My Free Comic Book Day

So, how did I spend my Free Comic Book Day? I'm glad you asked!

Actually, I suppose my FCBD Began last Thursday, when my weekly DCBS package arrived. They tossed in several of the FCBD comics: X-Men/Runaways, Arcana Studio Presents, GI Joe: Sigma 6, Transformers, Image Future Shock, and Superman/Batman. Nothing too exciting, though the Marvel book contains a Runaways story and, more importantly, and Franklin Richards story; and the Arcana book has a 100 Girls story.

On Saturday I hopped in the car and motored over to Fun4All in Ypsilanti. F4A is a pretty decent store, doing its best to cater to both the mainstream and the indy crowds. I've only been to F4A twice before, both times on a Saturday: The first time I was the only person there, while the second time there was some sort of trading card game tournament going on and the place was quite busy. So I have no idea what typical Saturday foot traffic is like, but on Saturday I was in there for about 15-20 minutes and there was a constant stream of 10-15 people.

Set up right near the entrance were some local comic artists, selling their wares convention-style. Honestly their comics didn't look to be the sort of thing that interestes me, but I bought a couple anyway because they were nice guys and I like to support the local comics scene (and one of the comics had a monkey on the cover, and you know that I can't resist that!)

There was a huge FCBD sign in the window, but it look me a while inside to find the FCBD offerings. I was expecting a large table with the comics displayed for the taking, but instead they had sample issues displayed on a rack near the checkout with a sign saying to ask for your free comics at the checkout (limit 3 per customer). Not sure if that's the best way to go, but in thinking about it there are some advantages: No big mess from people rummaging through stacks for free comics; People coming up to the checkout will feel compelled to also buy something (although that wasn't required, as I saw at least a couple of people just ask for their free comics and go); and there's no danger of a kid walking away with something inappropriate and mom bringing the cops back later.

Fun4All seemed to have pretty much the entire gold & silver offerings, so I was able to get Scott Pilgrim, Amelia Rules, and Owly, three of the FCBD offerings that I really wanted. I also bought a copy of the Banana Sunday collection to give to a friend at her birthday celebration that evening. (Hey Oni: next year, get a Banana Sunday story for your FCBD book!)

Of course, no FCBD would be complete without me giving away some comics of my own as part of Free Comic Book Month, which I did--twice. And that evening at the party one of the people there cornered me about comics he should read so I spent about 20 minutes doing readers advisory (he took notes!)

So, all in all a pretty good FCBD. How was yours?