Years ago I came up with the idea of handing out comics at Halloween. I was thinning out my collection and came across the great Gladstone Uncle Scrooges I read to my own three kids. They were older, avid readers, but not really interested in these comics, which were too beaten up for collectability. So, instead of giving the neighborhood kids nasty candy for Halloween I handed out comics.
The reaction was great and you can bet at the end of the night mine was the most talked about item in their bags. (As not to appear too altruistic to CAD readers, I did include a flyer for Comic Artists Direct in each comic bag.)
This year I was planning on searching the 50 cent bins at conventions for my Halloween treats but skipped all the summer conventions to work. So, like last year, I contacted Archie Comics, who supplied me with 200 comics, three to five copies each of Archie's various titles published this year, for half off the cover price. This includes shipping. Not as inexpensive as the 50 cent bins, but a darn good bargain for "new" comics.
You might be interested in the rules I have for choosing giveaway comics. They must be "all ages" so I don't have to dig through to find age appropriate material and possibly run out. I figure kids have enough of the spandex and violence crowd on TV today so I leave out the superhero stuff. And I don't give away anything I haven't read - in other words, don't just pull random from 50 cent bins. I've heard enough stories from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to put me on edge and the last thing I want to do is turn kids and parents AWAY from the hobby I enjoy.
So I challenge all CAD readers to join me in my "Comics, Not Candy" campaign. Chances are most of the little ones have never even read a comic book. Your giveaway comic could be the one that, years later, a kid will talk about as his "first comic."
It has been years since I wrote the above article, and I'm still handing out comics for Halloween. I'm up to 350 quantity. Titles I've given away in the past include: bargain bin Marvel's Greatest Comics (Stan Lee's Fantastic Four), bargain big Marvel Tales (Stan Lee's Spider-Man reprints), more Uncle Scrooge than I can count, and Top Shelf's Owly and Friends comics. There is much more satisfaction handing kids a comic than dropping a lump of sugar in their bags!