SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joe Field has a lot of thoughts about Free Comic Book Day turning 25 years old in 2026. Yet, one word sums up his feeling perhaps better than any other:

“Gratitude!” says Field, the founder and originator of Free Comic Book Day, which was first held in 2002. “So much goes into making Free Comic Book Day a success — from comics retailers, publishers and distributors all contributing, to hundreds of thousands of eager shop visitors attending, new to comics and longtime fans the world over.

“I’m just so grateful my idea from 25 years ago continues blossoming into this happy event every spring.”

Free Comic Book Day is celebrated on the first Saturday in May. So, expect big crowds to turn out to celebrate the 25th annual event — and scoop up free comic books — at shops around the Bay Area and well beyond on May 2.

“Free Comic Book Day is the world’s largest comics-related event,” Field says. “It’s like having a Comic-Con at 2,000 places all at once.”

The event delivers exactly what is promised. You show up at a comic book store that is participating in Free Comic Book Day — which, judging the popularity of the event, is close to all of them — and you get a free comic book.

No, you don’t get any comic you want for free. So, forget those thoughts of taking home “The Incredible Hulk” No. 181 (first full-issue appearance of Wolverine) for gratis. (But we are seeing a mint copy of that book on eBay for $175K if you have a little extra pocket money available.)

The comic books to be given out for free on May 2 were printed specially for the event. Fans can check out this year’s offerings — as well as find participating stores and other information — by visiting freecomicbookday.com.

Field came up with the idea for Free Comic Book Day back in 2001 while working at his old Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff location on Treat Boulevard in Concord. (The store has since moved to 1170 Concord Ave., Suite 140, in the same city. See flyingcolorscomics.com for more information.)

The task at hand, on what proved to be a very fateful day in 2001, was trying to come up with a topic for the column Field was writing for a trade publication.

“I was on deadline, and I didn’t have anything,” Field explained in an earlier interview. “I looked out the window and saw a line in front of our store, and they weren’t coming in here, so I had to go see what it was. It turned out it was free scoop night at Baskin-Robbins.”

The big line of people waiting for ice cream not only provided Field with a column idea, but it also provided him with the creative spark that would eventually change the course of comic book history forever.

Quickly deciding that “the only thing cooler than ice cream is comics,” Field used his column to propose and outline the concept of a day when stores would give out free comics. His fellow comic book store owners were interested, and the first event was held in 2002 on, fittingly, May the 4th (aka, what’s now widely known as Star Wars Day).

It was a hit right from the very start, drawing support from hundreds of stores around North America, and has continued to pick up steam and grow in popularity ever since. It’s not only a day that is celebrated among the regular comic book cohorts — ones who can likely detail the differences between all the different Marvel comics that have used the letter “X” in their titles over the years — but also one that draws the yet-uninitiated to the fold.

Some of the latter may only stick around for a day, while others will become inspired by what’s possibly their first foray into the comic book world and then end up sticking around for the other 364 days on the calendar.

That’s the true greatness of Free Comic Book Day, which now nurtures and expands upon the culture in which it was born.

“If Free Comic Book Day was merely a sales promotion, no way would it have made it to a 25th anniversary,” Field says. “The reality is Free Comic Book Day is it’s a pop cultural event, celebrated all around the world.”

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