free comic book day 2024 2 2

[grendelbo]

I passed on the free books but took advantage of the LCS' deals today. 1/2 off bin books. 25% off wall books.

[MisterX]

My LCS had a limit of 5 books per customer. I picked up

Asterix

Flash Gordon

Jonny Quest

Atlas 

Hellboy & Stranger Things

If five wasn't the limit, I would've picked up the Popeye book and the Dr. Who one as well.  I also bought some new releases as well. 

[Cocomonkey]

I didn't manage to get any of the FCBD books I was hoping to get...couldn't get to a store until 2.5 hrs after it opened, and by then, all the bigger stuff (Marvel/DC issues) were long gone. Aw well.

Did manage to pick up Havok/Wolverine: Meltdown #3 though, which I needed to finish that run, so not a total loss.

[SpineTic]

You can get the ones you missed at Midtown comics.

https://www.midtowncomics.com/free-comic-book-day?plid=601

[Robot Man]

Thought I'd do a short review of the 8 Free comics I got.

I will preface this by saying, I am a GA guy and haven't bought more than just a handful of new comics in over 20 years... I can't comment on the Superhero books as I gave up on them a long time ago. 

I will grade these as I see them from worst to best.

#8 Overstreet Guide. Worthless to me. Based toward someone who knows nothing about comics. I already know about storage and mylars and am quite good at chiseling down dealers respectfully. Grade 0

#7 The Cursed Library. Archie has gone to Hell. I am a PCH guy so way hoping for something a little better. Grade F

#6 Eye Lie Popeye. I am a Popeye fan. Had all the characters (except the Jeep). Premise was how Popeye lost his eye. Quickly progressed into some kind of superhero slugfest. Terrible Annimie art. I guess I enjoyed seeing the characters. Grade D

#5 Tons of Strange. Gravitated to it because of the EC style cover. 3 full stories with a horror and sci fi twist. Bad writing and pretty terrible art. Somewhat readable but Bill and Al are probably rolling over in their graves. Grade C-D

4. Star Wars Two pretty good stories with decent art. The same ole, same ole but readable and entertaining. Disney has pretty much been beating a dead horse. Grade C+

#3 Flash Gordon Where Star Wars came from. predictable like Star Wars but some of the best art in the bunch. Someone was really trying to channel a bit of Al Williamson Grade B

#2 MAD Published by DC so everything was their characters. Classic satire stuff with some classic art and gags. One of the few with content only cover to cover as in the MAD tradition. A very fun read Cover was a bit disgusting though... Grade A-

#1 Atlas Comic Library. The one I was looking forward to the most. Excellent story choices, Horror, War and even humor. Back in the day when comics were lovingly drawn with a pen and original hand colored. Wish they printed it on newsprint. One of the greatest Bill Everett pre-code horror covers. My only complaint was the printing on the classic Wolverton story. Was a bit out of register. Grade A

All in all an hour or so of fun free reading. I say this every year, God help the comic industry. Computer generated art just has such a flat, gaudy quality in general. Stories are poorly written for the most part. Kind of like where the music industry has gone. I support my local shop buying reprint books and supplies but just can't see paying what new comics go for, for the drivel I see there. 

I still enjoy Free Comic Day. Fun taking my granddaughters. They found some fun books and actually read them. I doubt they will ever be comic lovers but a good excuse to spend the day with them.

Anybody want to review what they got?

Edited May 7 by Robot Man

[aardvark88]

My LCS allowed 2 free comics. Got 'Fabulous Freak Bros.' underground reprinting some hilarious and political stories along with "Fat Freddy's Cat" story, thus 8/10. Also picked up cartoony 'Star Wars' that had a nice summary of the various comic titles and difference btwn the generations of timelines on the inside cover so 6/10. No need for me to pick up 'History of Overstreet' as most of that was a reprint of FCBD  comic a few years ago.

[Jayman]

On 5/6/2024 at 9:19 PM, Robot Man said:

Anybody want to review what they got?

RM, I didn’t get a chance to read all of mine yet but I read the Godzilla first, (I know it was a Halloween leftover and not a FCBD book). Pretty good intro to a young kids comic. A boy starts posting videos to explain how he saves the world with the help of Godzilla.

