Tag Archives: free-comic-book-day

EYG Comic Cavalcade #96

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May 5, 2024

Free Comic Book Day special edition

To all the Star Wars fans out there, happy Revenge of the 5th, the day following May the 4th Be With You. Otherwise, this is a super special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade featuring the events and books of Free Comic book Day!

May 4th was more than just Star Wars Day this year. This year it also was Free Comic Book Day, a day where the companies release a bunch of promo comics, and comic shops around the country give them out for free.

I hope everyone understands that these are not free for the comic shop, who has to purchase these books (yes, at a reduced rate) and pay for shipping. This is why it is so vital that when you partake of a free book, you find something else to purchase at the shop as a thank you for all you do type of thing.

I had a wonderful day with Free Comic Book Day this year. I started the day with a movie that was really bad (Tarot…quite the stinker) and lunch at Burger King before heading over to Comic World.

I walked in the store right after the shop opened at noon and there were plenty of people already there. In the hour and a half (or so) that I hung out there, it was really quite busy, which is awesome.

There were some fabulous moments as I sat and watched people in the store. Some of the highlights included one young boy, probably around 10-11, who came in asking about the free comics and store owner Ben directed him to the table of books. The boy had eyes bulging and he said “thank you” in such a grateful way that you could tell that he meant it. It was such a cool moment, a small little moment that helped make the day great. With hope, a day like this could help create a future comic book fan.

That is, of course, one of the main purposes behind the entire Free Comic Book Day concept. Comic books are a niche hobby and it is important that the comic companies find a way to find new readers than just the same people that buy their books every Wednesday.

Another fun moment for me was when my teacher friend Ambarlee showed up with her three kids to buy their first comic books. She had the boys pick out a comic from the wall each before going over to the free table. I know she also picked up a trade paperback of Rainbow Rowell’s She-Hulk run (she enjoyed the She-Hulk Disney + show). They then grabbed a few of the free comics including One Piece, the Spidey and Amazing Friends, and the Spider-Man/Ultimates book. I had to take a pic of her holding her little girl who looked to be intently reading the comic in her hand.

Then, of course, I did my own purchasing. I picked up a rousing 21 free comics. Most of them had already been pulled in my box for me, which I appreciate so much. These included such books as Romeo vs. Juliet, The Cursed Library Prelude #0, Energon Universe #1, Flash Gordon #0, Dying Inside, One Piece Ace’s Story, Marvel Voices #1, Boom! Box 10th Anniversary Extravaganza, Hellboy, Monster High, Cursedverse #1, Stories from the Atlas Comics Library #1, Absolute Power #1, Conan: Battle of the Black Stone,Dr. Who #00, The Valiants, Gannibal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A couple of others:

FCBD: The Worlds of James Tynion IV: This included reprinted material, but two of them were Mementic and The Woods. I did not know either of these books and I may be interested in looking into them. The book indicated The Woods: Deluxe Edition is coming soon. Tynion is one of my favorite writers currently working with Something is Killing the Children (which is one of the key series that got me picking up independent books), The Department of Truth, and W0rldtr33.

FCBD: Blood Hunt #1: The prelude to this upcoming vampire story in Marvel includes Spider-Man fighting Doctor Dark and Dracula showing up. This also featured a back-up X-Men story by Gail Simone, featuring Jubilee. Simone will be the head writer on the upcoming new Uncanny X-Men series. Simone has been a huge proponent of Free Comic Book Day and supporting your local comic book shop.

FCBD: Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe #1. This had a weird Spider-Man story that I thought was an Ultimate Spider-Man story at first, but Peter did not have his beard, so I think this was supposed to be the regular Spider-Man. The back up story featured the Ultimates, trying to retrieve the original Human Torch. There was also a couple pages of Venom here.

Along with the FCBD books, I purchased a bunch of books from my shop.

Saga Volume 1-9. Brian K. Vaughn’s epic independent book is collected in nine volumes. I read volume one and I have to say that I was hooked. This first volume collected the first six chapters and we are introduced to some great characters and some major surprising twists. The nine volumes are contained in a beautiful container with art by Fiona Staples. I am excited to read the rest of this series moving forward.

X-Men: 198 #1-5. I picked up this mini series because I had never heard of it before and the five issues were packed together at a very reasonable price. This was a story taking place when there were only 198 mutants left on the planet (after Wanda’s No More Mutants, I believe). The government is moving the remaining mutants to Xavier’s School, and trying not to use the words internment camp. This has some really dark moments and seeing Cyclops and some of the other X-Men backing the government was tough. Kitty Pryde’s response was very understandable as the connection to the Holocaust is not missed on anyone. This was a fascinating read with a group of characters that I have not seen much of over the years.

Marvel Team-Up #9, 10,15. These have been at Comic World for awhile, and I have eyeballed them at different times, but this was a good point to buy them. I love Spidey and Marvel Team-Up was always one of my favorite books growing up. This has Ghost Rider, Human Torch and Iron Man in these issues. #15 in particular is in beautiful condition. I have not rebagged my Marvel Team-Up books yet, but I know I did not have any of these.

The Tomb of Dracula #36-38, 57. I bought several Tomb of Dracula books a few months ago and these were still at the shop. I figured this would be the perfect moment to pick them up. I do like the character of Dracula, and with the Blood Hunt coming up, this feels very relevant.

I finished up with an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen on the trip back to Maquoketa. As I was driving, I remember thinking what a great day this was. I had a blast with Free Comic Book Day and I hope everyone else had an excellent experience too.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #95

Posted on by

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!