Free Comic Book Day 2012

Photo: Michael Harrison

For the second year in a row, my two sons and I headed out today for Free Comic Book Day - a promotional day where the comic industry produces special free books and participating comic stores give them out.  It's amazing fun. 

We first hit Comics and More, in King of Prussia, north of Philly, where the store was packed, mostly with kids and families.  There were more free comics than ever, and I almost felt guilty, as we loaded up on more than 10 free comics, most of which were pretty kid friendly.  I made sure to buy a few books to support the place.

It felt a little strange, though, to see how mainstream superheroes are now, especially with all the Avengers-themed stuff everywhere.  And it always is a little awkward when my boys peruse the covers of the 'adult' section of the comic store, with lots of violent and scantily clad covers.  We looked through the section for kid-friendly comics, but these are mostly limited to the Archie family of books and some younger Marvel stuff.  The industry definitely seems to have grown up, as in, designed for grown-ups.  But maybe it was always that way.  I know I spent a lot of my cash on Image comics as a kid, which were not particularly kid-friendly.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  But my 10 and 6 year old boys were quite interested in a figurine of Emma Frost, which I noticed and shuffled them along :)

We then went to the local library, which had a small stand of comics, then hit Royal Comics, a smallish shop, where we bought some more comics and checked out the books.  Again, although I'd be happy spending dough on the titles, we had to search to find things I thought my kids were ok to read.  The main comics section was definitely adults-only. 

It was interesting.  Are comics coming back?  Are geeks mainstream?  The comics event was incredibly awesome, and I'd think great for business.  It definitely exposed huge amounts of people to the comics industry that usually probably aren't going in there.  But will it last?  Who knows.  But for one day, things felt right again - the dying print industry felt vibrant and alive as we all stood in line to buy bright colored books printed on dead trees.  And my boys had fun.  Anyway, I'm going to stop pondering about it, as I have a pile of comics to read.

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Tags: comic books, comics, free comic book day

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Comment by Dave Hale on May 13, 2012 at 12:45am

So, a little follow-up. Yesterday we went back to the comic book store to see if our raffle tickets were winners. They weren't, but you could pick another free comic leftover from FCBD for every raffle ticket you turned in, even if they weren't winners. Four tickets meant four more books. They selection was terrible (not surprised) but I picked up Donald Duck, Sonic the Hedgehog, Animal Planet's World's Most Dangerous Animals, and Top Shelf Kids Club. I didn't know anything about TSKC but the shop owner recommended it because kids seem to love the Owly stories. After I picked that one, I noticed it had Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken, (which I'm pretty sure I've heard about from the GeekDad blog), and let me tell you, I'm loving PPvsNC. It's friggin' hilarious and my kids and I enjoy all the others in that book, too. So, I'd say it was a good choice and can't wait 'til next year's FCBD.

Comment by Michael Harrison on May 5, 2012 at 10:10pm

Heheh. Sorry, that wasn't my intent. And, hey, that Avengers book was pretty good, too!

Comment by Dave Hale on May 5, 2012 at 9:29pm
Sure, make me kick myself even harder...lol
Comment by Michael Harrison on May 5, 2012 at 9:19pm

My son is 5, Dave, and he loves Mouse Guard. It can be a little violent (the first issue has a group of mice slaying a snake) but it's really fun. I read it by myself when it came out and couldn't wait to share it with my kids.

Comment by Dave Hale on May 5, 2012 at 9:17pm

I hadn't even thought about it, but you're right. They even had stacks of free comics left over from last year that you could have chosen, too. But it wasn't exactly one per person. Everybody that walked through the door got a raffle ticket good for one free book and entry into a raffle for door prizes worth $100 each. Fore every $10 you spent that day, you could get another ticket for another free book/raffle entry. But our financial situation doesn't really allow us to spend money on extra things like that so we could only get the one book each. We had thought about going to the other comic store in town, but there was a parade going on downtown and the street was blocked off so we decided against it. I don't know how they do it. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't grab the Mouse Guard book. I saw it and considered it and everything, but then forgot about it because I don't know much about it.

Comment by Michael Harrison on May 5, 2012 at 9:01pm

I understand that the store owners have to buy the "free" comic books and everything, but limiting to one copy per person seems a bit miserly. My local store, the amazing Chapel Hill Comics (it's in the picture up above), let us take one of everything. Go I grabbed a bunch for the kid, and a bunch for me, and a bunch for the wife.

Comment by Dave Hale on May 5, 2012 at 8:55pm

Our local shop limited it to 1 per person so my 3yo daughter chose Yo Gabba Gabba, my 5yo son chose Transformers, I chose Avengers, (also for my son) and my wife told me to choose for her, so I chose Tinkerbell (also for my daughter). I never got into comic books as a kid so it was really fun doing it primarily for the kids. They also had a wheel of prizes for the kids and my son actually won a limited edition Batman action figure. He was super excited about that. It was a blast.

Comment by Oliver Gingrich on May 5, 2012 at 7:10pm

No, I didn't see that out on the shelves, but I had read about it and it sounded pretty cool.  Did you go to any shops?  There was a few folks dressed up, and I earned some geek cred with my boys for correctly identifying a guy dressed as Iron Fist.  It's always fun to be part of an event.

Comment by Michael Harrison on May 5, 2012 at 4:17pm

Did you manage to snag the hardcover Archaia book, with the Mouse Guard/Labyrinth stories? Very cool stuff.

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