…and I pronounce Free Comic Book Day a success.
See what I did there? You were thinking it was some political thing, and I turned it to.. oh, well. You get it.
Reviews are good, exposure was good, and I had a great time. Aside from the Captains' game getting rained out and pushing their FCBD giveaway to the next day, as well as my traditional FCBD driving ticket (I so did not see that red light), everything went well. The first Saturday in May is becoming one of the highlights of my year. Now, let's answer some questions. Well, one, at least. From Craig Reade over at Comixtreme.com:
"Clearly it [Love and Capes #7] is a critical moment in the overall series, so much of one that I am honestly surprised they are giving it away for free."
Okay, that's not a question, per se, but it begs a question or two: Why a full issue when so many people do samplers or reprints? And why this issue, so important to the story?
The answer? Two things that don't often go together. Money and integrity.
Being a small publisher, I have to pay to print every book I do, including the Free Comic Book Day version. Now, if I do it right and sell enough copies (since comic shops do pay for them at a greatly reduced cost… read Vaneta Rogers fantastic article about it here) and sell enough ads, I can break even or so. But there are never any guarantees.
So I figure, I only get so many swings. Might as well make all of them count. If I'm going to take the financial risk of doing a book, I might as well do a full book.
As far as why this story, that one's easier: Because the story's the story. This is the story that followed the one I just told back in November. I'm not going to change the story just because it's Free Comic Book Day. Yeah, the release of Spider-Man 3 and the tie-in helped inspire issue #4, but that was being set up back in issue #2 as well. Issue #7 was always the pro... you know, I'm not going to spoil it, but if you've read it, you know what it is… so it didn't change. And deep down, I really want you to read the story. If that means giving away a sixth of it, I'm okay with that.
Besides, I think FCBD should be about full issues. If you want to get people hooked, you might as well show them exactly what they'll be getting. And to me, that's 22-24 pages of new entertainment.
Issue #7 will be released with an alternate cover available for order in Previews right now. When I'm printing an issue, it doesn't take much to do a new cover as long as the insides remain the same. John Gallagher was the one who pointed that out to me, for which I'll always be thankful. I think it's better for your readership to give away something for free and then offer it for purchase to those who missed it rather than the reverse, where I give away something that I charged them for last month.