Only 72 Hours Left For Free Comics From Mile High Comics Howdy! The feeling this morning here at Mile High Comics is the calm before the storm. As has happened for the past several years in a row, we are experiencing a significant drop off in visitors to our retail stores, and even some diminishment in our online traffic, as this year's Free Comic Book Day draws nearer. If all goes as expected, this calm will be replaced on Saturday morning by an absolutely huge crushing wave of eager comics fans flocking to comics shops all around the world. Over 1,000 fans visited just our Jason St. Mega-Store on FCBD last year, and we are expecting double that number this year given that Jim Shooter and Chris Claremont signing autographs for us that day. Suffice it to say, we are awaiting Saturday morning with a mixture of excitement, and fear... For those of you who cannot regularly visit a comics store this phenomena may all seem a little hard to understand, as Free Comic Book Day is an event which is specifically directed toward building excitement (and hopefully new readers...) at brick-and-mortar comics stores. Since its modest inception a dozen years ago, FCBD has gradually evolved into now being the largest single comics event of the year. With 52 different special edition comics having been produced for the 2013 event by nearly that same number of comics publishers, this one day in the comics year has become THE showcase for new comics projects. The way this all works is that comics publishers produce special editions of their best upcoming comics titles for comics retailers to give away. As a group, all comics retailers have agreed that we will not release any of these comics until Saturday, and that we will give them away on that one day for no charge. That having been said, the original plan was that we would get these special edition comics from the publishers entirely for free, or at a nominal charge. But that has evolved over time to the point where we now pay a modest charge for the issues from the top publishers, but a much higher per issue charge for the special editions from the smaller publishers. As a result, many comics retailers now only carry the less expensive top ten titles, opting to not carry the smaller publisher titles at all. The net result of these changes is that many of the special edition comics from the smaller publishers are now being produced with very small print runs. That creates a situation where, if a title does eventually take off in the back issue market, the FCBD special edition can end up being almost as valuable as the actual #1 issue. This has proven to be exactly the case with the SIXTH GUN FCBD edition from 2008, which is now easily selling for over $100 per copy in online auctions. I sure wish that we had stashed some copies of that SIXTH GUN Free Comic Book Day edition when it first came out... Where I am heading with this is toward letting you know that this weekend is that last time that we will be giving away this year's 52 FCBD special editions. As of Monday morning, we will be sending out some beautiful color flyers with all of our packages, offering all of the 2012 and 2013 FCBD editions at prices ranging from $2.99 - $14.99 each. For the next three days, however, you can still request any one of the standard 52 special editions, or our Mile High Comics exclusive SUPERMAN: LAST SON OF KRYPTON edition, absolutely for free. Our only restriction on our free comics offer is that you limit yourself to one selection for each $10 in orders that you place with us. Just calculate the net total of your order from this weekend after our current 40% off FREECOMICS codeword is taken into account, and then request one FCBD edition for each $10 of your order in the "notes" section of our online order form. Those items will not be invoiced on your order, but will be included at absolutely no charge. Our final deadline for receiving your FCBD request at no charge is 10 AM, on Monday morning. I will close today's newsletter by mentioning, again, that our 40% off FREECOMICS codeword will also be ending on Monday