Before he created Free Comic Book Day -- borrowing the idea from free scoops at ice cream parlors -- Field was the owner of the Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff, a California comic book store. (Saturday is the sixth annual comic book giveaway.)

His was one of the few stores to ride out the comic book crash of 1990s. As mythic and spectacular as the dot-com crash or the recent real-estate bubble burst, the comics crash cut the comic book market by more than half.

Long faces abounded. In the late 1990s, no one was interested in comics. They all liked awful bands bands like Third Eye Blind and The Presidents of the United States of America. They wore silly clothes we would all laugh at today.

Blame it on Superman. When the Man of Steel died in 1992, he almost took comic books with him.

Back then, in a worldwide marketing blitz, D.C. Comics announced it would off the caped crusader. Killing an icon as synonymous with America as "Top Gun" drove comic book speculators to stores, snapping up copies as if they were shares of Microsoft.

Then, faster than a speeding bullet, the bottom fell out.

Killing Superman (who didn't stay dead), putting out snazzy covers printed in foil, and producing an inordinate amount of No. 1 comics had turned comic books into commodities. But when buyers weren't seeing a return on their investments, national comic sales fell from about $850 million a year to $250 million. The number of comic stores fell from 11,000 to 3,000.

Publishers retreated and wised up. They started investing less in flash and more into stories and substance, says Drew Crum, a market analyst with Stifel Nicolaus that covers Marvel Entertainment.

"The perception is the quality of the talent and the creative side of the business has improved markedly [after the crash]," Crum says.

Comic books were getting better, but no one knew about it. There wasn't any excitement.

After seeing ice cream outfits like Baskin-Robbins and Ben & Jerry's give out scoops free, Field thought: "Comics have as many wonderful flavors as ice cream. It would be easy for us to borrow that kind of template and have the first taste for free."

He floated the idea to Diamond Comic Distributors, the nation's largest comic book distributor. Publishers partnered up to get the books out free.

The first Free Comic Book Day got a bump from the release of the first Spider-Man movie in 2002.

Now, five years later, the third Spider-Man movie will give a web up to this year's comic giveaway.

Last year, stores gave out almost 2 million comics.

This year there are 44 titles to choose from. Books range from elementary school Mickey Mouse, Archie and Peanuts titles, to tights-wearing superheroes, to gritty independent comics where they can say words that don't belong in family newspapers.

Now comics are even hip enough for famed writers from other media to jump in.

Brad Meltzer, novelist of "The Zero Game," has dipped his toe into comic writing and will pen one of the offerings at Free Comic Book Day. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon is continuing the eighth season of the cult hit via the colored paper and staple medium.

It's that kind of mix that is keeping Field excited about the future of the comics world.

"All the walls are down to keep away the creative people who want to have a crack at comics," Field says.