Saturday, May 2, 2009

After Thoughts: Free Comic Book Day 2009

As you may have known, whether it be from my constant reminders or otherwise, today was Free Comic Book Day across North America. Being in the city increased my freebies, as I actually visited three shops, each with their own way of handing out the free books.

First shop of the day was Forbidden Planet, considered to be one of the premiere comic shops in New York City; and they even have some other global stores. I arrived early, because I found out last week that the first 300 customers would receive all of the day's comics, where as later customers would only receive a few. When I arrive at about 9:20, there was already a line of 50 or so people, so I was pretty much set. Apparently Hugh Jackman was at the store yesterday, so there was a lot of promo stuff left over for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In fact, I got me two foam claws, and a FCBD issue of Wolverine, actually signed by Hugh Jackman; lucky me!

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As for exactly what I got? Where to start?! List is in same order as photos, left to right: G.I. Joe/Transformers Animated double issue (IDW), Worlds of Aspen (Aspen), Nascar Heroes (Nascar Comics), John Stanley's Melvin Monster/Nancy double issue (Drawn & Quarterly), Radical sampler (Radical Comics), Love & Rockets: New Stories FCBD (Fantagraphics), Impact University vol. 5 (Impact), Hot Lists (Wizard), DC Kids #1 (DC), Warhammer Online: Prelude to War (Boom! Studios), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 25th Anniversay reprint (Mirage), Contract #1 (First Salvo), Cyber Force/Hunter Killer: First Look (Top Cow), Cartoon Palooza #2 (Ape Entertainment), Bongo Comics Free-For-All! (Bongo), Comics Festival! (Legion of Evil Press), Cars: The Rookie #1 (Boom! Kids), Blackest Night #0 (DC), Atomic Robo/Drone/We Kill Monsters (Red 5), The Mighty Archie Art Players #1 (Archie), Arcana Presents (Arcana), Shonen Jump Special (Viz Media), Owly and Friends (Top Shelf), Aliens/Predator double issue (Dark Horse), Resurrection (Oni Press), Savage Dragon #148 (Image), Star Wars: The Clone Wars/FCBD sampler (Dark Horse), Sonic: Evolution of a Hero (Archie), Studio 407 Sampler (Studio 407), The Stuff of Legend (Th3rd World Studios), Attack of the Alterna Zombies! #1 (Alterna), Wolverine: Origin of an X-Man (Marvel), and a Magic the Gathering novel sampler. In short, I got a hell of a lot; like, it took me over an hour to get that all down.

The next shop I went to was just a few blocks away, St. Mark's Comics. It was the first time I've ever been to the store, and quite frankly, I can't find a reason to ever go back there. I didn't even bother getting free comics there, because they basically were only handing each customer one issue from the day's selections. I know they're free, but there's no need to hoard.

The last shop, Cosmic Comics, is shop I have been to before. It's not a place that will blow you away, but if you're looking for back-issues they have a decent selection. The way they set up their Free Comic Book Day was with a line up on the wall, a decent amount of the day's titles were available, and each customer was allowed to choose 8. I picked a few doubles of what I had already, but I also got a hold of a few I surprisingly didn't get from Forbidden Planet.

FCBD09_03
From left to right again: Mercy Sparx #1 (Devil's Due), Star Wars: The Clone Wars/FCBD sampler (Dark Horse), The Avengers (Marvel), Blackest Night #0 (DC), *explanation below*, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 25th Anniversay reprint (Mirage), William Shatner Presents (Blue Water), Fist of Justice (Digital Webbing Press), and Gold Digger #1 (AP Entertainment).

The middle comic is interesting. As I went to check out, what I assume was the manager handed me an old looking comic, Battlestar Galactica #1, published by Marvel. The book feels old, looks old, and I even checked inside and all I could find were copyrights for 1979, nothing about reprints or anything, and this thing is mint! So, luckily, I bought some sleeves with cardboard backing and I put the issue in right away. If this thing is for real, then that's pretty cool, but I'll have to look into it. Oh, I also bought the first issue of Scott Pilgrim while I was there, so you can hopefully look forward to a review later.

All in all I think today was good. I got a huge selection of comics thanks to Forbidden Planet's generousity, and the fact that I got stuff from two store. Personal highlights: Blackest Night #0 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, if you try to get anything from today, get those. Sure a lot of the others may be crap, but it's crap I didn't have to pay for, and who can argue with that? How did everyone else fair with Free Comic Book Day?

Visit FreeComicBookDay.com for more info on all these comics.

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