Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Ad Populum, diamond, fcbd, free comic book day
Gossip: Sparkle Pop/Ad Populum plans to sell off the rights to Free Comic Book Day that they bought at auction.
Bleeding Cool gets the word that on the 21st of August, there was an internal meeting held between staffers at Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop and those at the Diamond Comics business division they acquired from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc, the debtor in the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy action. And it was about the future of Free Comic Book Day, an asset now owned by Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop.
An annual promotional effort by the direct comic book stores, often cross-promoted with the release of a superhero film, it was founded by comic book retailer Joe Field in 2001 and launched in 2002, coordinated by Diamond Comic Distributors. The Diamond Comics business division still owns the rights to the name, the event, the logo, and has been running it for decades. It remains the biggest promotional effort for the direct market of comic book stores, and big sales, huge store signings, cosplay events, and even conventions are often arranged around it.
But with so many comic book publishers having withdrawn from Diamond, how could it continue? This year and last saw Penguin Random House and Lunar Distribution participate separately from Diamond, but there are far fewer publishers being distributed by Diamond now. The meeting began with the Diamond Comics business division’s Marketing, Purchasing and Sales team members about the future of Free Comic Book Day, with discussions as to how they could run it again in May 2026 without Diamond having any comics to offer themselves. Ad Populum staffers were trying to get some understanding of how FCBD works, and on the Diamond side, there were discussions about timetables, as traditionally, Diamond’s production on FCBD would begin about now, with applications going out to publishers to participate, as well as discussions about exclusive merchandise with manufacturers for that day.
One proposal was that Diamond would give the retailer activist group ComicsPro a one-year free license to FCBD for 2026, they would operate it while Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop figured out what they wanted to do with it, going forward. However, by the first week of September, it emerged that Ad Populum is likely looking to sell the Free Comic Book Day IP, possibly to the purchasers of Alliance Gaming, Universal Distribution.
More, much more, to come.
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