Free Comic Book Day, is an event that comes once a year where the comic book industry in conjunction with local comic book stores offer free books to the fans of the medium and it is also a great way to introduce new readers and younger readers to comics.  While the day mostly promotes free books to old fans, new fans, and young readers, the day is also a great way to support your local shop as well. Depending where you go, shops can either go all out or just have a regular day like any other but just offer some great sales on books.  Either way the day is a great day to just go out get some free books, enjoy the atmosphere and maybe purchase some extra books to support the local shops. This year I decided to go my local comic shop to get some free books with my daughter.  I figure it would be a great way to get her interested in reading.  We got there super early, because the first rule of Free Comic Book day is to go early, because if you don’t, chances are you won’t get the free comic you would like. So we get to the store, and the shop is already with a huge line.  At my local shop, it’s a small shop so we couldn’t all get in at the same time.  The owner had to bring us three or four at time to be able to get to shop. Even though we had to wait in line just to get in, it was still fun.

Hearing conversations from other fans about different heroes, and books that they were reading was a fun experience it made the wait less strenuous.   Once we finally got into the shop, our owner really pulled out the stops for the day, the selection of books that he had was very impressive, not only did he have a huge selection of free books, but our local shop owner also runs his own podcast, so he had setup a podcast with live coverage of the day, and he also had a local comic book creator at hand promoting his book, and giving our free sketches to people,  and free doughnuts and coffee for the early birds.

I wasn’t able to be there the whole day, but if my understanding was correct from the shop there was also going to be local music as well in the shop.  Me and my daughter had a blast with everything, I let my young  one select her three books which was an awesome experience to see her just choose what she wanted, and she did well might I add, and then I went on to select my three books.  While she may be a little young to read them by herself just the shear excitement of her grabbing the books, made it all matter because she is getting interested in books and I can read them to her until she is old enough to read it herself.

Overall, the day was a huge success and it reminded me that while the information age has made our lives easier, by giving instant access to media. There always something special about just hitting a shop and just talking to people while you buy your books, you establish relationships with some of the people that go to the store. The store becomes something more than just a store, it becomes a hangout were people of like mind shoot the crap on pop culture, but we also socialize about life as well.   For those who did go to Free Comic Book Day, I hope that all of you had as much fun as I did, and if you didn’t go this year, I recommend you do, it’s a great experience for people of all ages.  Now, if you excuse me I got some books to read.