Free Comic Book Day 2012

It was that day, it comes round every year in May, when you can honestly say, It's Free Comic Book Day!  In case you've been living under a rock (or I suppose if you do not or have never collected comic books), Free Comic Book Day has been around for 10 years.  It's a day when comic book stores all over the country give away free comic books.  It's a chance for big and small publishers alike to give out free samples in the hopes of attracting new readers and collectors.  I have to say that if better prepared and motivated, I would have liked to have given away comics of my own producing, but alas it did not occur.  Perhaps I will try for next year.

Over the years there have been interesting give-aways, some cooler than others, and this year was no different.  The one book that caught my attention was Archaia's giveaway of a small hardback comic (yes I said hardback!).  Of course, if the hardback was filled with crap, that would be one thing, but this little hardback had one of Archaia's biggest hits in the form of Mouse Guard, and a cool new teaser of the latest in the line of Archaia's treatment of Jim Henson properties, this time it's a prequel to the movie Labyrinth.

I wound up going to three comic book stores on Saturday in search of finding two copies of the Mouse Guard hardback, one for me and one for the girlfriend.  I was a bit disappointed (and suspicious) when one of my usual haunts had no copies (or at least that I saw).  I feel like this special edition hardback has been in the news and on the blogs for months.  I am not sure why any comic shop wouldn't want to order at least a couple copies.  But my persistence paid off when I hit comic shop number 2 (The Comic Station in Haddon Heights, NJ), and even more so when I visited Frankenstein Comics in Woodbury.

If you are in the South Jersey area and you want a nice, shiny, clean comic experience, with friendly staff and cool new comics, check out The Comic Station.  If you like a more old-school, slightly grungy comic experience, go to Frankenstein Comics.  Bill, who runs Frankenstein Comics is clearly in love with comics.  He is very knowledgeable about the industry and the history of comic shops in the region, and he is a nice guy, willing to share is time and stories.  I was persistent enough to look through all his $1 books and come up with a stack of Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis written Hellblazer books.  Did I mention Bill has a slightly unorthodox way of pricing his comics?  Yup, he's got cool, more expensive books for $25, hardback and softback collected trade papers for $10 and $5 and lots of $1 individual issues.  He even puts together set of 5 and sometimes 10 books that ran together as a story-line as a collected super pack.  These are very tempting, because you don't have to run around looking for fill-in-the-blank copies.  An entire contained storyline, bagged, boarded, and taped together for your convenience.  Very cool.  If you don't mind rooting through boxes and avoiding precariously perched stacks of comics, make the trip to Frankenstein Comics.  A special shout-out also goes to Captain Blue Hen Comics (whose logo and link you can follow on the right sidebar of this blog).  They always have cool sales, superheroes and special guest characters in costume, sketch artists and more for their events.  Worth a drive to Newark, DE.

Thank to all the shops that participated for this year's Free Comic Book Day.  See you next year!