HEY KIDS! FREE COMICS! (Free Comic Book Day 2005 Talkback)

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

It's a day early, but this is the talkback thread for Free Comic Book Day 2005 (http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Default.asp). Post yer reviews of your free books (http://www.freecomicbookday.com/sponsors.asp) and/or anecdotes of your Friendly Neighborhood Comic Shop FCBD hijinks here.

-- Ed/Ace

[Fone Bone]

I can't wait to pick up Uncle Scrooge in Only a Poor Old Man. I LOVE that story and I look forward to having it in comic book format. I think Free Comic Book Day is the greatest idea ever and I am ALWAYS pleased with Gemstone's Disney offerings.

Cark Barks>Everyone!:D

[Bubblegum Girl]

I can't wait! I missed my chance last time because I didn't know how to get to the comic book store. :sweat: I just hope the comic book store I'm gonna too will have the free comics.:sweat::sad:

[Antiyonder]

The comic store I'm going to is having a sale to celebrate their new location opening. The comics on the top row 20% off. The bottom row, are going to be $0.50.

I'll be picking up free comics for my friends as well.

[HellCat]

I might actually get to take part this year. Kind of a shame the Star Wars comic isn't availble to us here in the UK. I'll probably try and get a copy of the Keenspot comic.
I feel kinda bad for my local comic shop- I usually only browse and the last time I did business with them was to sell something. So showing up for freebies would make me feel kinda guilty...I want to support them since this is the third comic shop in the town by my count (the two before it closed for mostly finanicial reasons) but I don't really have the money, plus they mostly stock overpriced goth items such as Living Dead dolls.

[Chad Bonin]

If you're in Georgia, don't forget Comic Books ETC. will have both writer Paul Jenkins (Wolverine: The End, Origin, Spectacular Spider-Man, etc.) and artist Tony Harris (Starman, Ex Machina), and potentially a few other talent throughout the day.

... and if you come by, give the nice looking stud handing out free comics a high five.

[HellCat]

After sorting other things, I managed to go. Wish I'd gone early, by the time I got there the free stuff was stripped. There was one Keenspot issue (dated 2002) but before I could do it a greedy brat who was snapping up everything snagged it. No one was touching the Archie comic with a 10ft pole. What I managed to get:

Impact University (nice brief little guide to comic drawing)
Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge (decided to pick it up based on the positive things I've heard from folks here about the old Disney stuff)
Bongo Comics Gimme Gimme Giveaway!
The Batman Strikes (...don't kill me)
Roninhood of the Samurai
Wizard's Top 100 Trade Paperbacks Of All Time
Marvel Adventures
Ultimate Spider-Man #1
Star Wars (different from what the US one seems to be, the UK gets a Clone Wars story with Anakin and Obi-Wan 4 months before ROTS)

My guilt kinda kicked in, so I decided to pick up two random comics from their 10p offerings: DareDevil-Lowlife:1 of 5 (not too bad) and Hulk-Hide in Plain Sight:Part 1.

[New Noise]

Comics for free!?

[Hatter]

God, I love Free Comic Book Day.
My local shop had theirs outdoor, everything in the store 50% off, back issues 4 for $1, tons of RPG books, magazines, action figures, and cards on sale, even had a barbeque and free cake.

[Bubblegum Girl]

I think I took advantage of the free comics. I've got the following:

NBM Free Sampler
Top Shelf Tales
Slave Labor Stories
Justice League Adventures #1
Teen Titans Go! #1
Presenting THE Adhouse Books FREE
Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things
Astonish Comics
Amelia Rules! #0
Johnny Raygun
Owly
Impact University
Arcana Studio Presents Issue 2
Flight
Comic Festival
Superior Showcase
Marvel Adventures
Buzzboy
Sharknife/Hysteria
Wizard Top 100
Bongo Comics Gimme Gimme Giveaway!
Runners Remastered #1
Stars Wars
Love Fights/Everest Facing the Goddess
Keenspot Spotlight 2005
House of M Sketchbook(It wasn't part of Free Comic Book Day but it was still free http://e.deviantart.com/emoticons/w/winkrazz.gif )

[Sigma]

You guys all came away with a lot. My comic store would only allow everyone 3 comics each. I thought it meant that we could only take up to 3 of each book, but nope just limited to 3.

