Free Comic Book Day 2026: What to expect from DC, Marvel, and more, and the whole Comics Giveaway Day wrinkle

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If there's not a Hallmark holiday card for Free Comic Book Day, there should be. 

For 24 years now, Free Comic Book Day has been a special day where fans can walk into almost any comic book store in the United States and Canada and walk out with free comics... and not stuff on discount, but the greatest hits and upcoming specials that the likes of Marvel, DC, and others want people to try out. It's not just any comic they have there, but over 40 specially-published free comics just for you. 

Free Comic Book Day was originally created by California comics retailer Joe Field, and in the 24 years since its debut, it has grown quickly, becoming a staple event on the comics calendar with over 2,000 comic stores in North America participating, giving out on average over five million comics each year.

If you want free comics in 2026, May 2 is the day for Free Comic Book Day and its new unofficial sister event, Comics Giveaway Day (more on that in a second). The key thing for you to know is on Saturday, May 2 you should call your friends, remind your family, and go to your local comic stores for a day of browsing your local comic store, spending some money, and walking out with armfuls of stuff to spend your day/weekend/month catching up on.

Comics Giveaway Day & Free Comic Book Day 2026 list

Here is a list of all the free comics coming on Saturday, May 2 for FCBD & CGD 2026:

• Alien, Predator & Planet of the Apes #1 (Marvel Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Amazing Spider-Man #1000 / Queen in Black #1 (Marvel Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Armageddon / X-Men #1 (Marvel Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Aquamanatee #1 Special Edition (DC Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Avatar The Last Airbender - Legends / Minecraft: Heart of Cobblestone (Dark Horse Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• AWA Sneak Preview (AWA Studios) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Blue Lock Full Color Selection & Dragon Circus (Kodansha Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Conan the Barbarian: Tides of the Tyrant King #0 (Titan Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• DC x Sonic #1 Special Edition (DC Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Disney Manga: Stich! Best Food Forever! (Tokyopop) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Dungeon Crawler Carl #0 (Vault Comics)
• Energon Universe 2026 Special (Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Flash Gordon #1 (Mad Cave Studios) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Future Is ****** Annual 2026 #1 (REKCAH Comics)
• Garfield (BOOM! Studios/Kaboom!) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Greatest American Hero (AMP Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Gunhoney Doubles Down #0 (Titan Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe / Dungeons & Dragons (Dark Horse Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Jem and the Holograms / My Little Pony Flipbook (BOOM! Studios/Kaboom!/BOOM! Box) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Journey Into The West (UDON Entertainment/Manga Classics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Keenspot Spotlight 2026 (Keenspot) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Keenspot Toybox 2026 (Keenspot) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Locke & Key #1 (IDW Publishing)
• Mega Man Showdown Special #1 (UDON Entertainment) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Mind Mgmt / Fort Psycho Special (Oni Press) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel Sampler (Ten Speed Graphic) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Minotaur The Cold Open (Ignition Press) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Inanna The Name She Lost #0 (Vault Comics)
• Pizza and Taco (Random House Childrens Books) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Power Rangers #0 (BOOM! Studios) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• School Bus Graveyard (Random House Childrens Books) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Something Is Killing the Children: Road to Slaughter (BOOM! Studios) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Sonic the Hedgehog #1 (IDW Publishing) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Spidey & His Amazing Friends #1 (Marvel Comics) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• Stitch #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Street Fighter Forever #0 (UDON Entertainment) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Supernatural #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) (Free Comic Book Day)
• Terrorbytes #1 (Mad Cave Studios) (Free Comic Book Day)
• The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, Volume 1 (Ten Speed Graphic) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• The Cimmerian: The Pool of the Black One (Ablaze) (Free Comic Book Day)
• The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade: The Graphic Novel Sampler (Penguin Young Readers) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• The Nice House on the Lake #1 (DC Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)
• The Whole Wide World of Mabel Mulligan: A Graphic Novel Sampler (Penguin Young Readers) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• WEBTOON Unscrolled Preview (Wattpad Webtoon Studios) (Comics Giveaway Day)
• World of Archie One-Shot (Archie Comics) (Free Comic Book Day)

What is Free Comic Book Day?

