Free Comic Book Day--May 2nd

daydreamscomics · Post by **daydreamscomics** » Sun May 03, 2009 1:19 am

I just got home from a long but extremely successful Free Comic Book Day!

We were open our regular hours of 10am - 7pm, and by about 10:15 there was about 25-30 people in the store until about noon. It was WAY more busy than I expected it to be right off the bat. We had about 40 different FCBD books for people (we did a limit of 5 per person) and had 50% off back issues, with select trades/hc at great discounts.

Jason Aaron and Jesse Delperdang were kind enough to come be guests for the day. Jason writes Scapled as well as Wolverine: Weapon X and Ghost Rider. Jesse inks a lot of the Kubert brothers stuff, and has starting doing a lot of work at Marvel, having inked Captain Britain & MI13, X-Infernus and Amazing Spider-Man in the past year. Both signed autographs from noon until the end of the day. We then took them out to eat and then we all went to see X-Men Origins Wolverine.

I have to say it was one of the WORST movies EVER. I'd rather watch Ghost Rider on repeat for a week than watch this again. Just my two cents haha

It was an extremely successful day sales wise, and I got to chat with Mike/Lightning Strike a bit (he definitely took advantage of the back issue sale

) All in all I was very happy with the event, and next year will be even better. And all I have to say is: watch out for FCBD 2011. We are going to have the event of the year...

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Sun May 03, 2009 3:28 am

good stuff from around the comic world it seems

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun May 03, 2009 9:26 am

Still reading through mine (definitely enjoyed Avengers the most so far). For those who missed the Darkest Night one it's not that major. It's all recap stuff.

SPOILERS

It's 13 page story of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen standing at Batman's grave talking about how Bats, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are dead and how they both have been dead before themselves. They walk off and there's a a couple pages of Black Hand holding a skull and saying an evil version of the Green Lantern Oath (talking about raising the dead). During the oath, the graves of the Dibneys and Ronnie Raymond are shown along with an image of Hawkman and Hawkwoman flying with the Atom and a face shot of a Guardian called Scar. That's it.

The rest of it is pin ups with a run down on each of the colored Corps' powers and weaknesses.

It's all BEAUTIFULLY illustrated but I don't think there was anything too major there.

vikingspawn · Post by **vikingspawn** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:07 am

My shops were real low key on FCBD in my area. I went to 2 spots that had a minimum of 3 per customer and I picked up:

Blackest Night #0
Dark Horse/Clone Wars
Aliens/Predator
Bongo Comics Free for All

The indie titles were barely ordered in my local shops. I gotta hit ebay for a set of those...

rictor · Post by **rictor** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:19 am

My FCBD went very well. We had a ton of people stop in and we blew through hundreds of free books (we had a limit of 6 per person). From midnight to about 3 p.m. the free comic rack was made up entirely of this year's titles, but by mid-afternoon we had some "sell-outs" on some indie titles, so we put out some key books from previous years. Everyone seemed happy, and I think that most people got what they wanted, so I didn't screw up like I did in 2007 when I seriously underestimated the appeal of Peanuts.

I survived the entire 24 hours, mostly unscathed. I spent the wee hours of the night decorating cookies with comic book and genre imagery, and customers snapped them up quickly once daylight broke. Foot traffic was heavy and sales were strong throughout the day despite the Penguins playoff game mid-day. At the end of the day, I prepared a special meal for my helpers and friends so that we could all unwind after the long day.

Sales-wise, it wasn't my very best FCBD, but we beat last year's total by a few hundred dollars, and we all had a great time.

enscott · Post by **enscott** » Sun May 03, 2009 12:06 pm

Made sure I went to FCBD yesterday to pick up a Blackest Night 0, but I also bought-

The Harbinger TPB from 1992
a 4-pack of X-Os (17-20)
Green Lantern 40 (vs Agent Orange Piggy)
Justice Society of America 26 (Power Girl cover, of course)
Reign in Hell 1 (was for free and I can see why)

AND, as an unexpected gem from the bargain bins, The New Mutants Giant-Sized Annual 3, where Warlock battles the Impossible Man!