I got the Marvel Adventures (im a sucker for anything with Spidey in it), Star Wars, and Roninhood of the Samurai.

I also picked up the first trade back for Astonishing X-Men, but that wasn't free. :D

[Bubblegum Girl]

You guys all came away with a lot. My comic store would only allow everyone 3 comics each. I thought it meant that we could only take up to 3 of each book, but nope just limited to 3.
That's sad. The comic book store i went to had plenty of books to go around. They had so much, they even had leftovers from last year which i was able to get. :D

[HellCat]

That's sad. The comic book store i went to had plenty of books to go around. They had so much, they even had leftovers from last year which i was able to get. :D
Most of the titles had gone by the time I got there, but any backlog stuff I saw seemed to be from 2002 (the Keenspot issue and Ultimate Spidey).

Question for the US guys- what's the plot of the Star Wars comic? For us, it's Obi-Wan and Anakin trying to get to Dooku's apparent fortress through a forest and finding it to be a trap.

[Bubblegum Girl]

Question for the US guys- what's the plot of the Star Wars comic? For us, it's Obi-Wan and Anakin trying to get to Dooku's apparent fortress through a forest and finding it to be a trap.
I think so.

[HellCat]

I think so.
...But they....it said.....bwa! *head explodes*

[Spider-Man]

I had a good haul this year. The books I got today include:

Wizard Top 100 Tradepaperback
Marvel Adventures
Impact University
Star Wars
Bong Comics Gimme Gimme Giveaway

Those were the regular individual comics plus I got alot of free and cheap back issues. I picked up alot of old Fantastic Four stuff, Incredible Hulk, Punisher, Batman, and some alternative stuff I almost never read from the back issue bins.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention I picked up a free copy of The Batman Strikes and Teen Titans Go! and I'm going to comment in their talkback threads over on the DC Board.

[Antiyonder]

Free Comic Book Day:

Archie #2
Betty & Veronica #1
Bngo Comic Gimmie Gimmie Give Away
Flight Primer
Johnny Raygun
The Fantagraphics Funny Book
The Batman Strikes #1
Marvel Adventures
Keenspot Spotlighting 2005
Wizard Top 10 Trade Paperbacks
Buzzboy
Uncle Scrooge
Image Comics Summer Special
Bones Sharps, Cowboys And Thunder Lizards

Here's what I got from the sale:

20%-
Batman 10 Cent Adventure
The Spectacular Spider-Man #242-247

50 cent comics-
The Human Torch #5 (Golden Age Reprint)
All Winners Comic #19 (Reprint)
Ms Marvel #2-10
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #4 & 6-7
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #1-2
Superman Adventures #36
Batman And Robin Adventures #3 & 10
Marvel Holiday Special 1996

[Fone Bone]

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge (decided to pick it up based on the positive things I've heard from folks here about the old Disney stuff)
.Good call. I REALLY hope you are a Gemstone Disney Comics convert. I LOVED it. Only a Poor Old Man in a beautiful comic book edition with beautiful colors. Perfect.

I also picked up The Batman Strikes #1 and a few Marvel and Star Wars comics. We were allowed to take six at my store so I picked up TWO Uncle Scrooge's. As long as Gemstone is doing these awesome giveaways this will remain the BEST DAY EVER!:)

[Swonker]

I went to my local comic shop and picked up about 12 free comics. I'd name them, but you guys have pretty much posted them already. You know, it's been a long time since I read a comic, but thanks to these free comics, I think I might start buying them again.:D

[AdamYJ]

Ah, Free Comic Book Day! It's so nice that we comic geeks finally have a holiday of our own. Hopefully it'll catch on better in future years. People still look at me funny when I pass them on the street and wish them "Happy Free Comic Book Day!".

At my store, there were cookies and trivia questions and two women dressed up as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (Last year it was She-Hulk and Catwoman. The costumes were better this year, but I still think they need to rethink their character choices). I answered the trivia questions correctly, so I got to take five comics instead of three. I mainly got indy stuff because I already read a lot of Marvel and DC. I got:

Tellos (turns out I already had this one in a TPB)
Attack of the Super Monsters
Flare
Helios
Arcana Studio Presents

I'm betting most aren't very good, but what the heck. They're free!

Happy Free Comic Book Day, everyone!

