Free Comic Book Day Talkback

[Dee]

Hey hey! It's free comic book day (www.freecomicbookday.com) !

What did you get--- what did you wish you got--- and how were the comics?

Here's the spot to rant, rave, and recommend on your new reads of the day!

[Botman]

I got Ultimate X-Men #1 and Keenspot Spotlight 2003.

I was also looking for issues #1-6 of Shonen Jump, but no luck...

I just might start reading Ultimate X-Men...but how many issues do I need to catch up on?

[BlackoutCreature]

My store had a 2 book maximum, and an extra book if u were able to answer one of there trivia questions (mine was "what street did Ben Grimm, The Thing, grow up on?" I got it right with Yancy Street). They also went out of there way to get kids into the store for the day, and even had a Wonder Woman impersonator there. She had decent cleavage, but was too short for Wondie ;) I was hoping for a Power Girl impersonator. Maybe next year. I picked up -
Batman Adventures 1
Best of Dork Storm 1
Transformers: Armada FCBDE

I was happy with them, ill post further thoughts on them in the "What did u get this week?" thread.

[Dee]

My store had a 2 book maximum, and an extra book if u were able to answer one of there trivia questions (mine was "what street did Ben Grimm, The Thing, grow up on?" I got it right with Yancy Street). They also went out of there way to get kids into the store for the day, and even had a Wonder Woman impersonator there. She had decent cleavage, but was too short for Wondie ;) I was hoping for a Power Girl impersonator. Maybe next year. I picked up -
Batman Adventures 1
Best of Dork Storm 1
Transformers: Armada FCBDE

I was happy with them, ill post further thoughts on them in the "What did u get this week?" thread.

lmao. Gotta love the use of sex appeal to draw people in

[Joker85]

Free Comic Day Rocks!!! :D
I got:
Ultimate X Men #1
Ultimate Spider-man
Superman: The 10 Cents Adventure
Batman Adventures #1
Plus my Comic Store had all Backissues for a dollar, so I got a bunch of Batman, Superman, and X Men backissues.

[JTurner954]

I ended up going to four different stores (2 hours total time) and each one had a different policy.

Tate's last year allowed people to take whatever they want. This year, it was different: They had the available comics behind a glass case and you tell the person the book you want and he gets it out. I asked if I can get one more (my first one was Batman Adventures) and he went ahead and got me my second book, Ultimate X-men. As a bonus, the guy put them in comic bags (the only place that did it).

I then went to another store nearby and the selection was limited to six titles on a table. I got two issues of Namor and then asked if I can take two books (again, it was allowed). Therefore, I took Metallix and Way of the Rat.

The next store was 10 minutes away (all the comic stores I know are far but close to each other). The place was small and crowded (the previous two were near empty). Not only did they allow people to take 5 free comics per person, but they also had 60% off back issues. So I bought Uncanny X-Men #303 and grabbed four free books: Slave Labor Stories, Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, and two copies of Robocop.

The last store was on the other side of the county (but closer to home). They just had 4 near-empty piles: Batman Adventures, Transformers Armada, and two piles of X-Force comics were on a glass counter. I didn't get anything from that one so I just bought some bags and boards.

Overall, I'm happy with how the trip went. I was really forward to getting a few more titles though :(, but I'm very satisfied with what I got. :cool:

I'm really interested in hearing how everyone else's trip went. BTW, what happens to the leftover "FCBD" titles?

[randomguy]

I picked up Batman Adventures 1, Ultimate X-Men 1, and the Keenspot/Keenspace one. Not bad, but not great. Haven't read any of them yet.

Since I felt bad not buying anything, I bought The Killing Joke as well. Nice and cheap. And I hear it's good.

[Catlover]

Darn, I didn't know it was Free comic book day today. I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it today because 1. Saturday is allways
the day my family goes out food shoping (the word I'm looking for I can't spell) 2. There aren't any good Comic book shops near where I live. Could anyone ansewer a few questions. Do places like Borders, or Barns & Noble participate, and could I get something like Rajin Comics free?