The pilgrimage went well.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Sun May 03, 2009 1:23 pm

blackest night very cool stuff

tarheelmarine · Post by **tarheelmarine** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:00 pm

Todd Luck wrote:Still reading through mine (definitely enjoyed Avengers the most so far). For those who missed the Darkest Night one it's not that major. It's all recap stuff.

SPOILERS

It's 13 page story of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen standing at Batman's grave talking about how Bats, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are dead and how they both have been dead before themselves. They walk off and there's a a couple pages of Black Hand holding a skull and saying an evil version of the Green Lantern Oath (talking about raising the dead). During the oath, the graves of the Dibneys and Ronnie Raymond are shown along with an image of Hawkman and Hawkwoman flying with the Atom and a face shot of a Guardian called Scar. That's it.

The rest of it is pin ups with a run down on each of the colored Corps' powers and weaknesses.

It's all BEAUTIFULLY illustrated but I don't think there was anything too major there.

Thanks for the recap. It sounds like it will be good, but I think I am going to stick to Conan, getting some back issues for the remainder of 2009, and perhaps getting an issue or two of Radical Comics at Comic-Con.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:15 pm

cant wait to read all my free stuff

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun May 03, 2009 9:29 pm

rictor wrote: so I didn't screw up like I did in 2007 when I seriously underestimated the appeal of Peanuts.

Yeah, that was definitely the best free comic I've gotten and a real surprise to me when I read it. Can't imagine how long it took for them to get a couple hundred strips together that hadn't been reprinted before but it was worth it.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:02 pm

Well I've read them just about all of them by now. I will say I was disappointed that I went to the one shop in the area that gave them all out a couple years ago and ended up getting many less from the same shop this year (I did get my comics 2 and half hours after they opened, maybe they ran out of some?).

Of the ones I got, I am glad to see that publishers are getting smarter about it. All the comics I got were plugging CURRENT or UPCOMING plotlines, series and events. None of this "reprinting the first issue from a couple years back you'd have to order a $15-25 trade to get the next chapter of" crap.

And it's amazing how the quality varied. My jaw dropped at how bad the storytelling was in the Transformers story. I mean it's just two robots fighting each other, I shouldn't have to guess what's happening every few panels. But then there are some real storytelling gems in there like the Owly and Usagi Yojimbo stories. I got to say I've never heard of Red 5 Comics but I was definitely impressed with what they put out. And it was a huge treat to get to read the very first issue of TMNT (and finding out they're putting out a TMNT Adventures: Forever War miniseries from the guys who did the old Archie series!)

Avengers is probably my favorite overall. It told a decent little action story with fantastic art that oriented readers to both the New Avengers and Dark Avengers. After seeing the Dark Avengers in action it definitely helps confirm my desire to pick up their series in trade at some point.

Blackest Night was good with amazing art, but as someone who hasn't read the current GL comics I just didn't get enough feel of what those books were like off of it. Recaps and data files are nice but I really need to see the characters in action in a real story to tell if I like the book. Text pieces about the powers of each Corps just doesn't capture it very well. I come away knowing Red Lanterns can fly around and throw up lava and that Star Sapphires can reveal people's greatest love, which sounds...underwhelming but I'm sure works much better in-story than in a text description. LOL

Overall pretty good stuff.

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:07 pm

Todd Luck wrote: Yosagi Yojimbo stories.

There was a Usagi one? Awww, man. I didn't see that one.

On the Transformers are you talking about the transformers animated one from IDW? I thought that was pretty good. I didn't care for the GI Joe stories though.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:23 pm

400yrs wrote:[quote="Todd Luck" Yosagi Yojimbo stories.

There was a Usagi one? Awww, man. I didn't see that one.

On the Transformers are you talking about the transformers animated one from IDW? I thought that was pretty good. I didn't care for the GI Joe stories though.[/quote]

I was just frustrated with how the actions in the panels were hard to "read" and follow on the Transformers story. The writing itself was alright.

Usagi is in the Dark Horse one on the flip side of the Clone Wars comic. It's in there with a brief Indian Jones story, a couple pages of Bean World and an incomprehensible Emily the Strange short.

Eternalwarrior68 · Post by **Eternalwarrior68** » Mon May 04, 2009 6:17 am

I was very happy after reading the TMNT 25th anniversary reprint of #1, that mirage is finally releasing there first trade (of the originals)!!

Issues #1-11 +the 4 issue mini

Pre-order now people!

