We have no Free Comic Book Day on the first Saturday of May this year, due to obvious reasons. However, with comic stores on lockdown, the appeal of getting comics, especially free ones, is on the up. Which is why a few distributors, publishers and creators are willing to oblige. The hashtag #meetthewebcomic is promoting all sorts of people's webcomics, some old, some new, some borrowed and definitely some blue. Though you may need their Patreon for that last type. You may find that Comilla Paddock has all hers on millionfish. Kay Rossbach has the Ingress Adventuring Company. Varethane has Chirault. Hundreds and hundreds to discover, going back decades in some cases.

The two big free comic book apps are Webtoon and Graphite. The former has a lot of original content from big names and newbies and a tendency towards manga and manhwa, the latter is best for previously published and more familiar work, including the first 38 issues of The Boys, but both deserve a place on your device of choice

ComiXology and spinoff publisher apps have a tonne of free comics to download, around a thousand, including first issues from most Dynamite comic books stretching back decades. Lots of Image, Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse, IDW, Boom and more too. You can only download 150 of them at a time though, so it will need some management. Si Spurrier and Boom Studios are giving away the first three issues of a number of his series for them, Six Gun Gorilla #1-3, Godshaper #1-3 and Weavers #1-3. Valiant also have some free PDFs including Quantum & Woody Vol 1,

Marvel Unlimited is offering free access to its site until May 4th, allowing fans digital access to multiple titles and classic runs. Among the titles available are the events Avengers vs. X-Men and Civil War, and classic collected runs such as X-Men Milestones: Dark Phoenix Saga, Avengers: Kree-Skrull War and Captain America: Winter Soldier Ultimate. Recent runs are included too, such as Amazing Spider-Man: Red Goblin, Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Avengers: The Final Host by Jason Aaron, Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted, Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More, Fantastic Four: Fourever, and Thanos Wins by Donny Cates. To get the comics, a reader needs to select "Free Comics" on the Marvel Unlimited page through its app. No payment, trial or subscription is needed.

Small press curated publisher Shortbox has a number of titles offered up for free right now, including Beneath the Dead Oak Tree by Emily Carroll, A Long Distance by Jean Wei, Stoke by Sam Wade, What Are You Thinking About? by Anatola Howard, Food Baby by Lucie Bryon and Your Mother's Fox by Niv Sekar. Britain's best-selling comic book Viz Comic is giving away three free issues, a first issue here, issue 253 from March 2016, and a third mystery issue.

Bryan Talbot has made a bunch of his free comics available in CBR and PDF format, including work written by Alan Moore, Doeg Moench and Neil Gaiman. Or just dive into issue 3 of Mirenda by Grim Wilkins. Erik Palicki is making collections of his work available free in PDF including Red Dragon, Oubliette, Orphans and No Angel. Jim Zub has Skullkickers and Wayward, Matthew Rosenberg has We Can Never Go Home and you can read the first chapter of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman: Last Knight On Earth right here too.