It's Free Comic Book Day today. This year's event has been overshadowed by the debut of The Avengers movie, and that's odd since movie releases close to or on the day traditionally have added to the zest not overwhelmed it. Maybe it's the fact that FCBD has become a regular event, somewhat commonplace in fact.
Whatever, there are several comics I'd love to get my mitts on. Donald Duck and Family from Fantagraphics heads the list, but Dan Spiegle's My Favorite Martian is one I'm eager to read too. Also Barnaby seems like oddball fun.
One thing I noticed new this year, was the FCBD website features free preview downloads for the "Free" comic books. This seems a bit wacky to me since the Free comics are themselves largely previews. Strange.
Nonetheless, have a good time and support your local comic book shops.
UPDATE: I went and had a fine time. I kidded my wife no end, because for the first time she ended up going along with me, and though her mission was most certainly not to enter a comic book shop, she did ride along and we had a great lunch. I got all the free comics I went for along with a couple more from Bongo and Gemstone. The business seemed way up to me, much to my surprise, and one shop was so filled to the brim with customers that I didn't even attempt to stand in the long long line despite a pretty good discount and a volume of American Flagg I'd been craving of late. Good day, the FCBD tradition seems to be just that, a tradition.
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My local shop doesn't get any of the "official" stuff, which always kinda bums me out...especially in the years when the FCBD books are more than a preview.
ReplyDeleteThey do play it up though...a few Stormtroopers roam the street outside and some cool freebies inside but still...
I've heard very little about FCBD this year to be frank. Usually the shops here go pretty strong, but not so much this time. One I fear is really feeling the economic crunch, maybe two are. No pros are scheduled this year at either shop that I've seen on the websites. So it might be a relatively quiet FCBD for a change.
ReplyDeleteIt's Derby Day in Kentucky anyway, so most other things give way in terms of local media, but that's been true each and every FCBD so far. I really think the Avengers is sucking the air out of all other comic book news right now.
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Yeah, I think the downloads might stem from the fact that in previous years, I'd show up at a comic shop, which being from a small town amounted to, "the only shop" only to find out they didn't have anymore free comics. Most were handed out to the larger customer purchasers (which is understandable) or close friends, or early birds. So I gave up on the idea. However, a year or so ago, Hastings also got a few issues in, and I was happy to land a few from that retailer ;)
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