Tons of Strange: I was drawn to this for the same reasons you were, that EC vibe. Stories were awful and the art on that first one, the Star Wars takeoff, looked like a bad photocopy. Just terrible! The black and white Becoming Frankenstein had some redeeming art though.

MAD: This I also agree was a fun read. Lots of clever humor and sight gags!

[Robot Man]

On 5/6/2024 at 7:21 PM, aardvark88 said:

My LCS allowed 2 free comics. Got 'Fabulous Freak Bros.' underground reprinting some hilarious and political stories along with "Fat Freddy's Cat" story, thus 8/10. Also picked up cartoony 'Star Wars' that had a nice summary of the various comic titles and difference btwn the generations of timelines on the inside cover so 6/10. No need for me to pick up 'History of Overstreet' as most of that was a reprint of FCBD  comic a few years ago.

Freak Bros was from last year. And was easily the best one that year. Would have been #1 for me if they did another this year. 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Chuck charging $100 for the set of all 48 Free Comic Book Day issues.  

Pre-Order Your Free Comic Book Day Set (milehighcomics.com)

[Cocomonkey]

On 5/6/2024 at 10:10 AM, SpineTic said:

You can get the ones you missed at Midtown comics.

https://www.midtowncomics.com/free-comic-book-day?plid=601

Thanks for letting me know about that! I was going to take a walk to my LCS tomorrow when they reopen for the week to see if they had anything, but my guess was that by the end of Sunday, they were likely well out of the bigger titles. Midtown still had them though, so added a few current books to meet their minimum and put in an order for pickup.

[Darwination]

I went down just to get the Atlas book and for the fact I hadn't gone in years.  After a road trip across two southern states where I'd visited 5 or 6 SAD looking stores in which I purchased not a single book but only a couple of records in exchange for good convo with the friendlier owners (bad locations, no customers, living the dream ), it was nice to see my LCS in Memphis full of kids and their parents, a snow cone food truck outside, and generally beaming faces.  They didn't have the Atlas book but did spend a long time looking for it for me.  Ended up walking out with a fistful of undergrounds, basically the last of the remnants of the whole of the older back issues boxes I've thumbed through the last couple times I've visited.   It's tough, I want to support my store, but I feel like it's charity when I buy there versus Amazon (the little new stuff I get tends to be art books or trades). 

I do like to pick back issues, but there's only so many GA books or undergrounds there, and I barely ever see new stock come in.

I spent maybe 30 bucks after being given a friendly discount from the 50 bucks marked on the bags, and they told me take all the free comics I wanted.  I took the Asterix and the TMNT thinking I'd let some kids enjoy the rest.

The best comic I came away with (cept maybe a high grade copy of Big Apple Comix) was this one, but I do love to tease the fanboys.  Hmm I did get a Fightin Marines with Canteen Kate, too...

My LCS does have a very nice copy of Psychoanalysis #1, but it's got some unfortunate tape pull on the girl, so all I ever do is look at it.  Also a copy of Weird Thrillers #2 with a chunk out of the corner and the back cover missing, I look at that one every time, too...

Edited May 7 by Darwination

[habsfan1]

On 5/6/2024 at 9:19 PM, Robot Man said:

#2 MAD Published by DC so everything was their characters. Classic satire stuff with some classic art and gags. One of the few with content only cover to cover as in the MAD tradition. A very fun read Cover was a bit disgusting though... Grade A-

 

On 5/6/2024 at 10:26 PM, Jayman said:

MAD: This I also agree was a fun read. Lots of clever humor and sight gags!

I have to agree, loved the Mad issue.  Brought back great memories of reading Mad magazine.

[Telegan]

The only one I really wanted was the Atlas comic for that iconic cover, but I couldn't find it anywhere but on MidTown's site, but unfortunately I had other stuff to take care of and couldn't order it (assuming it wasn't "pick-up" only).  When I got back to ordering comics, it was gone anyway.  Amazon, I think has it for $10, but I think I'm just going to eventually buy the Fantagraphics books instead.  They look good.  Hopefully they're not a waste of money. lol.

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:43 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Chuck charging $100 for the set of all 48 Free Comic Book Day issues.  

Pre-Order Your Free Comic Book Day Set (milehighcomics.com)

After a 60% price reduction.