[Joe Tully]

I got Slave Labor, Peanutbutter & Jeremy, Dork Storm and Donald Duck.

Peanutbutter & Jeremy is excellent. Great for anyone who can accept a simple, childlike sense of humor. The first story is by far the best and takes up 25 pages, the rest only take up the last few pages and are OK, but are done by different authors. The rest was so-so. Donald Duck was only really good for the art, but the art was really good. :) Slave Labor felt too much like trailers for the comics in some parts, and in other places just flat out wasn't entertaining, but Milk & Cheese and the Comic Book Heaven sampler were good.

They also had back issues, three for a dollar. I bought some Excalibur, Quasar, and Capt. America (mostly Streets of Poison issues that I wanted).

[Watagashi]

:eek: !!! *looks from thread to calandar and back to thread* GASP! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I totally forgot that it was today. :( Cake. -_- Oh, well.... I guess I can go next time. :p Er... Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Damn it, I missed it again. :( There's always next year... I guess...

[Clayface]

I picked up:
Avatar Graphic Novel Sampler
Batman Adventures #1
Frank Miller's Robocop/Stargate SG1
Transformers: Armada #1
Ultimate X-Men #1

Most of them were good reads, but the Avatar GN Sampler was kind of lame, and I would have preferred more in the Robocop preview.

I also picked up a ton of back issues on sale:

Batman Adventures #34, 36
Detective #530, 531, 533, 543, 545, 570
Fused #1
Masters of the Universe (original Marvel series) #1, 9, 10, 11
New X-Men: New Worlds TPB
New X-Men L Imperial TPB
New X-Men #135, 136, 137, 138
Saga Of Ra's Al Ghul #1, 3
Sandman #10 (the last issue I needed - now I've got the entire run!)
Silver Hawks #1, 2, 6
ThunderCats (original Star/Marvel series) #15

[Marklar]

I didn't get to my comic shop until about 1:30, had to take SAT this morning, so the selection was pretty depleted. The store only allowed me to take one comic, and because the stack of Spawn comics was more than double all of the other comics available and they were out of Batman, I grabbed Rocket Comics: Ignite. I also bought the Daredevil Guardian Devil trade. Rocket Comics was pretty cool for the most part, I enjoyed two of the three stories included, and at least the story I didn't like had pretty nice looking art. All of the libraries in my area were also participating in FCBD, but I didn't have enough time to go see if they had a better selection.

[Russkafin]

For anyone who forgot it was Free Comic Book Day and didn't go today... you might want to go tomorrow or Monday and see if they have any left. There were specific books that were being given out as the free comics, so if the dealers have some left they will probably still give them out if you ask... I remember the comic shop I go to still had some left a few days later, and continued to give them away. You never know, it's worth a shot! :)

[Botman]

Well, I just found Shonen Jump #5 & 6, and I just ordered the first 4 online.

Still looking for an answer to my Ultimate X-Men question...

[fernie417]

I got to my comic shop around noon. There was a line for the free comics so I got on. Then they gave me a sack with 25 comics ( :eek: ) and a Hulk hero clix. Neddless to say, I am very happy. :D

[Hatter]

I'll just copy my post from the other FCBD thread:


I actually got a pretty nice haul. One shop I went to didn't have a max book limit, but they only had a few books to choose from. And the other shop had pretty much all of the titles, but had a max of 4 per customer.

BATMAN ADVENTURES #1 - Although being a huge fan of Batman:TAS, I never read any of the comics that it inspired. But the promise of series-level stories, without some of TV's strict guidelines, might have me coming back. And the artist did a pretty good job of imitating the style of the show.

TRANSFORMERS: ARMADA - What can I say - I picked it up because it was shiny and colourful. Art was pretty, but I've never been a fan of the Transformers - they were a little before my time.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #1 - God, as if I needed any more reasons to make this book my number one priority. I already own a few of the recent issues, but this issue just reminded me that I need those first few TPB's ASAP.