[Shnay]

This was the first "Free Comic Book Day" I attended, and I came away quite satisfied. The comic shop that's closest to me is a small, quiet one, based in a mall, so they didn't have too much fanfare about it (plus, I think I went during non-peak hours, and missed some of the crowds). There wasn't any big "Free Books!" display, so I sorta looked around and found a few things with the free comic book day logo at the bottom. I read about some of the books being featured before going in, and only one of them really caught my eye. That book was Flight, and I'm happy to say I was able to find a copy of the primer.

I first heard about Flight when I heard that Kazu Kibuishi of the wonderful Copper (http://www.boltcity.com/copper_home.htm) and Derek Kirk Kim of Lowbright (http://www.lowbright.com/) (a site that would be equally wonderful if only it would update), would be contributing stories. Flight was described as a collection of comics from a wide variety of artists with the theme of flight as a loose unifier, which sounded like an excellent idea to me.

The primer contains Kibuishi's contribuition entitled "Maiden Voyage," and an entry from Jake Parker called "Robot and the Sparrow." I had already read "Maiden Voyage" on Kibuishi's site, and really enjoyed it. I thought the colorful artwork had a great dream-like quality to it that gives the whole comic a fun, magical atmosphere. The story is a simple one, and the writing isn't all that sharp (though there are some nice back and forths between Copper and his dog Fred), but it still works for this short comic. It's nothing terribly memorable, but it is a fun story with some very nice art that I enjoyed reading.

I had never heard of Jake Parker, so I didn't really know what to expect with "Robot and the Sparrow." This comic really surpised me, and after reading it (and then re-reading it) I went to go find more of Parker's work. The story here is also a simple one, but unlike "Maiden Voyage" which reads more like a short cartoon, "Robot and Sparrow" reads like a fairy tale of sorts, and uses simplistic writing to great effect. I also really liked the art in this one, as Parker does an excellent job of capturing a childlike sense of wonder and curiosity in the Robot. The colors are really interesting, as well. Like the writing, the art isn't extremely complex or technical, but Parker expresses so much with such a minimal approach that he accomplishes something really great.

I also picked up Wizard's Top 100 Trade Paperbacks of All Time. As I've mentioned here before, I'm just now getting into comics, and I think this will provide me with a good idea of where to start looking. Pretty soon I'll have read four out of their top ten, so I'm off to a good start.:) Furthermore, this should provide me with a bit of history on some of the famous books that I often hear mentioned, but know little about.

Those were the only two books I picked up, as I didn't really know the etiquette in regards to how many books one is supposed to take; I suspect that varies from store to store. There wasn't too much that caught my eye outside of Flight, though, so I'm satisfied that I got that and something more. A good day indeed.

[Anthonynotes]

This was the first "Free Comic Book Day" I attended, and I came away quite satisfied. The comic shop that's closest to me is a small, quiet one, based in a mall, so they didn't have too much fanfare about it (plus, I think I went during non-peak hours, and missed some of the crowds). There wasn't any big "Free Books!" display, so I sorta looked around and found a few things with the free comic book day logo at the bottom. I read about some of the books being featured before going in, and only one of them really caught my eye. That book was Flight, and I'm happy to say I was able to find a copy of the primer.

I first heard about Flight when I heard that Kazu Kibuishi of the wonderful Copper (http://www.boltcity.com/copper_home.htm) and Derek Kirk Kim of Lowbright (http://www.lowbright.com/) (a site that would be equally wonderful if only it would update), would be contributing stories. Flight was described as a collection of comics from a wide variety of artists with the theme of flight as a loose unifier, which sounded like an excellent idea to me.

The primer contains Kibuishi's contribuition entitled "Maiden Voyage," and an entry from Jake Parker called "Robot and the Sparrow." I had already read "Maiden Voyage" on Kibuishi's site, and really enjoyed it. I thought the colorful artwork had a great dream-like quality to it that gives the whole comic a fun, magical atmosphere. The story is a simple one, and the writing isn't all that sharp (though there are some nice back and forths between Copper and his dog Fred), but it still works for this short comic. It's nothing terribly memorable, but it is a fun story with some very nice art that I enjoyed reading.

