May 3, 2024

This past Wednesday, I took a personal day from school and I went to Comic World to hang out that afternoon on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! It was glorious. I got to talk to my friend Todd, read the new books this week, and just enjoy the ambiance of the store.

Tomorrow, then, is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Across the country, there are comic shops celebrating this special day with comics put out by the comic companies to hopefully hook some new readers and promote their new comics. I am looking forward to going to Comic World tomorrow and joining in on the celebration.

However, you should not just go to your comic shop and take the freebies that they have because it is not free for the shops. This is a post that EYG Hall of Famer Gail Simone talking about Free Comic Book Day:

“ABOUT FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Hello again, everyone.

I say a version of this every year, many of you have seen many variations. I apologize for repeating myself a bit, but it’s kind of important.

Really, it’s vital that you know, comic stores love having you come to Free Comic Book Day. Many of them make it a kind of all-day party and we all love having new people and long-time readers come by a great store and leave with some fantastic comics. It’s a great experience for almost everyone. Kids love it, adults, it’s just a great time for all.

Lots of stores have sales, guest appearances, cosplayers, sometimes even cake or other treats. I love it, one of my favorite days of the year.

This year, in just a couple days, I will be at THE GOLDEN AGE 1942 store in historic Maryville, Tennessee. Come say hello!

Now, there’s a couple things I say every year, just for the record.

First, most people think that the comics that the stores give away for free are free to the stores.

They are not. Each comic is paid for by the stores. At a greatly reduced price from normal comics, yes, but they are sold to the store by the bundle, and with many many dozens of FCBD comics, it adds up hugely fast. Multiply that by gosh knows how many people in line, it’s a significant number, all given away for FREE, no cash coming back to the retailer at all.

But that’s not all. They also have to pay shipping, which anyone who runs a business knows, is astronomical.

So, every book they give away is paid for by the store, twice, really.

On top of that, it is almost always necessary to hire extra help for the day. They might have to purchase more stock, after one of the slower parts of the year, sales-wised.

If they have decorations or publicity or cosplayers or creator guests, they are paying for each of those expenses. There’s a lot of expenses I am missing, I’m not a retailer. But they are there.

Free Comic Book Day is darn expensive for comics retailers. Most are delighted to have it, it’s a great day to get people to come and celebrate comics and learn about the stores. None of them would want you to feel guilty about coming and picking up the books, that’s what’s SUPPOSED to happen.

However, I would ask everyone going to Free Comic Book Day this weekend to do me a personal favor and SHOP a bit there, too. Even if it’s busy, hang around, have fun, and do a bit of shopping.

If each person purchases something ON FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, it helps justify all the expense, and ensures that the store will be able to continue ordering great stuff, and having the annual event again next year and beyond.

If there’s a TPB you have been thinking about, or a statue, or an action figure, I urge you to consider buying it ON FCBD, if at all possible. If your budget is tight, even buying a comic or some comics off the rack or back issue bins helps a LOT, I promise you, and you are doing something awesome for the community.

Comic shop owners and workers work long hours, often for thin profit margins. But they’re the ones who will look for that book you want, that will special order things, that will recommend you a book not to make a sale, but because they know you will love it. They are the force keeping the hobby fun, social and convenient.

So please, if you have ever really loved shopping at a great comics shop, look around and purchase something on this fun day of celebration in particular, okay?

You’ll be my hero.

Thank you,

Gail

PS. No comic shop has ever asked me to talk about this, they just want you to come and have fun. They don’t want you to feel any kind of bad on FCBD. This is all from me, about the economic reality of the expense of putting on the event, because I am more shameless.

PPS. Thank you all!

PPPS. Have a great Free Comic Book Day, all right?

PPPPS. Get Marvel’s FCBD book this weekend, my first ever X-Men story is in it!

PPPPPS. THANK YOU RETAILERS, YOU LOVELY MERCHANTS OF JOY“

I plan on buying several comics this weekend along with the large number of free comics that I have pulled for me.

Speaking of back issues, I have four Amazing Spider-Man issues, #433, #435-437 as I continue to work on my ASM collection.

