Behind the Scenes at Free Comic Book Day

Newsarama has an article on Free Comic Book Day, everything from its history to what happens on the side of retailers:

While many readers believe the comics for FCBD are given to the shops for free, retailers actually have to pay for them, although at a greatly reduced cost.

For example, this year, the All-Star Superman #1 comic that is being offered for FCBD has a cost of $ .25. The FCBD edition of X-Men is $ .20, while Owly and Friends is $ .37. (For comparison purposes, the normal retailer cost of a regular comic book averages around $1.50.) Retailers also pay freight on their FCBD shipments, just as they do with all their comics shipments from Diamond, so the materials they hand out are not free. And when you consider many shops hand out thousands of comics on FCBD, even comics that only cost them a quarter can add up.