Frank Miller's ROBOCOP / STARGATE SG1 - Pretty much just a preview issue, but the promise of Frank Miller's original vision of RoboCop 2 has me intruiged! As a lifelong Robo fan, I'll definitely try to pick this title up. Covers by FM himself don't hurt, either. And while I'm no fan of Stargate, I will say that the art was quite nice.

PEANUTBUTTER & JEREMY #4 - I had read about James Kochalka in Wizard, and thought his style was cute enough, but this book just blew me away. The guy's brilliant. Reading it, the thought that it was equally accessible to youngsters never crossed my mind until someone mentioned it on a board. Kochalka understands the virtues of simplicity, and it makes for a quirky, incredibly entertaining read. And the guest strips in the back were neat, too - do Peanutbutter & Jeremy have some sort of underground superstardom? I noticed Bone creator Jeff Smith did one of the guest strips - cool. I definitely need to track down the past 3 issues of this.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS #1 - What a sweet-ass anthology! Another great strip from Jim Kochalka, plus some other hilarious material - "Bear and Robot" is one of the greatest things I've ever read. Does anyone know if this is a regular publication, or just a promotional deal?

SKINWALKER #1 - Really gripping stuff here. Could have come from Chris Carter on one of his good days... the dual-monologue setup was pretty original, can't say I've seen it used in a comic recently. Too bad it's only a 4-issue limited, though.

CHRISTA'S 100% GUARANTEED HOW-TO MANUAL FOR GETTING ANYONE TO READ COMIC BOOKS! - Well, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It actually turned out to be a pretty good comic primer. Thought it was a little too wordy, though. Tended to distance you from the art.

[Cyber E.]

Still looking for an answer to my Ultimate X-Men question...

Good things come to those who wait...

Ultimate X-Men #32, the most recent issue, was released last wednesday. The first couple of arcs have been collected in TPB Format, they are:

Ultimate X-Men - Volume One - The Tomorrow People TPB (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785107886/qid=1052080237/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-5127689-5770557?v=glance&s=books) (Collecting Issues 1-6)
Ultimate X-Men - Volume Two - Return To Weapon X TPB (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785108688/qid=1052080237/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/102-5127689-5770557?v=glance&s=books) (Collecting Issues 7-12)
Ultimate X-Men - Volume Three - World Tour TPB (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785109617/qid=1052080237/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/102-5127689-5770557?v=glance&s=books) (Collecting Issues 13-18)
Ultimate X-Men - Volume Four - Hellfire & Brimstone TPB (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785110895/qid=1052080237/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5127689-5770557?v=glance&s=books) (Collecting Issues 22-25)

[Shawn Hopkins]

Lots of kids at my store, which was a good thing. I turned down the comics, because they only had Ultimate X-Men 1 (which I already had), some Transformers book and the new Batman Adventures comic. I figured the kids would have more fun with them than I would.

The guy at the store told me about the new Robocop book, though, which was pretty exciting. I would have paid full price for the Slave Labor book if they'd had it.

[Dee]

Wow it sounds like things were good for those that remembered :p

hehe. I was in the Portland Area, but I was at class... ewww... Saturday classes bite!

I was hoping someone was going to be around to take me to the Keep but I got sidetracked with a surprise Birthday we randomly decided to plan.

I wanted to get the 'manual for getting people to read comics' because I had seen that on the web page and it looked funny.

Does anyone who got that one have a quick summary to post about it?

[JTurner954]

My comments on each book I purchased are at the "What did you get" thread AKA http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?threadid=74929&goto=newpost


Would you guys say this event was better than last years FCBD?? BTW, what happens to the leftover books?

[Sprocket]

Free Comic Day sucks.

Even the comics specially made for the day weren't free.

You had to buy five dollars worth of merchandise at every store I went to on Long Island to get a book.

Pfeh..."Free Comic Day" my ass.

