Reported by Shawn Warner
As any comic book fan can tell you this weekend marked the passing of yet another Free Comic Book Day. I spent mine at two local Baltimore shops. First I walked over to Alliance Comics in Federal Hill, this also happens to be the shop where I go every Wednesday without fail to pick up my new books. They opened at 11:00 a.m. and I did my best to arrive at 11:00a.m. The shop was already bustling with patrons when I walked through the door. There was a smattering of all types of comic book readers in attendance. You had the children who were there with their parents both getting in line to get the free books, the former grabbing Sponge Bob while the latter were more interested in The Walking Dead (mostly because they watch the show on AMC). Then you had the interested reader not quite a collector but they can tell you the members of at least one of the X-Men teams. Lastly you had the hard core, the fan boys, geeks, nerds or whatever the mainstream is calling us these days. No doubt they have watched the Big Bang Theory and have labeled us all “Sheldons”. But there we were side by side all our petty differences put aside for one day for the love of comic books.
Alliance is a great store catering to all the types I mentioned above. You can go there to get the new Hawkeye Trade paperback as well as the latest single issues. If you are looking to show the world that you are a comic book fan you can get t-shirts , posters and anything else Marvel, DC and the rest can put a licensed logo or character likeness on as well as action figures and high end collectibles. I love this store the guys who work there are knowledgeable and friendly. I have been collecting and reading comics for many years and have seen Free Comic Book Day at lots of stores, each one brings something a little different to the table. I have to say Alliance did an excellent job. This was my first year with them for FCBD and I was quite pleased with how they handled the day. Let’s face it to the uninitiated this day seems insane. “You are giving away comic books? Where’s the money in that?” Well that’s where you have to get inventive. The guys at Alliance set up the back room on one side of the store with the free books and the other side was a room full of long boxes full of 50 cents comics. It was like the room where Indy found all of the grails. I mean there was some good stuff in those boxes; American Vampire, Lots of early New 52 stuff, plenty of fan favorite writers like Bendis, Morrison and Hickman were in there. I bought most of the Jason Aaron Wolverine and the X-Men that I needed as well as some scattered issues of Detective and some of the AVX books that I missed. Everything in the store was 25% off and they had collected runs for 50% off. It was a fun day for everyone involved.
After that my wife and I headed over to another little area in Baltimore called Fells Point to a newer shop, Gorilla King Comics. This was my first time here but I really liked it. They had the free books on long tables in the middle of the store and in the back room were several long boxes of 25 cents comics. Again there was some good stuff in there; all of the Before Watchmen number ones were in there, I picked up an Amazing Spider-Man #700 variant cover and my wife snagged several issues of Crossed by Garth Ennis. The shop was spacious the walls were lined with new books and action figures. I liked this place and was happily surprised to happen upon it on FCBD.
It’s up to the individual shop owners how they celebrate this day usually there is a comic book related film tied in to the event. This year of course we had Iron Man 3 but that is just a small part of the day. It is a day when you can share your love of comic books with a friend or family member who might not otherwise go to a comic book store. The jovial atmosphere and give-a-ways make the day more of an event than a trip to the store. Some retailers may look at this promotion that has grown so much since it’s inception as a pain and more trouble than it is worth but I would beg to differ. I would think that the opportunity to get a large number of potential new subscribers through the door would be worth one day of extra work. I know that in reality it is a lot more than one day of extra work( as I watched my friends at Alliance begin preparations at least two weeks in advance) I still think the payoff is worth it if just a few of those visitors become regular customers.
If the fun and innocence of this day could prevail throughout the rest of the year this world would be such a better place. At a time when the news is full of stories of murder, mayhem and evil of every kind doesn’t it only make sense that we would want to read about heroes who can save us? That’s what comic books do, they save us from a world that is not always a kind or safe place, they offer us a world that is still innocent and for one day at least that innocent world is free. So now we have just 362 short days to wait until Free Comic Book Day 2014 but fear not true believers there is always Comic-Con!
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Follow Shawn Warner on Twitter: @shawnwarner629
BAG & BORED 