morning. A new codeword will start at that time, but at least initially, it will not include our backlist trade paperbacks and hardbacks. Pam, Josh, and Will have added over 10,000 choice back issues for you into our New-In-Stock listing over the past four days, from a huge collection that I purchased in Virginia last month. An ultra-rare complete MIRACLEMAN set is included, as well as early issues of PREACHER, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN, DEADPOOL, BATMAN, and many more. All are still eligible for the 40% off FREECOMICS codeword discount. Only new comics and books published during the past six months are excluded from the codeword sale... Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. May 3, 2013 Here, for one last time, are covers from all 53 of this year's FCBD special editions: Free Comic Book Day May 4, 2013 2000 A.D. FCBD Absolution FCBD Action Time FCBD Anna & Froga FCBD Aphrodite IX FCBD Atomic Robo FCBD Bleeding Cool FCBD Bongo Comics FCBD Buck Rogers FCBD Chakra FCBD Mermaids FCBD DC Nation FCBD Disney Fairies FCBD Dragonball FCBD Endangered FCBD Fubar FCBD Grimm FCBD Hulk FCBD Infinity FCBD Judge Dredd FCBD Kaboom FCBD Kellerman FCBD Marble Season FCBD Mass Effect FCBD Molly Danger FCBD Mouse Guard FCBD Mr. Puzzle FCBD NFL Rush FCBD Overstreet's FCBD Prince Valiant FCBD Ramayan FCBD Rated Free FCBD Red Ten FCBD Scratch 9 FCBD Sesame Street FCBD Smurfs FCBD Sonic FCBD Spongebob FCBD Star Wars FCBD Oz FCBD Strangers FCBD Stuff/Legend FCBD Superman FCBD TMNT FCBD Tick FCBD Top Shelf FCBD Ugly Doll FCBD Valiant FCBD Valiant Masters FCBD Walking Dead FCBD World/Archie FCBD Worlds/Aspen FCBD 1) 2000 A.D. FCBD MAGAZINE (2013) #1 2) ABSOLUTION: THE BEGINNING FCBD (2013) #1 3) ACTION TIME BUDDIES FCBD (2013) #1 4) ANNA & FROGA/PIPPI FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 5) APHRODITE IX FCBD (2013) #1 6) ATOMIC ROBO/BODIE TROLL FCBD (2013) #1 7) BLEEDING COOL FCBD (2013) #1 8) BONGO COMICS FREE FOR ALL FCBD (2013) #1 9) BUCK ROGERS FCBD (2013) #1 10) CHAKRA THE INVINCIBLE FCBD (2013) #1 11) DAMSELS: MERMAIDS FCBD (2013) #0 12) DC NATION SUPER SAMPLER FCBD (2013) #1 13) DISNEY FAIRIES: TINKER BELL FCBD (2013) #1 14) DRAGONBALL/RUROUNI KENSHIN FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 15) ENDANGERED WEAPON B FCBD (2013) #1 16) FUBAR FCBD (2013) #1 17) GRIMM FCBD (2013) #0 18) HULK & THE AGENTS OF SMASH/AVENGERS ASSEMBLE FCBD (2013) #1 19) INFINITY FCBD (2013) #1 20) JUDGE DREDD CLASSICS FCBD (2013) #1 21) KABOOM SUMMER BLAST FCBD (2013) #1 22) KELLERMAN L'AMOUR FCBD (2013) #1 23) MARBLE SEASON FCBD (2013) #1 24) MASS EFFECT/RIPD/KILLJOYS FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 25) MOLLY DANGER FEATURING PRINCELESS FCBD (2013) #1 26) MOUSE GUARD/RUST FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 27) MR. PUZZLE FCBD (2013) #1 28) NFL RUSH ZONE FCBD (2013) #1 29) OVERSTREET'S COMIC BOOK MARKET PLACE FCBD (2013) #3 30) PRINCE VALIANT SPECIAL EDITION FCBD (2013) #1 31) RAMAYAN 3392AD FCBD (2013) #1 32) RATED FREE FOR EVERYONE FCBD (2013) #1 33) RED TEN FCBD (2013) #0 34) SCRATCH 9 FCBD (2013) #1 35) SESAME STREET/STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 36) SMURFS FCBD (2013) #1 37) SONIC THE HEDGEHOG/MEGA MAN FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 38) SPONGEBOB FREESTYLE FUNNIES FCBD (2013) #1 39) STAR WARS/AVATAR: LAST AIRBENDER FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 40) STEAM ENGINES OF OZ FCBD (2013) #1 41) STRANGERS FCBD (2013) #1 42) STUFF OF LEGEND/FINDING GOSSAMYR FLIPBOOK FCBD (2013) #1 43) SUPERMAN: LAST SON OF KRYPTON FCBD (2013) #1 44) SUPERMAN: LAST SON OF KRYPTON FCBD (2013) #1 MILE HIGH 45) TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES NEW ANIMATED FCBD (2013) #1 46) TICK FCBD (2013) #1 47) TOP SHELF KIDS CLUB FCBD (2013) #1 48) UGLY DOLL COMICS FCBD (2013) #1 49) VALIANT COMICS FCBD SPECIAL (2013) #1 50) VALIANT MASTERS SHOWCASE EDITION FCBD (2013) #1 51) WALKING DEAD SPECIAL FCBD (2013) #1 52) WORLD OF ARCHIE DIGEST FCBD (2013) #1 53) WORLDS OF ASPEN FCBD (2013) #1 Current Newsletter