I had never heard of Jake Parker, so I didn't really know what to expect with "Robot and the Sparrow." This comic really surpised me, and after reading it (and then re-reading it) I went to go find more of Parker's work. The story here is also a simple one, but unlike "Maiden Voyage" which reads more like a short cartoon, "Robot and Sparrow" reads like a fairy tale of sorts, and uses simplistic writing to great effect. I also really liked the art in this one, as Parker does an excellent job of capturing a childlike sense of wonder and curiosity in the Robot. The colors are really interesting, as well. Like the writing, the art isn't extremely complex or technical, but Parker expresses so much with such a minimal approach that he accomplishes something really great.

I also picked up Wizard's Top 100 Trade Paperbacks of All Time. As I've mentioned here before, I'm just now getting into comics, and I think this will provide me with a good idea of where to start looking. Pretty soon I'll have read four out of their top ten, so I'm off to a good start.:) Furthermore, this should provide me with a bit of history on some of the famous books that I often hear mentioned, but know little about.

Those were the only two books I picked up, as I didn't really know the etiquette in regards to how many books one is supposed to take; I suspect that varies from store to store. There wasn't too much that caught my eye outside of Flight, though, so I'm satisfied that I got that and something more. A good day indeed.

I would take Wizard's advice with a heavy grain of salt IMO---they tended to be toward the "kewl, d00d" fanboy-ish side of things to me when I read it in college (and doesn't sound like they've changed much since then). That said, anyone have a list of what Wizard's top 100 *was*?

My shop only let me pick 3 comics; my choices were:

Johnny Raygun
Uncle Scrooge (one of the first comics I had bought regularly back in high school)
Keenspot (a bunch of web comic strips)


I would've gotten "Betty and Veronica", "Amelia Rules" and that Robin Hood-Samauri thing, as well, if there wasn't a limit...

Afterwards, I went to the library, and they were offering up free comics too---albeit a small table of mostly old comics (a Kirby "New Gods" comic from 1984 and a Superman comic from last fall, among others).

The shop I went to just opened a few weeks ago, so this was probably helpful in getting publicity for their new location...

-B.

[Shnay]

I would take Wizard's advice with a heavy grain of salt IMO---they tended to be toward the "kewl, d00d" fanboy-ish side of things to me when I read it in college (and doesn't sound like they've changed much since then).Good to know. I'd trust the opinions and recommendations of the people here more than a publication like this, anyway. Still, it seems like a useful overview for someone with limited knowledge of the medium.

[Sigma]

That's sad. The comic book store i went to had plenty of books to go around. They had so much, they even had leftovers from last year which i was able to get. :D They had a ton of books at my local comic store too, but im not too bad im glad I got what I did.

[Isondill]

I was suprised that it was today. If my memory is correct the last two Free Comic Book Day's have had a comic-book movie opening on the weekend. My local movie theaters would give away comics and it was always fun to get some on the way in and some more on the way out (they had tons of the premium stuff, I got a lot of free manga this way).

Since there WASN'T a comic-book film opening this weekend my local theaters were NOT participating in FCBD. And I actually hadn't realized that it was even today until around 8 PM. All of the comic shops were closed. Luckily, I was still able to rush out to my local Hastings (the only participating store still open) and take home these titles for free:

The Adventures of Paul
Unclue Scrooge
Impact University
G.I. Joe
Marvel Adventures
Flight
Bongo: Gimmie Gimme Giveaway!
Star Wars
Runners: Remastered
Roninhood of the Samurai
Betty and Veronica
The Batman Strikes!
Johnny Raygun
Amelia Rules!
Mortal Coils Presents: Free Bodies

Not bad, eh? Especially for someone who forget FCBD was today. I almost missed out.

[randomguy]

I would take Wizard's advice with a heavy grain of salt IMO---they tended to be toward the "kewl, d00d" fanboy-ish side of things to me when I read it in college (and doesn't sound like they've changed much since then). That said, anyone have a list of what Wizard's top 100 *was*?Actually, I wouldn't be too quick to discount Wizard's list. I don't much care for the magazine, either, but I've reviewed their choices and it's a surprisingly thoughtfull, well-chosen list. There's a decent amount of variety, including plenty of great non-superhero books, like Strangers In Paradise, Cerebus, Y: The Last Man, all kinds of stuff.

You can view the complete list here (http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/wizard/WZ20031205-tpb.cfm), so check it out and see for yourself. I was most impressed by their choice for #1.