After all of that, here are the books this week:

Incredible Hulk #12. “Doctor Voodoo and the Soul Cage Part One” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art and cover by Nic Klein. The Incredible Hulk has been an okay read recently, but I loved this issue as Hulk goes to Strange Academy trying to save Charlie from the soul cage. Banner and the Hulk head into the soul cage to try and save her, while another Hulk, one that looks fairly Immortal, shows up with Voodoo. This was the best issue of Hulk since the Al Ewing run.

7174 A.S. #1. Creative team:  TP LOUISE and  ASHLEY WOOD. This is one of the books that I found interesting. Unfortunately, I did not like the issue. I did not feel connected to this at all.

Space Ghost #1. Written by David Pepose and drawn by Jonathan Lau. Cover art was by Michael Cho (Silver Medalist). While I did not like 7174 AD, the new Space Ghost series from Dynamite was awesome. Space Ghost was shown to be a bad ass and the issue was just great. It was a little hard seeing Brak as a monstrous villain, btu I am down for it.

Blood Hunt #1. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Pepe Larraz. Cover art Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. I also picked up a variant cover issue with a cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (Bronze Medalist). The new vampire story arc in Marvel kicked off with Blade turning heel and attacking the Marvel Universe. There are some shocking moments with major characters dying, but I have problems with that. They aren’t dead. They will return from death soon and it is sad that I feel no angst over the loss of any of these characters. Otherwise, Blood Hunt is off to a cool start.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #5. “8-Ball” Written by Jed MacKay and illustrated by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by David Paratore. Shroud was revealed as the new Moon Knight but Tigra and Hunter’s Moon was not having any of it. But Blood Hunt started with a major event with the Darkforce users, including Shroud.

Ultimate X-Men #2. Writer and artist Peach Momoko. Hisako has met another mutant, who seems to be able to control the weather… hm. I have enjoyed these first two issues of the new X-Men book. I like how it is so different than the regular Marvel Universe X-Men.

Ghostlore #10. “Churning the Grave” Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leomacs. The middle section was illustrated by Sally Cantirino. The cover art was by Reiko Murakami and Sally Cantirino. Harmony and her father Lucas have reunited, but she is not happy with what her father is planning to battle Shane.

The Blood Brothers Mother #1. Written by Brian Azzarello and drawn and cover by Eduardo Risso (Gold Medalist). Awesome new Western series from DSTLRY. This is a beautiful and brutal new series as we see the beginning of the brothers and how they came to be.

Invincible Iron Man #18. “If I Only Had a Heart” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Creees Lee. Cover art was by Kael Ngu. Iron Man and Magneto vs. Stark Sentinels and Nimrod. What more could you ask for? How about War Machine?

Get Fury #1. “1. Sweet Bird of Truth” Written by Garth Ennis and penciled by Jacen Burrows. Dave Johnson did the cover art. Nick Fury is trapped in North Vietnam and the US government is worried about what he knows. So they send Frank Castle after him. Honestly, that sounded cool, but I just could not get into this. I was not a fan of this issue.

X-Men #34. “Love-Hate” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Joshua Cassara. Terry & Rachel Dodson did the cover art. The X-Men are coming after Charles Xavier. Logan and Shadowcat are together again. What will happen?

Spider-Woman #7. “New Kids on the Block” Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho did the cover art. Spider-Woman is discovering that there are still plenty of problems in San Francisco. However, she meets up with a new team of heroes, The Assembly, which has some similarities.

Immortal Thor #10. “Getting the Axe” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Carlos Magno. Alex Ross did the cover art. I am not sure how I feel about this. Thor battled a fake Thor, the Thor of Roxxon. And it is a frame job. Not sure how I feel about this storyline. I do love Al Ewing so I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Zorro: Man of the Dead #4. Written and drawn by Sean Gordon Murphy. This is the final issue of this mini-series. I really enjoyed this book from Massive comics and I am sorry to see it end. I hope this is one that will earn another volume of issues moving forward.

Other books this week: Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #3, Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII #1, Power Pack: Into the Storm #5, and Minor Threats #2.

Happy Free Comic Book Day to everyone!