[Pyro]

I loved it. I celebrated my first Free Comic Book Day by getting Batman Adv. #1, Ultimate X-Men#1, and Archie just for nostalgia. The only thing that made me upset was that Ultimate X-men #1 cut out so many pages. I already had it, but mine (one collecting the first three) is falling apart, so I got the free one, and was upset to find pages missing.(and the colors looked slightly faded too. As my Dad always says, "You don't get something for nothing" :( ) I only hope the Batman one isn't missing pages, I don't think it is though. Can you believe my comic store tried to give me a Batman that you had to pay for!

I hope you all had a happy Free Comic Book Day!

[BlackoutCreature]

Free Comic Day sucks.

Even the comics specially made for the day weren't free.

You had to buy five dollars worth of merchandise at every store I went to on Long Island to get a book.

Pfeh..."Free Comic Day" my ass.
Wow, some stores were really messing with the spirit of the day. I just walked in and they pretty much handed me the comics. Im so lucky my store decided to actually make this seem like something special and not an obligation they couldnt get out of.

[Dee]

Free Comic Day sucks.

Even the comics specially made for the day weren't free.

You had to buy five dollars worth of merchandise at every store I went to on Long Island to get a book.

Pfeh..."Free Comic Day" my ass.


I would guess thats just the stores in your area.

[Clayface]

Still looking for an answer to my Ultimate X-Men question...


Ultimate X-Men #33 comes out later this month.

[Supreme]

2. There aren't any good Comic book shops near where I live. Could anyone ansewer a few questions. Do places like Borders, or Barns & Noble participate, and could I get something like Rajin Comics free?

At least around here, it is ONLY the comic shops that participate. I actually went to B & N and got the answer "Free Comic Book Day? Riiiight.", like I was trying to rip them off.

I only go to one shop (What's Hot), and they give me my weeks worth of comics free, rather than going through the hassle of picking out from their limited selection of free ones. Saves me about $30.

[MRThundercleese]

I got....

Free
-------------------------------------
Ultimate X-men
The one with Milk and Cheese on the cover
Dork Storm
Transformers Armada
Batman Adventures
Penutbutter and Jerry
and a free Hulk Hero Clix

Bought
-------------------------------------
Agent X #10
Batman #614
Mystique #1
Human Torch #1
Namor #1
X-men Prime - FINALLY!
Astonishing X-men #2
Astonishing X-men #4 (both age of apocalypse)
Ultimate Spiderman #33-36 (Marvel must see Venom)
Gus Beezer X-men
X-men Onslaught (when they find out it's prof)
and probably more...

I spent over 40 bucks.

Oh and the one comic shop in my area had a spidey inpersonator there and he came into the store and was talking to the owners and said....

"Boy I stayed up last night watching Batman forever... man that's a good movie!." I laughed.

[Joe Tully]

PEANUTBUTTER & JEREMY #4 - I had read about James Kochalka in Wizard, and thought his style was cute enough, but this book just blew me away. The guy's brilliant. Reading it, the thought that it was equally accessible to youngsters never crossed my mind until someone mentioned it on a board. Kochalka understands the virtues of simplicity, and it makes for a quirky, incredibly entertaining read. And the guest strips in the back were neat, too - do Peanutbutter & Jeremy have some sort of underground superstardom? I noticed Bone creator Jeff Smith did one of the guest strips - cool. I definitely need to track down the past 3 issues of this.

According to a release at http://www.digitalwebbing.com/news/040103-2.html there will be a "Peanutbutter & Jeremy’s Best Book Ever collection". I'm definitely going to pick it up.



ALTERNATIVE COMICS #1 - What a sweet-ass anthology! Another great strip from Jim Kochalka, plus some other hilarious material - "Bear and Robot" is one of the greatest things I've ever read. Does anyone know if this is a regular publication, or just a promotional deal?



I don't have that comic, but Bear And Robot has its own book, though I haven't read it. The others probably do too.