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual day where comic stores offer a selection of free comic books from major publishers such as DC, Marvel, BOOM! Studios, IDW Publishing, and more in an effort to bring fans inside to hopefully become new customers - or at least become more of a comic fan. It's more than just a transactional experience, as many comic stores host contests, costumed performers, comic creators, and more to make it like a miniature comic convention.

What do you get on Free Comic Book Day?

If you show up to a participating comic book store on Free Comic Book Day, you can expect to receive at least one free comic - but likely much more. Depending on how busy it is that day, you could walk away with 40+ free comics released on that FCBD. 

When is Free Comic Book Day?

Free Comic Book Day 2026 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 2. Typically, it takes place on the first Saturday of May every year, but make sure to check your local store's website and/or social media to make sure they are participating.

How does Free Comic Book Day work?

Good question. Free Comic Book Day works as a marketing event, where comic book publishers and your local comic book store pay money for the creation, printing, distribution, and marketing of an event to lure you in (respectfully, of course) with the idea of free comics. Think of it like your favorite restaurant having a special; they're not getting the special for free, but think the special is enticing enough to bring you in to not only order the special, but perhaps some other things as well.

How often is Free Comic Book Day?

Free Comic Book Day is held annually, usually on the first Saturday in May. On occasion there are other events where free comics are given out such as on Batman Day and Halloween, but see your store for details.

When did Free Comic Book Day start?

The first Free Comic Book Day took place pm Saturday, May 2, 2002 coinciding with Sony's original Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire. It was conceived by marketing veteran/comic book store owner Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics & Other stuff in Stockton, California. Field is a long-time comics fan, and worked for years in comics marketing for the likes of Stan Lee, WonderCon, and others. 

Field saw the impending rise of superhero films years before there was a thing such as Marvel Studios, and looked to capitalize on the intense interest in superheroes to bring people back to the source material (comics!) in a meaningful way. Field, who I would assume is a bit of an ice cream fan as well as a comics fan, saw a chance to replicate the success the ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins had with its Free Scoop Night, and to use free comics as an alluring proposition to get people down the rocky road (pun intended) to their local comic store.

In less than a year, Field had worked it out so Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Dark Horse each published a special reprint edition to be given away nationwide at local comic shops as part of Free Comic Book Day. It was a resounding success, leading to Joe Field giving the trademark and ownership of Free Comic Book Day to North America's primary comic book distributor, Diamond Comics, to handle each year as part of its usual distribution work.

What happened to Free Comic Book Day?

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to grow, North America's primary (and in most ways exclusive) distributor of comics to comic book stores, Diamond, announced it was shutting down for weeks, possibly months. That left in question the delivery of comic books, as well as all the money tied up in Diamond as the middleman between comic publishers and comic stores. This, just months before Free Comic Book Day, led to a chain of events that resulted in several comic book publishers breaking ties with Diamond to work with other distributors that could deliver during the pandemic era, and whom they could more reliably count on fiscally.

Fast-forward to early 2026, where we are now, and North American comic book distribution has gone from a near-monopoly into being a fractured marketplace following the bankruptcy of Diamond, with comic stores ordering from multiple distributors - one distributor for Marvel, another for DC, and so on and so on. In that radically changed market, ownership of Free Comic Book Day fell to a Canadian company, Universal Distribution, which bought some of Diamond's assets following a bankruptcy sale. Whereas in recent years comic publishers without deals with Free Comic Book Day's owners were allowed to participate to a limited degree, in 2026 one of the largest distributors, Penguin Random House, decided to break out on their own with another free comics giveaway day, succinctly called Comics Giveaway Day.

As of 2026, both Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Day are held on the same day and under the same terms for fans. That could change in future years.

What's the difference between Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Day?

As of 2026, for fans Free Comic Book Day 2026 and Comics Giveaway Day 2026 are synonymous, with virtually all comic book stores carrying titles from both. While the event logos will be different in some cases, FCBD and CGD in 2026 will have no discernable difference as they're both on the same day.

As for what happens in the future? That remains to be seen. 

For now, let's all look forward to free comics on Saturday, May 2, however you observe: Free Comic Book Day or Comics Giveaway Day.

Get ready for what's next with our list to upcoming comics and how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to all the free comics you can get with this year's Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Day.