Here's the press information I've received. For a comprehensive list, go to the FCBD 2023 website.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: AVENGERS/X-MEN #1 [GOLD TITLE]
Written By Gerry Duggan & Jonathan Hickman | Art By Joshua Cassara, Javier Garrón & Valerio Schiti | Cover By Javier Garrón
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: AVENGERS/X-MEN #1 features a pair of all-new stories that set the stage for the next evolution in mutant adventures, FALL OF X! First, X-Men masterminds Gerry Duggan and Joshua Cassara give fans a peek at the drama to come at this year’s Hellfire Gala and reveal the surprising fate of Captain Krakoa. Then, superstar artist Javier Garrón joins Duggan for a story that features the rise of Stark Sentinels and lays the groundwork for an uncanny new team book launching later this year. Plus meet Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti at the crossroads of science and magic with a sneak peek at their upcoming mystery project!
Stark Industries is pursuing a new venture—the extermination of mutants!
New mutant-hunting sentinels upgraded with Stark technology will emerge and make their first moves against mutantkind in the pages of Gerry Duggan and Juan Frigeri’s current run of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN! Last week’s debut issue saw Tony Stark hitting rock bottom after losing everything—including his own company. Feilong, the mutant-hating industrialist from Duggan’s X-MEN, is now in control of Stark Unlimited’s incredible resources and plans to use them in Orchis’ vicious war against mutants. In the months ahead, this will cause the trajectory of Iron Man’s super hero career to change radically and in the process, he’ll evolve into one of mutantkind’s staunchest allies. The X-Men will need his genius intellect more than ever as Krakoa braces itself for THE FALL OF X! The upcoming story arc is set to upend mutantkind’s current status quo, and INVINCIBLE IRON MAN will play a key role…
Fans can witness the impending might of the STARK SENTINELS in this year’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: AVENGERS/X-MEN #1 on May 6. In the meantime, check out Juan Frigeri’s design sheet below and stay tuned for more new about INVINCIBILE IRON MAN! For more information, visit Marvel.com.
Stark Sentinel Design by Juan Frigeri
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: SPIDER-MAN/VENOM #1 [GOLD TITLE]
Written By Zeb Wells, Al Ewing & More
Art By Patrick Gleason, Cafu & More
Cover By Patrick Gleason
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: SPIDER-MAN/VENOM #1 will web-sling readers into the exciting developments currently taking place in the world of Amazing Spider-Man and Venom! First, see Zeb Wells and Patrick Gleason unleash the full fury of Peter Parker’s new spidey suit and reveal the exciting plans for one of Spider-Man’s fiercest foes. Then witness a symbiote experiment gone horribly wrong and the creation of a terrifying new enemy for Venom in a story by writer Al Ewing and new Venom artist CAFU. Plus a surprising preview of new Marvel saga just on the horizon by two of Marvel’s top creators!
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: MARVEL’S VOICES #1 [SILVER TITLE]
Written By John Jennings, Nyla Innuksuk, Sabir Pirzada, Alyssa Wong & Cody Ziglar
Art By Paris Alleyne, Natasha Donovan, Eric Koda, Stephen Byrne, Diógenes Neves & Eder Messias
Cover By Chris Allen
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: MARVEL’S VOICES #1 invites readers to the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed Marvel's Voices series, which spotlights creators and characters across Marvel’s diverse and ever-evolving universe. The book will include a range of stories from previous Marvel’s Voices issues that star Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, Wave, and more! Plus a brand-new Ironheart adventure by writer John Jennings and Paris Alleyne that debuts her deadly new nemesis, KHEM!
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: SPIDEY & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS #1 [SILVER TITLE]
And last but certainly not least, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023: SPIDEY & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS #1 is back! Swing into adventure with Spidey, Ghost-Spider, and Miles as they face off against Green Goblin, Doc Ock and more in this spectacular special. Filled with easy-to-read comic stories based on the hit Disney Junior show, this book is perfect for the youngest readers aged 5-7. Young fans will even be able to test their wall-crawling skills with thrilling interactive activity pages! Kids will love this not-to-be-missed comic: the perfect primer for the newest generation of Spider-Fans!
DARK HORSE COMICS ANNOUNCES FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2023 SILVER ISSUE
Featuring new stories from “Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender”
Dark Horse Comics is pleased to announce their Free Comic Book Day Silver offering: Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures/Avatar: The Last Airbender, arriving May 6, 2023 at participating comic shops.
Get set for adventure with a new tale from the farthest reaches of a galaxy far, far away; and a new story from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender!
In Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, the galaxy-wide conflict between the Jedi Order and the dangerous marauders known as the Nihil intensifies, and a shuttle full of younglings gets caught in the crossfire. This lost tale set during the fall of Starlight is written by New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older and is illustrated by Harvey Tolibao, who also provided the cover art for this issue. Colors are by Michelle Madsen and letters provided by Comicraft’s Tyler Smith and Jimmy Betancourt.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and his friends come across a village decimated by the Fire Nation. One survivor—a young child named Luumi—refuses to open up to anyone except fellow Earth Kingdom native, Toph. This comic is written by Amy Chu, with art by Kelly and Nichole Matthews, and is lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt.