[adoptedBatpuppy]

Well, when I went to my Comic Book Store, they already selected which comic books I can take, and gave them to me in a plastic bag, so I'm not sure what I got, exactly. :sweat: There were about 5 of them, and a Tokyo Pop Sneaks 2005.

[the panther]

I shoulda taken more than just one, but I didn't feel right doing it, even though they said I could take whatever and they had a ton.

Oh well.

I got Marvel Adventures. I read it with my brother (who turned 3 today!) and he loved the part were Johnny takes Ben's towel. He thought it was funny how I read the whole clobberin' thing. :) I thought it was cool that they put in the how to make a comic book part after the story. I didn't know a lot of it.

There was supposed to be a Revenge of the Sith comic, but they had two other Star Wars comics instead. I figured, whatever, and didn't get them.

I shoulda gotten The Batman Strikes! also for my brother, but... well, maybe they'll still have some left over when I go in Wednesday.

[the panther]

Well, now I feel like an idiot. I went over to BuzzScope and saw the preview for the Revenge of the Sith book. My shop did have it, but it's not the same cover as FCBD's site has, nor does it say Revenge of the Sith on it, so I therefore did not get it. Go figure.

[sdp]

None of the stores usually do anything special. The local comic store almost hide them from the public and you got one of them free for every normal comic you bought. :sad:

A gaming store (card games and hobby games) had them all in a table for you to grab whatever you wanted, no purchase necessary.

[Chad Bonin]

Let's just say I had a massive headache around 7PM.

BUT... Tony Harris was an incredibly awesome guy (I got a sketch of Space Ghost from him), didn't get a chance to meet Paul Jenkins though (He was there, but I was stuck giving stuff away).

We started two 50-cent boxes, so I grabbed 20 random comics for the heck of it.

[Stonemonkey]

The store I went to had a Banner advertising FCBD. They had a table at the back where you could get one of each comic you want!

I got:

Unlce Scrooge
Flight Primer
Impact University
Batman 12cent
Ronin Hood
Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards
Devils Due
Wizard Top 100

They were also giving away a free HeroClix! I got a Batman, I heard some other guy say he got Batman too so maybe that was the only one.

[Clayface]

I got to my comic shop around 2 PM Saturday for FCBD. They had a small but steady trickle of people coming through - most of them specifically asking about FCBD. So I guess the word does get out there somehow. At my shop they let you pick any three titles. I got the Star Wars one as well as the Flight Primer and Roninhood. The shop also had a sale going on: 25% off TPB and HCs and 50% off backissues. So, I picked up the Stray Bullets Vol. 2 hardcover, and a bunch of Concrete issues (including the parts of "Killer Smile" and "Fragile Creature" that I didn't get last time, all but one issue of "Think Like A Mountain", issue #3 of the original series, and issues 1, 2 and 5 of "Strange Armor"). I haven't had a chance to read any of them yet though.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

My FCBD weekend was a whole lot of Good News/Bad News jokes, it seemed.

The good news was that my wife and I were going into NYC for the day, so I figured we'd be able to stop in at one of the bigger shops there to land the small press and alternative books I wasn't sure my local shop would have. Yay!

The bad news was that everything else chewed up all our free time until 8:45 PM, when I visited my old comic shop in Brooklyn and found all they had left were 2 stacks of Archie and G.I. Joe. Boo!

The good news was that the next day, the local shop still had stock left, and even had a bunch of the stuff I wanted left over. Yay!

The bad news was that they didn't have Ronin Hood (a title practically tailor-made to push all my curiosity buttons), the Impact University thing, the Gimme! Gimme! Giveaway (Funniest. Title. Ever.), or the Oni Press offering left. It was also a strict "1-free-book-per-customer" dealie, as opposed to last year when I snagged a big stack of stuff to give away at Halloween. Boo!

Still, I got the books from Adhouse, Alternative Comics, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, GT Labs (Bone Sharps, Cowboys, & Thunder Lizards), Disney, Archie, and Tokyopop. I haven't read a lot of books yet, but I did make time to read the Disney/Gemstone book, which was my first exposure to Carl Barks. I think I need a lot more Carl Barks now.

