Christmas for nerds is here! It’s Free Comic Book Day! But what will you get if you venture out? Read below to find out.

FCBD was started back in 2002 to help promote and bring people in to buy comic books. It’s run by a panel of representatives of the comic book industry which includes retailers, suppliers, publishers and of course Diamond Comic Distributors. Thousands of comic book shops in the U.S., Canada and around the world participate; and yes in case you didn’t know, the comics are 100% free. There is no need to buy any others or any merchandise if you don’t want to (although I’m sure your local comic book store would appreciate it if you can). There is always a wide variety of comics to choose from and many are exclusives for this day. 2016 is no different.

This year we have issues from the iconic Archie, Bob’s Burgers, a Bongo Free-for-all with the Simpsons on the cover, Boom! studios Summer Blast, Camp Midnight, ROM, Valiant 4001 A.D., Pokemon, 2000 A.D., Attack on Titan Anthology Preview, Awake, Help the CDLBF…Defend Comics, Z2 Comics Lab, Con Man’s Spectrum, an all ages sampler from Dark Horse, Dark Lily and Friends, Love and Rockets, Dream Jumper, Grumpy Cat (and Pokey!), Junior Braves of the Apocalypse, March Trilogy, Devils Due, Mooncop, Oddly Normal, Overstreet’s Comic Book Marketplace, Pink Panther, Sanjay and Craig, Science Comics, a Sonic sampler, Spongebob Freestyle Funnies, Strawberry Shortcake, Street Fighter V, The Stuff of Legend, One Man Punch, We Can Never Go Home and Worlds of Aspen.

That isn’t the entirety of the free comic books, but more the ones given by smaller publishers. Today is a great day for studios that aren’t as well known to get their name out there. I highly recommend checking them out as not just DC and Marvel can put out great comics. You can also see that many of these comics are child friendly, so make sure to bring the little ones with you!

So are Marvel and DC and other big comic book publishers giving out free comics too? Absolutely. Some are from well known names of today and others old favorites. These are The Tick Special, Stan Lee’s The Unknowns, The Phantom: 80th Anniversary, Lady Mechanika, Grant Morrison’s Avatarex: Destroyer of Darkness, DC Super Hero Girls, Captain America, Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises, Assassin’s Creed, Suicide Squad, Doctor Who: Four Doctors Special, a Serenity/Hellboy/Aliens comic from Dark Horse and an Avengers comic.

So will your local comic book store have all of these comics? Possibly. It largely depends on how many they think they can giveaway and how many people show up. So try to get there as soon as possible! But you might also ask how do I know if my comic book store is even participating? Good question and I have an answer for that. Just go to freecomicbookday.com and look it up! Follow the link to add your zip code and it will do all the work of looking it up for you.

Often times comic book stores make an entire day of it and may have other activities planned such as costume contests, food, games and more! So definitely check it out and let us know what you think of all the free loot you get from today.