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:49 am

Eternalwarrior68 wrote:I was very happy after reading the TMNT 25th anniversary reprint of #1, that mirage is finally releasing there first trade (of the originals)!!

Issues #1-11 +the 4 issue mini

Pre-order now people!

Were they really that good ?

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:58 am

I read both the Blackest Night and the avengers books. Both were good.

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:01 pm

Todd Luck wrote: Usagi is in the Dark Horse one on the flip side of the Clone Wars comic. It's in there with a brief Indian Jones story, a couple pages of Bean World and an incomprehensible Emily the Strange short.

aw crap, why did they have to go and include Beanworld? Now I have to go out and get this book. I wonder if any of the local shops might have copies left...

Eternalwarrior68 · Post by **Eternalwarrior68** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:53 pm

Knightt wrote:
Eternalwarrior68 wrote:I was very happy after reading the TMNT 25th anniversary reprint of #1, that mirage is finally releasing there first trade (of the originals)!!

Issues #1-11 +the 4 issue mini

Pre-order now people!
Were they really that good ?

To me the original TMNT was the coolest comic out there. I love the art and writing. I would say, if you never read the early TMNT you should atleast take a look it it when it comes out.

The Spider · Post by **The Spider** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:56 pm

Eternalwarrior68 wrote:
Knightt wrote:
Eternalwarrior68 wrote:I was very happy after reading the TMNT 25th anniversary reprint of #1, that mirage is finally releasing there first trade (of the originals)!!

Issues #1-11 +the 4 issue mini

Pre-order now people!
Were they really that good ?
To me the original TMNT was the coolest comic out there. I love the art and writing. I would say, if you never read the early TMNT you should atleast take a look it it when it comes out.

The official TMNT site put the first 15 issues (and the one-shots) up for reading online.

http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/comic.htm

dellamorte · Post by **dellamorte** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:00 pm

Eternalwarrior68 wrote:
Knightt wrote:
Eternalwarrior68 wrote:I was very happy after reading the TMNT 25th anniversary reprint of #1, that mirage is finally releasing there first trade (of the originals)!!

Issues #1-11 +the 4 issue mini

Pre-order now people!
Were they really that good ?
To me the original TMNT was the coolest comic out there. I love the art and writing. I would say, if you never read the early TMNT you should atleast take a look it it when it comes out.

I agree. It's been forever since I've read these books but this was the *SQUEE* back in the day. TMNT brought me back into comics after I stopped reading and I never left again. I really don't know how well it holds up but just flipping through the FCBD reprint took me back to my youth.

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:05 pm

Todd Luck wrote:Still reading through mine (definitely enjoyed Avengers the most so far). For those who missed the Darkest Night one it's not that major. It's all recap stuff.

SPOILERS

It's 13 page story of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen standing at Batman's grave talking about how Bats, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are dead and how they both have been dead before themselves. They walk off and there's a a couple pages of Black Hand holding a skull and saying an evil version of the Green Lantern Oath (talking about raising the dead). During the oath, the graves of the Dibneys and Ronnie Raymond are shown along with an image of Hawkman and Hawkwoman flying with the Atom and a face shot of a Guardian called Scar. That's it.

The rest of it is pin ups with a run down on each of the colored Corps' powers and weaknesses.

It's all BEAUTIFULLY illustrated but I don't think there was anything too major there.

Just read it. This FCBD book actually helped me decide not to buy any of the Blackest Night stuff (at least as it comes out). It's apparently going to be a whole DC thing, not just the lanterns.

John's wrote, "BLACKETS NIGHT will recharge the DC Universe as GREEN LANTERN: REBITRTH recharged the Green Lantern Corps".

If it was a story focused on the main GLs like Hal, Guy, Kyle, Kilowog, I'd like it. I don't care to read a universe wide event like this.

From reading the pin-ups, the Indigo Tribe looks to be the most interesting. They look like a group of warriors with a mission in mind.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:24 am

ya all the huge events are getting old

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:25 pm

400yrs wrote: the Indigo Tribe looks to be the most interesting.

I wonder if this group will be made up of mullet-wearing, guitar-toting lesbians?

-slym

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:36 pm

one can only hope

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:42 pm

superman-prime wrote:one can only hope

-slym