Diamond Comic Distributors has announced this weekend in San Diego that Free Comic Book Day 2006 will take place on Saturday, May 6th, the second consecutive year the event will take place separate from the release of a comic book-based movie. Marketing will be in full swing for the summer slate of comic book-inspired movies, though, including Zoom’s Academy, scheduled for release the following weekend, May 12th; X3, May 23rd; and Superman Returns, June 30th.
It also won’t fall on Mother’s Day weekend again, a poor bit of scheduling that made it difficult for some fathers **ahem** to fully participate in the festivities.
Hopefully more publishers and retailers will fully embrace the event, offering a wider range of comic books to appeal to as diverse an audience as possible, and Diamond will step up to the plate with a stronger mainstream marketing platform to promote it. Doesn’t matter if they’re free if only the same ol’ customers know about them!
Check out my obscenely full coverage of Free Comic Book Day 2005 over at Buzzscope.
