COMICS PORTAL: Local Comic Shop Day Shifts to Last Saturday in September

I’ve previously talked about Local Comic Shop Day here in this column, so when I saw the change coming to this yearly event, I had to bring it to everyone’s attention.

Local Comic Shop Day (LCSD) has a website devoted to this event here. They recently published a news release indicating a change from holding this event on a late Wednesday in November to the last Saturday in September, this year on September 28.

A paragraph in a news release there explains:

Local Comic Shop Day is permanently moving from the Winter Holiday Season to the last Saturday in September.  Additionally, the focus of the 2024 event, held on September 28th, will be rebranding and strengthening industry partnerships in lieu of offering variant covers.

Why the change? Marco Davanzo, executive director of ComicsPro, explains: “We are moving Local Comic Shop Day to the last Saturday in September for a few reasons. September is usually a slow month. The new date should help retailers increase sales by bringing the spotlight to local comic shops. By moving it to the Fall, we hope more publishers, retailers, and distributors can participate as it won’t overlap with an already busy end of year/winter holiday season and to stake out its own unique space on the calendar.”

Unlike previous years, no LCSD branded comics will be offered in 2024. This practice will return in 2025, however. “One of the goals of Local Comic Shop Day is to offer limited, and exclusive items. We don’t have enough time to source these for the 2024 event. But they will return in 2025. Specifically, we will be asking publishers to offer items that have low print runs, are released earlier or exclusively in the Direct Market, or are unique in some way.”

The focus of Local Comic Shop Day will be rebranding and strengthening industry ties. “The focus of Local Comic Shop Day 2024 will be to get a message out to the world that Comic Book Stores are unique entertainment destinations and that people should go in to visit their local store,” added Bowker. “We hope to encourage publishers, distributors, and creators to join us in a media push and also to help us increase visits to the stores in other ways.”

Registered Retailers will have the following benefits:

• Ability to order ComicsPRO variants
• Stores be listed on the #LCSD website
• Access to sales and deals from publishers and other vendors.
• Facebook ad push to registered store’s zip code.

Comics publishers, distributors, and creators that would like to help comic stores celebrate Local Comic Shop Day® can email marco@comicspro.org for more information.

Of course, this all begs the question: What is ComicsPRO? Again, the website provides the answer. “ComicsPRO is the comics’ industry’s trade organization dedicated to the progress of direct market comic book retailers. The goals of ComicsPRO are to help direct market retailers speak with a single, strong voice on important industry issues, to provide educational and mentoring opportunities to current and future retailers, and to offer opportunities for retailers to reduce fixed costs.” If you want more information about ComicsPRO, go to  www.comicspro.org.”

It’s kind of a Free Comic Book Day thing, something like the Halloween event that still has not taken off.

Let’s be real here—The comics industry wouldn’t be nearly as accessible as it currently is without local comic stores. If we had to go to local pharmacies or general book sellers, we wouldn’t get to enjoy this pastime as much as we can now.

Back in 2020, Filip Sablik from BOOM! Studios sent a message to local comic shops that included the following, “Community is what makes comic book stores special.”

And he’s still so right! When we go to local comic stores, we are often going to be with people who enjoy the same interest in comic books and related pop culture. Conversations often breaks out because we can share the latest news or our opinions about what’s going on in the industry.

I have met a great many friends during trips to my local comic store. If I see another customer looking into a comic I want to know more about, I ask that person what he or she thinks about it. Then if I see that person again when I return to the same store, we have a starting place to talk again.

Sablik also said something else I heartily agree with: “No other comic store can replace the experience of your comic store.” Each store has its own unique personality, and that includes the people who work there as well as the fans who shop there.

Another point Sablik made that I believe in is that comic shops are the “third place” for many fans.

We each have a home we live in. Then we often have a work environment we go to regularly. Those are the first and second places we inhabit.

A “third place” is where we go to share our loves and passions. Those locations can be coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, malls, clubs, and other organizations, libraries, churches, or community centers.

We need to escape the responsibility of daily life even for just a little while, to “be ourselves” at our most passionate. We want to talk about our favorite stories or characters, explore areas we have never been, find others who understand what motivates us.

For many of us, that “third place” is our local comic shop.

I make the weekly trek to the store I support because I want to stay current with the latest “stash,” as some people call it. What’s new? What do I need to read? What stories are now available that I can experience? What are my heroes doing? Also, what threats are they encountering that they need to overcome?

I think this is a good change for several reasons. First, Wednesday is no longer THE day for comics buyers to frequent local shops. Now, it’s all over the map, with people buying their books any day from Wednesday through Saturday. Some people wait to get paid (often on Friday) to go to the store, which I completely understand.

Also, Free Comic Book Day continues to sparkle on the first Saturday in May. Going to the last Saturday in November is an appropriate distance from that big weekend. What I don’t like about the timing is that it will now take place only a month before the Halloween ComicFest, which is held on the last Saturday in October. That may be too close for comfort!

The two big Autumn comics event days need to differentiate themselves from each other. Maybe Halloween ComicFest could focus more on the spooky, supernatural offerings and even costumes while Free Comic Book Day should be less specific, looking at a broad range of comics.

Hey, I wouldn’t mind a monthly comics event. I just worry that it might get old pretty quickly. I would also hate to see Halloween ComicFest fade away. Yes, it hasn’t caught on like Free Comic Book Day, but I think we could support both!

What do you think? Is moving Local Comic Book Day to late September a good idea? Will this take out Halloween ComicFest? Or can both events survive? Whatever your opinion, feel free to share it in the space below!

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