[Jade_GL]

My BF and I only got two comics for free, because we decided to do that. We didn't want to go and take a bunch of stuff. We have this thing where we like to support our store by buying stuff, and leave the free comics for the new fans who need to get interested. :)

Anyway, my BF got Transformers Armada and I got the Rocket Comics: Ignite, mainly because the art looked interesting for the three stories and everything else looked eh. Besides, my BF had already bought Batman Adventures in the last week and we collected Ultimate X-Men from the beginning, so #1 of that was not needed as well.

Our store was giving out other free things. My BF got a promotional JL Superman trading card and I got a free Hulk heroclix. I was very happy. :)

I went to a store in Brunswick called The Keep, and I didn't get a chance to go to any other comic stores. But my store had a lot of the free books. They were just on a normal display rack, and there was no protocol to taking them. No buying stuff restriction, no limit to the number, etc.

My BF and I wanted to snag a copy of Christa's 100% guaranteed how-to manual for getting anyone to read comic books! but it was not there. Boo hoo. I guess I'll have to try and find one another way. I heard on thfourthrail.com that it was a good freebie, I guess I'll have to borrow it from someone who got it or, gasp, find it on some sort of secondary market. Boo hoo. :D

All in all, a great Free Comic Book day. :)

[DisneyBoy]

Hatter, how did you manage to get all those issues? My comic shop would only give out one issue per customer because of the exchange rate, which forced them to pay 30 cents per free issue. I had to go from one shop to the next to pick up Batman Adventures #1 and the Ultimate X-Men issue. (sigh) It didn't feel good having to sneak around like that. I really wish I had a nice big comic shop nearby. I wonder how crazy things were in New York...they have some good shops. Oh, and I picked up the trade paperback of "Paradise Lost" (head on over to my thread, if you've already read it). Nice way to spend a day, all things considered. I even got some friends into comics!

[Mattashell]

I went with my sister to Xanadu. We got Robocop/Stargate SG1, and since they were out of everything else we wanted, Ultimate X-Men #1. We walked over to Golden Age Collectibles, which is a bigger, more commercial store, that isn't limited to just comics. We didn't think they'd be participating, but they were. We got The Way of The Rat #1, and Slave Labor Stories.

Robocop/Stargate SG1. While the adaption of Frank Miller's Robcop script look sto be a good comic that I will probably pick up, this "Free Comic Book" is nothing more than an ad. Sure you get a lot of nice artwork (Miller's drawings of Robocop for the future covers are awesome), I could have chosen a "real" free comic book and been much happier. Robocop selected a few random pages, Stargate only had the first couple of pages and really didn't even give me a taste of the book at all, Species had nothing but a few pinups. All sections were accompanied by the writers bragging about how great they are. 1/2 a star.

Slave Labor Stories. Some of it was totally lame (Milk and Cheese, Private Beach, My Monkey's Name is Jennifer), others were wasted paper for as much as they told us about the series they were promoting (Kitsune Tales, Tupelo), and a few were absolutely brilliant (Halo and Sprocket, Hsu and Chan, The Ghost with Black Fingers, Comic Book Heaven, Bear, Pandora's Lunchbox). Hsu and Chan features robot monkeys. **1/2

Ultimate X-Men #1. I'm all in favor of Reimaginings, Elsworlds, What Ifs, Imaginary Stories and whatever else you want to call it. The fact remains that Marvel's "Ultimate" line is none of the above, but rather, as the name implies, a relaunch intended to eventually replace the Marvel Universe older fans like myself have always known and loved. This book was not bad, not great either, but not bad. Still I cannot support anything "Ultimate". *

Way of The Rat #1. This was the catch of Free Comic Book Day. I loved this mystical martial arts tale about a thief who gets in over his head when he is hired to steel a magical object, but ends up with an entirely different magical object, one which may be a blessing or a curse. Also there's a talking monky. This edition was also packed with fun and sometimes informative additional material. *****

Overall I give Free Comic Book Day *****, after all it's free!;)

[The Xenos]

I went to two shops on the day near school. Plus my local store back home held most of them for me. He was out of Robocop though and I didn't grab it.

