Silver sponsors announced for Free Comic Book Day event

As comicbook fans around the world already know, May 7, 2011, will be the 10th straight year, that funnybook fans get to celebrate Free Comic Book Day. So, if you are a fan of this uniquely American art form , you should locate and travel to your local comicbook shop and avail yourself of one of the over 30 expected free comics that are being made available to fans on this “fan appreciation day” from dozens of publishers. Yes, you did read that correctly, on Saturday, May 7, 2011, comic book shops around the world will give away comics absolutely free to their patrons (check with local shops for their participation and rules).

Back in December, the Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) Committee announced the top 10 Gold sponsors for the day, well; recently, the Committee released the Silver Sponsors for the event. There are 27 comics that are part of the Sliver level as well as one HeroClix toy that will be available to shops to be distributed on that day, the Silver sponsors include Archie, Marvel and DC (which are also Gold level sponsors), as well as numerous returning publishers, (Aspen, Bluewater, Bongo, Boom!, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Gem, Image/Top Cow, Oni, Radical, and more).

The comics range from books targeted specially to kids, all-ages books, as well as comics aimed for older readers. All of the comics are intended for general audiences with no “adult” comics in the mix. While many of the comics are designed as “samplers” that offer up portions of stories from up-coming comics offered by the publishers, others are reprints of previously-issued material, while still others contain all-new material, specifically created for FCBD (making them highly sought-after collectible items).

Free Comic Book Day was designed by industry insiders as a way to promote comics not only to their own aficionados of their own industry (that is to say people already reading comics, just not “theirs”), but as a form of an outreach to people who don’t (or used to) read comics. In fact, it is the stated goal of the organization to reach out to those individuals who might be unfamiliar with either the comic book specialty market, or comic book shops. It is for this reason that every year the individuals and companies behind Free Comic Book Day launch a massive promotional campaign heralding the event and spreading the gospel of comics to potential readers everywhere.

As stated, in addition to the nearly 40 comics that will be made available on Saturday, May 7, 2011, there will be at least one HeroClix character (DC Heroclix: Green Lantern Figure) that is being made available. (HeroClix is a role-playing collectible miniatures game — originally designed and produced by WizKids and now owned by NECA — where players construct teams of comic book heroes and villains to play out battles between the teams in turn-by-turn plays on a grid-style map.)

As followers of this blog already know, we are huge fans of this day (hey it is Our Birthday, Christmas, Chanukah, The 4^th of July, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one). Personally, we know that we are going to be at the Third Annual Bronx Hero Convention meeting and greeting our fans, So if you are in that area, then feel free to stop by and say “Hey.”

In the mean time, we’ll just have to prepare, and wait. Enjoy Efendi!