FCBM2 Wrap-up

It's been over a week since Free Comic Book Month 2 finally wrapped-up, and once again I'd have to label it a success. Sixty-two people entered, and this year I was able to send free comics to every person from whom I received an entry! Of course, I had to take an extra 11 days to do it, but I don't think there were very many complaints. I gave away a total of 150 free comics this time.

Looking at the site statistics, May was my biggest month traffic-wise in a year--since the last FCBM in May 2005. Part of that it turns out was from people looking for the Aquaman trailer, since I posted a link to it at one point and once it got pulled Google searches were leading people to me instead. (But then last year during May I got a huge boost from one of my posts getting linked to by a popular library blog.)

Last year there were several times when I matched people up with comics they had already read; this year that only happened once, and the person who I inadvertantly duplicated had only received the comic from another source two days prior. I heard back from most people that they enjoyed the free comic(s) they got, so I guess I was going a pretty good job on matching new comics with readers.

A couple of people sent me comics back in return, which while appreciated and a nice guesture was not necessary. (One of the reasons I'm giving away comics is because I have too damn many of them!) The knowledge that you've enjoyed the comics is thanks enough. If you really want to thank me, come back in December and contribute when I do my fund drive for the CBLDF (or heck, go and donate now!)

The most interesting part of FCBM--for me, anyway--is seeing which comics people list as their five choices for comics they enjoy. Like last year, I've broken down the numbers and here are the most popular comics:

9 people: Runaways
8 people: Ex Machina; Fables; Planetary; She-Hulk; Y, the Last Man
7 people: All Star Superman; Love & Rockets
6 people: The Goon
5 people: Legion of Super-Heroes
4 people: Astro City; Bone; Invincible; Sandman; Scott Pilgrim; Seven Soldiers; Starman; The Walking Dead
3 people: Astonishing X-Men; Birds of Prey; Cerebus; Daredevil; Hellboy; The Invisibles; New Avengers; Nextwave; Rocketo; Strangers in Paradise; Top Ten; Transmetropolitan; Ultimates; X-Factor
2 people: 100 Bullets; Animal Man; The Authority; Bacchus; Batman; Blankets; Captain America; DC The New Frontier; DMZ; Exiles; Fell; Finder; From Hell; Girls; Hard Times; Iron Man; Jonah Hex; Lucifer; Promethea; Queen & Country; Savage Dragon; Spider-Man; Superman; True Story Swear to God; Usagi Yojimbo

Plus many more titles mentioned by just one entrant--too many to list!

Of course it's impossible to draw any sort of conclusion from these statistics, but it does make for an interesting list (There appear to be a lot of Brian K. Vaughn fans who entered!)

Thanks to everybody who entered. It was fun matching up people with comics! I'll probably have another contest of some sort around the time of my second Blogiversary (in August), and come back again in May 2007 as I'll hopefully have Free Comic Book Month 3!