Free Comic Book Day is here again! This year’s celebration of our national comic book store holiday will take place May 6, 2023 and last all day long. From when we open at 10 AM until we close at 9 PM, you’ll have an opportunity to partake of up to four tables full of a bounty of free comics. We’ll also be hosting local comic creators signing copies of their works and for the first time this year a trivia contest too! 

Free Comic Book Day 2023

If you’re wondering what Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is, or how it works, wonder no more! Every year publishers from across the comics industry put together short and fun comics that they make available to us, your friendly local comic shops, at a pretty low price. We buy bunches of these books and turn around and give them away for free on FCBD.

Our goal?

Spread the word and joy that comics are for EVERYONE! Want a horror comic? We’ll have a couple! Romance more your angle? We’ve got you covered. There’s comics for adults, kids, teens, and readers of all genders, orientations, and persuasions.

What kind of comics will be out on FCBD? Well here’s a wide assortment of them!

This list isn’t comprehensive, but it does show the majority of the books coming out. And of course, Marvel and DC will each have their own books making appearances. We’ll also have a small amount of last year’s FCBD books out on the tables, just in case you missed them in 2022.

Restrictions and Accomodations During FCBD 2023

Not to take away from anyone’s good time, but there are a couple of things we want to make folks aware of during FCBD. We’re setting aside part of our day to make the store more accommodating for the immunocompromised, and we’ll also have some restrictions on how many comics folks can partake of for part of the day.

Accommodations for the Immunocompromised

In order to make FCBD truly open for everyone, we are going to require masking in-store for the first 2 hours of the day (10 AM - Noon). After 12 PM, masks will be optional for folks browsing and shopping at the store. 

Free Comic Limits

Because we want to make sure these books last the whole of the day, we often put restrictions on how many free comics folks can take at the very start of the day. We anticipate these restrictions lasting until the end of our creator signing window this year (about 4 PM), at which point you’ll be able to have your fill of whatever’s left. All we ask is that you only take what you want to read, and that you enjoy yourself!

Alright - not fun stuff done! Back to the fun stuff with information on our storewide sale!

FCBD Storewide Sale

In addition to being an awesome day to get free comics, FCBD is also our birthday. This being our 10th Anniversary, we’re opting to let you roll your own discount.

3D6 Percent Off Everything in the store!

Yup, you read that right. Every year we offer folks a chance to roll up a bonus discount on whatever they buy. So when you reach the counter, you can roll three 6-sided dice. You'll get that discount on whatever you're picking up that day!

And just to make sure there are no bad-feels from low-rolls, we have the following guaranteed discounts on product based on how much you're picking up:

•   5% minimum off purchases of $50 or more
• 10% minimum off purchases of $100 or more
• 15% minimum off purchases $150 or more
• 18% off purchases of $250 or more

Fine Print Here: Certain items, like sealed magic / pokemon boxes, are already discounted and can't be further discounted. Those items still count towards your purchases for a percentage discount though! Discounts are capped at 18% off, including subscription discounts.

Creator Signings

We’ve got four wonderful creators lined up for you this year! Creator signing hours this year will run from 12 PM - 4 PM. That said, not all of our creators may not be able to stay for the full four hours, so if there is someone on this list that you want to see, definitely plan to come early!

Crystal Frasier

Crystal Frasier is a girl from small-town Florida who now has twenty years’ experience writing for comics, fiction, and games. She has contributed to major brands like Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as small-press projects and anthologies, but she got her start self-publishing transgender-focused webcomics. Today Crystal is the proud mama of two energetic corgis, Calamity and Adamant. Her most recent work, Cheer Up: For Love and Pom-Poms, is an absolutely fantastic high school romance comic.

Zack Davisson

Writer, editor, lecturer, and translator, Zack has contributed to the comics world  with his translation work on series like Show: a History of Japan, and Shigeru Mizuki's Kitaro series! More recently, Zack's been doing some real good work for Marvel as a part of the Demon Days series!

Ellen Fourney

Quick Note: Ellen will be joining us from 1 - 2:30 PM

Ellen Forney is an author, artist, speaker, and mental health coach. Her work includes the New York Times bestselling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, the story of her diagnosis and struggle with bipolar disorder, and its companion book, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, a mental health guide and the basis for her coaching. For both books, Ellen was awarded the Media Partner Award from the Washington National Alliance for Mental Illness. As a visual artist, she also created two permanent large-scale porcelain enamel murals for Sound Transit’s Capitol Hill light rail station in Seattle.

Craig Hurd-McKenney

Craig is a Xeric award winning queer author and comics creator from Seattle known for his work published via Headless Shakespeare Press. His works include The Brontes: Infernal Angria, Some Strange Disturbances, and The Magic If to name just a few.If you’re a fan of queer victorian horror, Craig’s work is absolutely for you!

Colleen Frakes

Colleen is a born and raised Washingtonian who loves drawing zines! Her comics include the Xeric award winning Tragic Relief series, Ignatz award winning Woman King, and a brand new book - Prison Island among many others. Her most recent work recounts growing up on a literal island prison as the child of one of the guards at the facility.

We’ll have copies of books on-hand for each of these creators, but if you want to bring your own copy, there’s no charge for the signing!

Trivia Time!

Starting at 4 PM and running til about 7 PM, subscriber and friend of the store Ryan Guevara will be hosting a Comic Book trivia contest! We’ll have 3 rounds of trivia with prizes for each and difficulties ranging from beginner / all ages to expert!

Prizes for our trivia night include (among other things):

• A Separations Page from Marvel’s the Infinity Gauntlet comic
• The Umbrella Academy: Dallas trade signed by artist Gabriel Ba!
• Gift certificates to Phoenix!
• And a lot more!

You won’t want to miss this fun way to wind down your FCBD experience!

And that’s what’s happening at Phoenix for Free Comic Book Day 2023! We hope you’ve already saved the date (May 6th) and are making plans to come join us for some or all of it! Remember, if you want to make the rounds and support all your friendly local comic shops, there’s a super nice comic locator service up on FCBD’s website (https://www.freecomicbookday.com/StoreLocator ) that can help! And please, don’t forget to support your FLCS. We all appreciate it!