Free Comic Book Day 2023 takes place on May 6, 2023. Check with your local comic shop to see if they are participating!
IDW To Debut Its First-Ever Star Trek Comic Book Crossover Event With Star Trek: Prelude to Day of Blood
The Introductory Precursor Issue Merges IDW’s Ongoing Flagship Series with Star Trek: Defiant in a Harrowing Five-Issue Journey
In the first major expansion of IDW’s bold new Star Trek comic book initiative, which began with the publication of Star Trek #400 in September 2022 and the launch of an ambitious new flagship series, Star Trek #1, in October, IDW is proud to announce the upcoming crossover event Star Trek: Day of Blood. This new arc will debut on May 6, 2023 with the short introductory interlude Prelude to Day of Blood, to be included in IDW’s Star Trek: Day of Blood Free Comic Book Day special.
Prelude prefigures the formal kickoff of a sweeping new Trek crossover in July that will continue throughout other Star Trek comic book series, including IDW’s ongoing flagship Trek series and the recently announced Star Trek: Defiant series, launching in March. Prelude to Day of Blood will be co-written by veteran Trek comic creators Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Christopher Cantwell with art by Mike Feehan.
In Prelude to Day of Blood, the U.S.S. Santa Cruz travels to the Korvat colony for Kot’baval. But what was supposed to be a simple observation of the sacred Klingon festival quickly turns into a bloodbath when the cult of the godkiller reveals themselves to the universe.
“I’ve been nothing short of ecstatic to be a part of this new, larger Star Trek initiative at IDW,” says Cantwell. “There were moments in our writers’ room with Jackson and Collin where I couldn’t believe we were really doing this—not just telling one Star Trek story but weaving together multiple Trek stories at the same time, with plotlines from Star Trek and Star Trek: Defiant converging. We threw all our boldest ideas and best character pairings into a story of pure chaos, starship battles, and real epic dramatic resonance you can only achieve in the scope of comics.”
“It’s time for Benjamin Sisko to face the past,” says Lanzing, “and for readers to finally get a look at the true fallout of the Dominion War. Deep Space Nine is the inspiration for this entire line, so it feels only right that the crew of the U.S.S. Theseus come back to where it all started.”
“As lifelong Star Trek fans, Jack and I have been dreaming of this kind of thing since we can remember. This is the kind of event you could only do in comics, with enormous stakes and two starship crews colliding in the middle of a truly deadly crisis. This is our season finale, and it all begins in Free Comic Book Day’s Prelude to Day of Blood.”
“Star Trek: Day of Blood is what this last year of comic book planning has been all about,” says senior editor Heather Antos. “It all leads to this moment. Was Sisko the correct choice of the Prophets? Will Worf’s Klingon honor serve him well? Or will the two remain in the crossfires of the godkiller? Jackson, Collin, and Chris are asking some of the biggest questions we’ve ever seen in Star Trek comics, and it’s time to answer them in the franchise’s first-ever classic summer crossover event.”
Star Trek: Prelude to Day of Blood will be available as a Free Comic Book Day exclusive on May 6, 2023 and will feature cover art by Malachi Ward.
Following the May FCBD one-shot, the full Star Trek: Day of Blood arc will include the following issues:
Star Trek: Day of Blood #1 (July 2023)
Star Trek: Defiant #6 (August 2023)
Star Trek #11 (August 2023)
Star Trek: Defiant #7 (September 2023)
Star Trek #12 (September 2023)
Replies
I seem to recall that last FCBD, all the DC offerings were just chapter 1 of TPBs or "epics" - no complete stories. That's kinda cheating to me (although I DID get my money's worth...)
I picked up:
Dawn of DC: Knight Terrors
Spidey and His Amazing Friends
Uncanny Avengers
We Are Legends
We had plans to attend FCBD with a friend of ours and her nephew but they fell through. On Wednesday I will pick through the leftovers.
Here's a short video of the event in my neighbourhood. I felt a little like I'd entered my novel, The Con, since the local SF group and the Jane Austen Society also met. If you don't blink, you'll see my wife and I reading for JASNA in costume, mixed in with far more interesting matter:
Incidentally: the woman who announces Free Comic Book Day! with her husband and kids at the start is Tanya Candler, the original bassist for the briefly-famous/notorious Canadian band Kittie. She now runs a "Rocker Mom" podcast, occasionally rocks out, and remains a generally cool person-about-town. A local (Eric Olcsvary) and a once-local (Lynette Richards) graphic novelist appear, along with multiple incarnations of Spider-man, and... Well, it's in the vid, and I'll have a blog post later this week.