Freedom Is Free Again: Comixology Ready To Deliver On Marvel’s SXSW Free Comics Offer

Once upon a time in a magical land known as Austin, during a festival known as South By Southwest where the peasants celebrate the coming of spring by paying nine bucks a beer to their corporate betters, the benevolent kings of Marvel Comics announced that they would bestow a boon upon the common folk: 700 classic and new tales of knights and heroes, delivered instantly into their homes, notebooks and even their pockets, all thanks to the magic of their House Wizards at Comixology, known far and wide as the most proficient magicians in the delivery of these tales (or at least amongst the last ones standing).

But alas, no sooner did the Day of Giving arrive than the secret magicks of the Wizards of Comics Delivery failed, leaving hundreds without their promised boon, and some wondering just what in the hell they had been paying the magicians for in the first place.

Which is a long and stupid way to go to say that, about a month after Comixology was forced, due to server load, to suspend Marvel’s offer of a few days of free comics, they have told those who emailed them to say that yes: they wanted the free comics, fer Christ’s sake, that they will soon see their patience rewarded.

To our customers:

ComiXology is pleased to announce the return of Marvel #1, a unique opportunity for fans to experience all of their favorite Marvel Super Heroes – and some new ones – by accessing over 700 #1 issues for free.

Head on over here and sign up to get in on the action before Marvel #1 registration ends at 11:59pm ET on April 9th, 2013.

Once you register for the promotion, you will be added to the Marvel #1 exclusive access list. When the promotion is open to you, you will receive an email with your personal instructions on when and how to get these free issues.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to check out our FAQ, Twitter account @comiXology or find us on Facebook and Google+. You’ll always find the most up-to-date information on comiXology there.

Happy reading!

David Steinberger CEO and co-founder comiXology

So thanks to the power of magic (and server load balancing, and probably a few new virtual machines in a cloud server farm somewhere), your free comics will soon be in your hands (digitally speaking, of course: I think we’ve established that, regardless of the price, when it comes to Comixology, you don’t ever really own anything)… just make sure that, if you haven’t already, you go and sign up for the giveaway before tomorrow at midnight.

Which I will be doing. While I do have issues with the ownership issues surrounding comics you can’t back up and download to your own machinery, the ability to read this many new and classic first issues, even on a potentially temporary basis, is worth the chance that comics that are gonna go the way of Lycos, Pets.com and, well, turning every news story about a giveaway into a stupid fake fantasy story about magicians.