Free Comic Book Day

It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

Free Comic Book Day, aka FCBD, is a wondrous event in which good little boys and girls all over the world get free comics! FREE! It is held on the first Saturday of May every year.

In celebrating FCBD, publishers will usually go with one of two options:

1. Create entirely new mini-comics that feature brand new stories that have not been, and will likely never be, available by other means. This can prove to be quite an expensive and time-consuming project to undertake, so usually limits the publisher to making only a handful of releases of this kind without affecting their regular business.
2. Reprint parts of stories from a few current comic lines in a bid to draw money attention to the series from which they originated. Since these stories are already written and drawn, this option is considerably cheaper than the first, allowing the publishers to make several books of this kind while sticking to the same budget and schedule.

It's swings and roundabouts, really.

Free Comic Book Day issues

2003

• Published by: Dreamwave Productions.
• Date: May 3rd, 2003.
• Cover: Reprint of a panel from Armada issue #3 by James Raiz, Rob Armstrong and Erik Sander.
  • Featured series: Armada
    • Story: Free Comic Book Day special

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• Armada

2006

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
• Date: May 6th, 2006.
• Cover A: Reprint of page 1 from The Gathering issue #2 by Don Figueroa.
• Cover B: Reprint of cover D from Infiltration issue #1 by Guido Guidi.
  • Featured series #1: Beast Wars: The Gathering
    • Story: Issue #1 (preview)
  • Featured series #2: Generation One
    • Story #1: Stormbringer issue #1 (preview)
    • Story #2: Infiltration issue #3 (preview)
  • Featured series #3: Evolutions: Hearts of Steel
    • Story: Issue #1 (preview)

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• Beast Wars: The Gathering
• Stormbringer #1
• Generations
• Infiltration
• Evolutions: Hearts of Steel #1

2007

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
• Date: May 5th, 2007.
• Cover: Reprint of the back half of the Movie Prequel issue #1 wraparound cover by Don Figueroa.
  • Featured series: Transformers: Official Movie Prequel
    • Story: Issue #1 (preview)

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2008

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
• Date: May 3rd, 2008.
• Cover: Reprint of the stock-art cover from Animated Volume 1, re-cropped to show more of the image.
  • Featured series: Transformers Animated
    • Story: Volume 1 (preview)

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• The Reign of Starscream
• Animated Volumes 1-4

2009

Stop steaming up my optics!

Yo us!

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
• Date: May 2nd, 2009.
• Cover A: Reprint of cover A from The Arrival issue #5 by Marcelo Matere.
• Cover B: Reprint of cover B from G.I. Joe #1 by Robert Atkins.
  • Featured series #1: Transformers Animated: The Arrival
    • Story: "Survival Skills"
  • Featured series #2: G.I. Joe
    • Story: "One Word"
  • Featured series #3: G.I. Joe: Origins
    • Story: "In and Out"

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• The Arrival TPB
• Animated Volumes 1–4
• Revenge of the Fallen
• Destiny, Alliance and Defiance
• Speed Racer: The Next Generation Volumes 1–3

Notes

• The online preview for this issue showed an image made up of equal parts of the Transformers Animated and G.I.Joe covers, divided diagonally.

2012

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
• Date: May 5, 2012.
• Cover A: A scarred Optimus Prime amongst important Marvel G1 events by Andrew Wildman.
  • Featured series: The Transformers: Regeneration One issue #80.5 by Simon Furman.
    • Story: "Counterpoint"

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• The Transformers Classics
• The Transformers Classics UK
• The Transformers: The IDW Collection
• IDW Transformers comics in general
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
• The Transformers: Robots in Disguise
• The Transformers: Autocracy (including three-page preview)
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation prequel
• IDW G.I. Joe comics

Notes

• ???

2014

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
  • Featured series: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe issue #0
    • Story: "The Golden Boys"

2015

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
  • Featured series #1: Transformers: Robots in Disguise #0
    • Story: "Fire, When Ready!"
  • Featured series #2: Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
    • Story: "FCBD Funnies"

2018

• Published by: IDW Publishing.
  • Featured series: Transformers: Unicron: The Darkest Hour #0
    • Story: ???

Other free Transformers comics

"Halloween Special Edition"

• Published by: Marvel Comics.
• Date: October 31st, 1993.
• Cover: Original art by Geoff Senior.
  • Featured series: Generation 2
    • Story: "Ghosts"

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External link

• FreeComicBookDay.com