadline from Diamond (the organizer of the event) is potential printing and shipping delays.

Regardless of the “why”, we’re stuck with it. So here’s the breakdown of titles and where to order them. We’ll be updating this list as we get more information.

Annotations Guide

* = Exclusive Original Material
† = Preview Material
® = Reprint Material

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Marvel Comics

Available from both Diamond and Penguin Random House

• Avengers / X-Men *†
  Includes a preview of Jonathan Hickman’s new Marvel project

• Marvel’s Voices *®

• Spider-man/Venom *

• Spidey & Friends *

DC Comics

Available from both Lunar and Universal Distribution. Lunar FOC is 3/5/2023. This is a totally acceptable timeframe IMHO.

• Dawn of DC †* (Sold in units of 25)

• Dawn of DC Foil Variant †* (Not Free - $9.99)

• Clark & Lex / Fann Club Batman Squad † (Sold in units of 25)

• Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story † (Sold in units of 25)

Diamond Gold Sponsors

Retailers must order 20 of each Gold title to be listed on the FCBD website.

• Aftershock/Seismic - Seismic Stories Special *
  Will this still happen since Aftershock has filed for bankruptcy? Probably.

• Archie Comics - Archive Horror Presents The Cursed Library *

• Boom! Studios - Ranger Academy †

• Dark Horse - Umbrella Academy / The Witcher Special *

• Dynamite - Red Sonya #0 *
  Plus 1:250, 1:500 and 1:1000 ratio variants

• Graphix - Dog Man & the League of Misfits ®

• IDW - Star Trek Special *

• Image - Fishflies *†
  New Jeff Lemire

• Kodansha - All Ages Gold Sampler †

• Marvel - Amazing Spiderman / Venom *

• Marvel - Avengers / X-men *

• Titan - Conan the Barbarian *

• Viz - Choujin X / Rooster Fighter †

Diamond Silver Sponsors

• Ablaze - Animal Castle Vol 2 #1 *†

• Action Lab - Princeless #1 (Controversy on this one) *

• American Mythology Productions - Fright Night ®†

• Arcana Studio - Kotto Kotorra #1 *

• Boom! - Mech Cadets ®

• Dark Horse - Star Wars The High Republic Adventures / Avatar the Last Airbender *

• Dial Books - Mexikid †

• Dynamite - Madballs vs. Garbage Pail Kids ®

• Fantagraphics - Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers †

• :01 First Second Books - Investigators All Tide Up †

• Gemstone - Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics *

• Graphix - Baby Sitter’s Little Sister: Karen’s Haircut †
  Confirmed not available via Scholastic direct

• IDW Publishing - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Special ®†

• Image Comics - The Sacrificers #1 †

• Kodansha - Shaman King Flowers & Welcome to Demon School †

• Lev Gleason / Comic House - Crimebuster Season #1 *

• Marvel Comics - Spidey and His Amazing Friends #1 *

• Marvel Comics - Voices #1 *®

• Oni Press - Punch Up #1 †

• Opus Comics - Frazettaverse #0 *

• Papercutz - Smurfs 65th Anniversary *

• Random House Graphic - Sweet Valley Twins: Teacher’s Pet †
  Yes - even though this is a Random House book, it does not seem to be available via PRH’s website.

• Rebellion - 2000 AD Regened Presents: The Best Comic Ever *

• Ten Speed Press - I Am Stan by Tom Scioli †

• Titan Comics - Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars *

• Tokyopop - Nightmare Before Christmas: Battle for Pumpkin King #1 †

• Udon Entertainment - Street Fighter 6 #0 *

• Valiant - Shadowman: Dark Legacy *

• Vault - West of Sundown ®

• Viking - The Last Comics on Earth ®

• Viz - Animal Crossing / Kirby Manga Mania ®†

So, what should you buy?

As a retailer, you know your store and your customers. For Neighborhood Comics, we’ll go strong on the Marvel titles and all-ages books across the board. Fishflies will do well at our shop. We’ll give out Voices and Spidey and His Amazing Friends all year long. I Am Stan will do well. That said, this will probably be the first year we don’t order everything. Reprint material isn’t very exciting. It’s also not a great idea to invest in properties that historically don’t convert into regular readers. We finally have enough data to know what works and what doesn’t for our clientele. While we may give away dozens of certain titles on FCBD, we know that won’t equal preorders on upcoming series.

We’re excited about Free Comic Book Day. It’s always a chance to get new converts into the store. The media loves it. We get to celebrate our fandom and business model. But it’s not the be-all end-all. Especially in 2023.