Anyway, lemme plug the stores I went to.

First I want to plus the stores I went to. I got to school in Boston and after the film we went to Harvard Square. There are two good shops there, Million Year Picnic and New England comics. I won't even count Newbury Comics since I don't consider it a comic store and they didn't particicipate in last year's Free Comic Day.

Million Year Picnic - is kinda a more underground comic store. Literally, it's in a bsement. Still, it's more of a smaller indipendent book store. It's been around quite some time as well. Pretty damn cool place. Rather fitting for Harvard Sqaure too and definate spot to check out if you go.

New England Comics - The company that brought you The Tick has a small chain of local stores. A friend of mine worked at the Maldeon store outside Boston. It is also a good store. While not quite as trendy and indipendant, it still is a damn good store plus it has more space and I like how they arrange the new comics better.

Plus there's my local shop, Jerry's Comics on Cabot Street in Beverly, MA. It's "The best little comic shop on the north shore." He runs it himself and as small as the shop it, it's crammed to the gills with comics and lots of cool stuff.

As for the books, I picked some up for me at my local shop. I also grabbed some all ages books for younger relatives. Plus I had friends check out New England Comics. NEC also made their dollar bins into "pick 3 free comics bins". Picked up some Sin City and Frank Miller comics. Thinking of cutting the sin city ones up and posting it on the walls since i have them collected.

-Xenos

[Hatter]

DisneyBoy...

Well, I had actually wished that I could have picked up more books... until I came here, and found that I had done better than most people.
I got a grand total of eight books, from two locations:
My first stop was Gamezilla, a gaming/hobby place. Comics aren't really their specialty. In fact, you could barely tell it was FCBD. There was a lot of people there, yes, but they were mostly participating in a Magic: The Gathering tourney. They didn't have any of the indie titles here, just the big ones, and no limit. They were just sitting there on the counter, no supervision. It's where I got Batman, Transformers, RoboCop, and X-Men.
My next stop was Mad City Comics, a much smaller location, but they really made a big deal out of it. They had a huge sign outdoors which had been on display for weeks, and they were even giving out flyers at the previous night's premiere of X2. Hell, they even had free cake. They had pretty much all of the titles here, but there was a limit of four per person. This was where I picked up the 100% Guide, PB&J, Alternative Comics, and Skinwalker.

[Dee]

man, I have got to have some stores around here ARGG!

How are those Heroclix things anyway? I don't understad them well... I've seen two in the GameStop at the mall but I didnt get much of a chance to look them over.

[Conekiller]

Ok, I have a subscrition so my local shot (it's really an anime store that happens to sell comics, they order Sonic the Hedgehog just for me) when I walked in to see what they had on hold for me it was quite a handfull. I put GI joe away ( I don't buy it anymore, I found it really hard to follow on a monthly basis, I've never had the problem with comics I buy) I picked Up Robotech (much to my surprise, they didn't forget to include it in my buch, it was LAST MONTH'S issue, theres $3 down the drain) and I bought:

Transfoirmers MTMTE- really big and good info too

He-man- not bad, the Alternate cover was cute

X-men Ronin- ok, it seems the comic ran around alot just to rush to an end, like they had more that they wanted to bring up in a short period of time. one more to go.

OK, Free comics (yeah I got a bunch)
Ultimate X-men : I have the 1st TPB so it didn't really interest me again
BatmanAnimated: I was surprised at how good this one was, lots of villains, and all of them needing Bat's protection. Joker's facial expressios were downright hilarious.

Armada: reminds me of how could the show CAN be.

and Courtney Crumrin and the Night things, and Way of the Rat. I havn't read them yet, they didn't realy spark interest in me, but I might get to them later.

[Samoht]

:mad: dang i forgot bout it would have gotten spider man though
1 comic store is th only amount in ca that i know of :mad: