Comic Book Resources

“My” comic book store offered the priceless sight of “Superman” and “The Flash” hurrying to finish off their beers and get one last cigarette in before their “Fastest Man” race. (And the actual race, but that was really secondary in entertainment value.)

Who won the race?

Believe it or not I live over here near Tolleson (yes, I also live in Arizona) and I went too FCBD like a good little geek and damn, man! #1 I met the guy whose writing the Phantom, which is pretty good in my opinion, and to be honest I think FCBD at Samurai Comics is all about the back-issue sales. I got the entire series of Global Frequency, 30 freakin’ issues of Cerebus, the first book of Astro City: the Dark Age, Grendal, Smax, Rex Mundi, and….and… sorry slight heart attack. Yeah, really It was awesome. I say three cheers for Free Comic Book Day. Yippee! Know if no-one minds I have a lot to read.

Here’s the thing: I figured that, with the last couple of years’ Image-focused FCBDs still being insanely busy despite being almost wholly irrelevant to comics as they’ve existed since, what, back when there was only one L&O show on TV and =three= Justice Leagues competing with one another, having two jin-you-ine superstar creators of the moment (not some moment fifteen years gone) woulda had traffic backed up for miles.

So, I did something I’ve never done, except for the year my aunt got married and I had to fly out of state for FCBD. (Family, y’know.)

I bailed.

Wow, did I make a mistake. The place not only was apparently =not= Chaos Central, it doesn’t even look as busy as it does on cosplay nights or even for the card-game tournaments.

I coulda walked right up to EVS and thanked him for his column. And then kvetched about when the next one would hit.

Poopie.

So what’s wrong with “cost-cutting”, especially on a no-profit item?

I had a nice time, visiting both of Madison, WI’s major comics shops, Capital City Comics and Westfield Comics, with pup… err, baby in tow. Capital City Comics is my favorite of the two shops (though they’re both great), despite being squeezed into a space about as big as my living room. (Seriously, I had to get help from the employee to pull a Kill Your Boyfriend trade from the middle of a stack of books and trades.) Their owner is a really chatty, friendly guy, who seems to have been around the Madison comics scene for quite some time, and the employee who was running things when I got there was extremely friendly. I went in looking for the first Atomic Robo trade, which they were out of, but when I asked about it, he went into the back to secure one of what I imagine was their personal stash of the FCBD Atomic Robo issues. (The owner did the same thing for me last year when I was buying some Darwyn Cooke trades, pulling out the Canadian artists issue.) Their traffic was light, but I imagine it picked up later in the day, when they had some local indie comix scene folks coming in for an event. Here, I picked up Kill Your Boyfriend and Astro City: Local Heroes (in addition to Atomic Robo).

Westfield Comics (http://www.westfieldcomicsetc.com/) is much larger, though it lacks Capital City’s impressive focus on small press stuff, and in recent months has been organized to be much more new-customer friendly (the shelves are labeled with things like “Manga – Japanese-influenced comics”). And kid friendly, too – the first thing I saw upon coming in was a shelf of “All-Ages Comics,” with Mini Marvels, Marvel Adventures, etc. Westfield was packed, with five local comics folks doing sketches and signings. I walked out with the second Walt Simonson Fantastic Four trade, and the Hercules Secret Invasion hardcover, plus Blackest Night, the FCBD comic with the Tek Jansen backup, and the FCBD Love and Rockets issue.

Fun times! Lots of kids at Westfield, especially, which was cool to see. Line of the day – mother asking son “What about Atomic Robo? It has a dinosaur, that’s cool, right?”

In an upset, Superman triumphed this time, JackKing.

Andrew: Good haul, there. I assume you went to the newer Samurai comics, because the one downtown doesn’t have that many back issues, does it?

ykw: Yeah, the store wasn’t that crowded. It was certainly busy, but not anywhere what I’ve seen even recently for various tournaments. I left about 2, and Johns and van Sciver were supposed to be there until 5, so I imagine if you had come a bit later, it would have been even less crowded.

Johnny B: Nothing is really “wrong” with cutting costs, it just seems weird when there are other ways to do it.

Well, “my comic book store” decided not to participate in Free Comic Book Day.

In fact, many of the local stores said they couldn’t afford it. So basically, only one store (in my 60 mile radius) was offering the Free Blackest Night #0 comic. And when I got there at 9:30 in the morn’n the line to just get into the store was insane. It went around the mall twice.

It’s as if “the Line from the DMV” decided to get together with the lines of “the Original Star Wars Premieres’ lines”, and decided to make little “Black Friday/U2 concert tickets” lines.

So… errr… I guess what I’m trying to say is that if any of you still have access to, or can get me an extra copy of Blackest Night #0; I would greatly appreciate it. I can pay for shipping and stuff, as you probably guessed. And if I’m ever in a position to help a fellow out, I won’t think twice about it.

I guess that’s it. If you are ever in Puerto Rico, I can also offer to pick you up or drop you at the airport… or help you move… or buy you a drink. You know, little favors like that. But you know, little favors like that can be lifesavers. I mean, getting a drink after “Last Call”; that’s like the coolest thing ever! Right?!?!

This was the first year I went to the store to get free comics. I’m glad I went! I got Blackest Night #0, The Avengers, and the Transformers: Animated/G.I. Joe flip book. I was satisfied.

No cosplayers here (thank god).

I arrived at 1 PM at my store. I was not asked to be a guest talent – apparently they had a local studio of 5-6 guys and another separate guy, so there was no real room anyway. So, I get there, and 5 of the 7 guys who are there are packed up and leaving for the day. Yeah, no shit. (They’re all local nobodies – the only guy any of you might have heard of is Anthony Hightower, because he’s managed a couple of Dark Horse and Image appearances).

So we have Thor Thorvaldson Jr. (he works on Furrlough and some other stuff for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix – you can Google him) and Mike Sudduth, a local guy who’s really just getting started. (Steve Epting was asked and had planned to show, but family commitments changed at the last moment.) So there are no superstar artists. So I’m just going to go get some free books – I got the Avengers (which split apart along the seam and fell to pieces in my hands after I got it home and read it. Real quality printing there, Marvel…), the GL book (nothing special), the Dark Horse flip book (nice little Usagi Yojimbo story in there), and a Warhammer 40K from Boom! just to see what it was. They didn’t really have the free books I wanted (they didn’t order them).

As far as swag purchases – I got 48 comics and a TPB for $41.56, including tax. The oldest comic I got was BRAVE & THE BOLD #95 (May 1971), and the newest comic I got was ACTION COMICS #652 (April 1990), The average era was between 1976-1983.

As I’m about to leave, the manager yells at me to stop – someone has purchased one of my prints they have on display in the store, and asks me if I’ll sign it. Sure, no problem. I ask to borrow a pen to sign it with. Next thing I know, it’s 5:30 PM and I’ve signed 30 prints, reviewed six portfolios – including the two guest artists – and we’re talking about getting a local comics drawing club together for all the local comics pros. Insane.

Ah well – at least nobody asked me to sketch for free like the other guys were doing.

Red Ricky:

Yeah, my mail order retailer in Michigan doesn’t bother with “Free Comic Book Day” either. “It sure as hell isn’t free for ME! I have to pay for that stuff, y’know! I can give away free comics to bozos off the street who come in for free comics out of the stock I already have that doesn’t sell!” And he’s right, and so that’s exactly what he does. Not that I blame him. He probably got more business out of the fact that the Wolverine movie was this weekend and his shop is across the street from the theatre (which he also happens to be co-manager of).