I also read the Jim Ottoviani Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards (http://www.gt-labs.com/bonesharps.html) FCBD book, which has dinosaurs and cowboys in it, automatically adding about 1,000 Cool Points. If it had ninjas, pirates, or zombies, it'd be a slam-dunk (though there is a mummy of sorts early on). Seriously, I didn't care much for Ottoviani's other science-oriented books I've read (Two-Fisted Science and Dignifying Science), but this one was a real winner, if nothing else for the lettering trick they do with P.T. Barnum's word balloons (check it out in the sample on-line (http://www.gt-labs.com/bonesharps_p01.html) if you didn't get the comic). It also had awesome dinosaurs fighting each other on the cover drawn by Mark Schultz, which will have to do until he can finish Xenozoic Tales. I'll have to pre-order the final GN when it hits later this year.

Skimmed through the Wizard 100, and decided that almost everything in it was divided into 1 of 3 categories: Already Own It, Really Mean to Read It, and You Have Got to Be Kidding Me. Still, if it gets a few dozen people to try out Maus, Usagi Yojimbo, or something else that doesn't involve Batman or the X-Men, it'll be worth it.

Also bought a TPB of Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 18 (Travels with Jotaro), and got really really mad when it ended on a cliffhanger. Usagi Yojimbo completely and totally rules.

-- Ed/Ace

[Fone Bone]

Still, I got the books from Adhouse, Alternative Comics, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, GT Labs (Bone Sharps, Cowboys, & Thunder Lizards), Disney, Archie, and Tokyopop. I haven't read a lot of books yet, but I did make time to read the Disney/Gemstone book, which was my first exposure to Carl Barks. I think I need a lot more Carl Barks now.




-- Ed/AceHooray! Ace is a convert! If you love Carl Barks you'll love Don Rosa and William Van Horn too. I'm thrilled to be looking forward to more people posting in the Genstone Disney Comics Talkback!

I love you Ace!

[Spider-Man]

I had a good FCBD experience too. I was able to pick up alot of older Marvel material and try some of the comics I usually never read. I love reading the older stuff. I found probably the best issue of Hulk I've ever read with issue #377. I want to find the Banner trade now. I hear that is an amazing story. I even picked up some trades for older Fantastic Four comics. I tracked down some new Punisher material with The Punisher #19 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion. Overall it was just a fun day where I found alot of great older material and got to read some new stuff.

[Damien]

I had never heard of FCBD until I read a blurb in the ultra-local paper about comic book artist Alex Saviuk signing at the local RPG shop, a shop I hardly ever visit. However, upon my arrival, I was ushered up to Cloud 9 when I saw that they had added comics to the mix; one room for back issues and posters, the other for new issues and trades. Wonderful. Utterly fantastic. This means only driving 10 min. as opposed to the 40 min. journey to the Orlando store.
I met Mr. Saviuk (actually, we just discussed comics and comic book movies with one of the store clerks), and I bought a comic he had drawn for 3 bucks just so I could get it signed (Web of Spider-Man #102, "Maximum Carnage Part 6 of 14", which I still haven't read).
The only things they had for free were Wizard's Top 100 list and the new Red Sonja with two alternate covers. I only got the Wizard thing, though.
The best part was just finding out they finally had a comic book shop in town. Went back there today, actually.

[ThePeterNetwork]

I didn't go to a comic book shop to get my free comics. I took them from the freebies table at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art where I do my volunteer work [shameless plug]. They had four titles with which to choose from: The Batman Strikes, Marvel Adventures, Uncle Scrooge, and Owly. I was familiar with the first three, but for some reason I couldn't get hooked on Owly as it didnt' have any clear dialogue, but then again, in comics, the pictures are supposed to tell the story. ;)

I didn't have time to get any more free books as I was headed to a musical performance at a Brooklyn coffeehouse, where the talent forgot it was FCBD. They should have it more often.

[DarkHawk]

My comic book store still had all of the free books today today except for the 100 greatest tpd book. The owner is a hell of a guy cause he didn't have a limit and told me to help myself. Pretty cool reads esp the Darkstalkers one :)

[Bearpod91]

At least i got the star wars free comic yesturday...only one left there. still was a cool issue though.

[JTurner954]

Since FCBD last year, I like to go to different comic book stores to see how each store celebrates Free Comic Book Day (and to get more free comics [repeats go to friends]; I buy backissues as well). Every store had free comics (last year two stores didn't participate):

Store #1: Tate's
Bought: Dr. Slump Volume 1 - Reminds me of Dragonball. Toriyama continues to win me over with this very humorous title. Summary: A

Free: Wizard's Top 100 TPB, Tokyopop Sampler, GI Joe - Gave these away.

