Diamond Comic Distributors has announced its list of 13 Gold Level sponsor contributors for Free Comic Book Day 2023, including Marvel Comics' previously announced Gold Level Free Comic Book Day 2023 titles FCBD Avengers/X-Men 2023 #1 and FCBD Amazing Spider-Man 2023 #1, and on November 17 it announced the 31 Silver Sponsor titles for a total of 44 titles that will be available in 2023.
Here's a full list of Silver Sponsor titles followed by a cover gallery:
- Ablaze: Animal Castle FCBD Edition
- Action Lab: Princeless
- American Mythology Productions: Tom Holland's Fright Night
- Arcana Comics: Kotto Kotorra
- Boom! Studios: Mech Cadets Fcbd Special
- Dark Horse Comics: Star Wars/ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Dial Books: Mexikid
- Dynamite Entertainment: Madballs vs Garbage Pail Kids
- Fantagraphics Books: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
- First Second Books: Investigators: All Tide Up
- Gemstone Publishing: The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comics
- Graphix: Baby-Sitters Little Sister: Karen's Haircut
- IDW Publishing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Image Comics: The Sacrificers #1 FCBD 2023 Preview Edition
- Kodansha Comics: Shaman King Flowers & Welcome To Demon School Iruma-Kun
- Lev Gleason Publications – Comichouse: Crimebuster Season 1 Issue 1
- Marvel Comics: Marvel Voices #1
- Marvel Comics: Spidey and His Amazing Friends #1
- Oni Press: Punch Up! Preview
- Opus Comics: Frazettaverse #0
- Papercutz: Smurfs 65th Anniversary FCBD Special
- Random House Children's Books: Sweet Valley Twins: Teacher's Pet
- Rebellion: 2000 Ad Regened Presents: The Best Comic Ever
- Ten Speed Press: I Am Stan
- Titan Comics: Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars
- Tokyopop: The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle For Pumpkin King #1
- Udon Entertainment: Street Fighter 6 #0
- Valiant Entertainment: Shadowman Dark Legacy FCBD Special
- Vault Comics: West of Sundown #1
- Viking Books: The Last Comics On Earth
- Viz Media: Animal Crossing/ Kirby Manga Mania
Along with the aforementioned Marvel, Diamond's Free Comic Book Day 2023 Gold Level Sponsors include Archie Comics, AfterShock Comics, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Graphix/Scholastic, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Kodansha Comics, Titan Comics, and Viz Media.
Of notable absence from the list of Gold Level Free Comic Book Day 2023 sponsors again is DC, who no longer distributes comics through Diamond and instead uses Lunar, a proprietary distributor with other non-DC clients as well. However, DC did offer FCBD titles in 2022, just not through Diamond.
Marvel no longer distributes through Diamond either. Its primary distributor is Penguin Random House, but Marvel is participating directly via Diamond as a Gold Sponsor for the second straight year since leaving Diamond.
Here's the full list of Gold Level Free Comic Book Day 2023 sponsors and the titles they're releasing to mark the occasion:
- Aftershock Comics - Seismic Stories
- Archie Comics - Archie Horror Presents: The Cursed Library
- Boom! Studios - Ranger Academy
- Dark Horse Comics - Umbrella Academy/ The Witcher
- Dynamite Entertainment - Red Sonja: She-Devil With A Sword #0
- Graphix/ Scholastic - Dog Man And The League Of Misfits
- Idw Publishing - Star Trek
- Image Comics - Fishflies #1 FCBD 2023 Preview Edition
- Kodansha Comics - All Ages Gold Sampler
- Marvel Comics - Amazing Spider-Man/ Venom
- Marvel Comics - Avengers/ X-Men
- Titan Comics - Conan The Barbarian FCBD 2023 Special
- Viz Media - Choujin X/ Rooster Fighter
Here's a gallery of the Gold Sponsor covers:
"This year's lineup of titles has something for every kind of comic fan," states Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson, in the announcement. "We're looking forward to another great year celebrating comic books and comic book shops, and we think this year's lineup gives fans a lot to be excited about!"
Diamond states that its full lineup of FCBD 2023 titles at all levels will be announced November 17.
Free Comic Book Day is an annual comic event first launched in 2002 by Joe Field, owner of the comic shop Flying Colors (of Concord, California). It's usually planned to coincide with the first major superhero film of the summer, which usually occurs the first weekend of May, and is almost always a Marvel Studios film. In 2023 it will be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The idea behind Free Comic Book Day is to get new and lapsed readers back into comic book shops to check out some of the best comics currently available.
Originally launched as a North American event, Free Comic Book Day has grown to be celebrated in comic shops across the globe - including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Asia, and Europe. To find out if there's a store near you participating, use this official comic shop locator for Free Comic Book Day.
As to how you get free comic books? There's the easy answer, then the hard answer.
The easy answer is that it's simple: You just show up to a comic store participating in Free Comic Book Day and get some of these free comics.
But the hard answer is that there are only so many copies of these Free Comic Book Day comics available. Although they're intended to be free for readers, there are costs involved in both creating and printing the comics for publishers and purchasing and shipping them for comic book shops. Supplies can sometimes be limited, so our advice is to get there early for the best selection.
Each individual store makes its own policy as to how to distribute them to visitors to their stores.
As to whether they become available digitally...
The intent of Free Comic Book Day is to encourage comic readership through comic book shops, so generally comic publishers don't make digital editions of the free comic books available. Some eventually do appear online through either the publisher's digital app, website, or a service like comiXology.
Let us help you find the comic shop that fits you.
