After deciding to make the comic book free for everyone, the marketing team for the movie worked fast and had internal meetings about the decision.
Realising that the decision would actually result in a better interest towards the movie, they went ahead with it.
The reception towards it was as expected — Overwhelmingly Positive.
No one disliked free things, especially a free comic that they could read at their leisure. So, the free comic spreaded fast among fans and even the audience that had no idea of the original novel and the hype around it back in the day.
It also did its work. A lot of people liked the comics. Although there were still people who didn't enjoy it, they couldn't complain as it was free.
The idea of making the hardcopies something that people could get in a fan event also worked extremely well with the collectors and people who were die hard fans of the original novel.
They all wanted to get their hands on it.