Bongo comics sampler - Loved the first story with Homer's America. Then the book slowly declines with the Futurama story about pepper, Homer's parenting (had one big laugh), and a forgettable story on a superhero named Plasmo the Mystic. Summary: B

Tate's was the only store that had the free comics behind glass. You pick the three you wanted and they get them from under their counter. No special discounts on other titles.

Store #2: PPF
Bought: Robin #26, Catwoman #36[COLOR]

Trigun sampler - I'm not a big fan of Trigun, but I did enjoy Wolfwood's character very much. This issue retells Wolfwood's first meeting with Vash, Meryl, and Milly just as it was in the anime. Not the best story, but entertaining nevertheless. Summary: B-
Free: Star Wars - Good story, though Anakin was a bit more compassionate than we saw in Episode 2. The movies satisfy me though the comics aren't as good. Summary: C

Roninhood of the Samurai - Couldn't find this among my notes and collection. I guess I didn't like this one and gave it away.

Impact University - Gave this away.

Flair Adventures - Boring title where the action picked up at the end with the villain decorator. Needs more Ric. Summary: C

Buzzboy - Fun and imaginative for kids.

Flight - Fails. I just couldnt' get into this title and have since given the book away.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge - I remember reading this when I was little and it was great to see this reprinted years later. Summary: A-

Betty and Veronica - Girls design a dress for a teen magazine. The winner's dress is worn by a model. If you love Hannah Montana, you'll probably like this. Summary: D

The Batman Strikes - Forgettable and have since given it away.

Amelia Rules - New kid moves to town. Kids only title that some may relate to. Summary: D

Hysteria - The Kid's WB series makes it debut to the com .... wait, nevermind. This is actually a book by Oni Press where an uzi is dropped out of a military helicopter into an inner city alley and finds its way into different people's hands. Nice concept which should have been longer. Venture Bros. fans may like this one. Backside story on Sharknife is forgettable. Summary: C+

Marvel Adventures - Spider-man wants to join the Fantastic Four and the Chamelon steals a formula from a lab. Forgettable, though the how to lessons on creating panels was cool. Summary: C

When I arrived, the employee was setting up the free comics (apparently another person was suppose to put them out ahead of time). He allowed me to pick one of each. Unfortunately, I had to carry them by hand since the same employee forgot to stock the plastic bags. No specials here.

Store #3: Phil's
Bought: [COLOR=Blue]Robin #31


Another store that was late with the books (at this time, it was past noon). He allowed one per customer. Again, no special offers (this store didn't participate last year).

Store #4: Boca
Bought: Robin #40,44, Action Comics #749, Gotham Knights #13.
Free: Owly - Loved it and have since met the creator. Summary: A-

Darkstalkers - Gave it away. Batman heroclix. I also picked up these two mini-figures with "free comic book day" written on them.

After Tate's, this is my favorite comic store (too bad it's so far). They let me pick one of each title and let me have two of those figures after I asked. They gave me a flyer that had special offers for the day: 50% back issues, 25% TPB's, and 10% off everything else. On the other side of the flyer was an ad for an autograph signing session with Ethan Van Sciver of DC Comics. I'm going after work tomorrow to get Green Lantern: Rebirth #6 signed.

Store #5: Lost Realms
Bought: Web of Spider-man #124-125, Batman Adventures #5


The second store that didn't participate last year did so this time. The store was very busy due to gaming tournaments. They had all their free books on shelves and you just picked whatever you wanted. They also offered 50% off back issues and included a section of comics that went 5 for $1.00 so I picked up some X-Files, The Shield, and Terminator books for a friend.


The day was lots of fun. I'm still reading through the books along with the list I posted in the last WDYG thread (I finished all the GI Joe and Transformers ones; 10 total). I'll edit the posts once I finish ... four years later. I really hate leaving things unfinished so it feels good to fill this post with more info.

[The Frog]

There's really only one comic shop in my area, so I was only able to get three books. I got "The Batman Strikes" "Gimme Gimme Giveway" and "Flight". GGG was good, as was flight. I still haven't read The Batman yet... I keep forgetting it's there. :sweat: It's a bookmark in my Starman Grand Guignol TPB right now...


So, who else thinks that next year DC will be giving away JLU #1?