Free Comic Book Day, the comic book industry’s largest annual promotional event, is traditionally scheduled to take place the first Saturday in May each year. However, the impact and spread of COVID-19 prevented the event from being celebrated at its normal time this year. Now, the beloved event has been rescheduled and reworked to take place throughout July and early September to accommodate social distancing and store capacity regulations across the country, effectively making it Free Comic Book Summer.

Scheduled to take place from July 15 to September 9, 2020, comic shops will receive five to six Free Comic Book Day titles in their weekly shipments during each week of the promotional window. Release of these titles may vary from shop to shop, as retailers are encouraged to release the books as they see fit for their unique circumstances. Retailers may release one free title a day, may make all of that week’s free titles available at once, or any other plan that works for them. Free Comic Book Summer is designed to be flexible and customizable so retailers and fans can get the most out the event.

The first round of comics available as of July 15 are Power Rangers: Ranger Slayers (BOOM!), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), X-Men (Marvel), Captain Canuck Beyond and Captain Battle (Chapterhouse), Asterix (Papercutz), and The Weirn Books (Yen Press).  

A full list of free comics that’ll be released throughout Free Comic Book Summer is available at freecomicbookday.com.