Free Comic Book Day 2009: Recession Edition

wwtMask

It's Free Comic Book Day, so if you haven't already, get to your LCS and partake of some free comics and nice sales. Then, when you're done, get back here and tell everybody how it went at the shop(s) you went to and your haul.

Anyway, I almost didn't get to go participate because of work, but after that all got sorted out, me, my wife, and my little girl went out to two of the local shops. The first thing I noticed was that FCBD seemed to have scaled back this year. However, there were more people in my main shop than last year. Beyond some sales, though, it wasn't really a big event, at least not when I went to the shops. So this is what I ended up with:

Free
Preacher #1 (After Watchmen reprint)
Transmetropolitan (After Watchmen reprint)
DC Kids Megasampler (for Lily)
Blackest Night #0
Resurrection #0
Cars: The Rookie #1 (for Lily)
Owly and Friends (for Lily)


Bought
Resurrection vol. 1
Iron Man/Incredible Hulk/Nick Fury One Shot
New Warriors #14-19
Justice League of America #23-25
JSA Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom
JSA Kingdom Come Special: Magog
Thor: Man of War
Thor: The Truth of History
Black Lightning: Year One #1-3

Zeromus

I didn't buy anything, but Forbidden Planet had big ol' sacks of all the free comics, so I picked one of those up. Blackest Night #0 was pretty much all I wanted, though. :P

Robos A Go Go

I bought Popgun volume #1 and got the same books mask did along with the Avengers book and an Atomic Robo book which also had previews for other Red 5 books. The Atomic Robo book and Owly are really the only ones I liked, and I sort of wish the publishers would use FCBD to promote more unusual books rather than just trying to get people to buy flagship titles they probably already know about.

TexiKen

I'll just tack this in here if we're going to have a separate FCBD thread:

So, here are some scans from the free Avengers book (if you put the whole issue up online is there a problem? Is it free):

love that third panel banter.

I didn't really want to go to my LCS today, but I had to work this morning and was in the area of the main branch of my LCS (Bedrock City).

Terry Moore was signing there but didn't know, so I bought Runaways #9 again and had him sign it. The dude looks nothing like I imagined (think a real thin Kevin from the Office with glasses), and was also a very quiet (but nice) guy. I just asked him jokingly if Marvel knows what they want to do with Runaways and he politely said "not really."

What sucked about FCBD was that you had those really, really into it fans just hog up the whole space trying to act like they're the top dogs of comics, and of course they aren't the most socially gracious people. On the plus side, there were kids coming in buying lots of Wolverine stuff due to the movie.

I should also add a lot of action figures were sold today as well, as that part of the store was filled with both collectors and kids who would actually play with them.


And Blackest Night wasn't something worthwhile for FCBD. It wasn't new reader friendly, and was only half a book. In fact, today makes me wonder who FCBD is really aimed at: getting new readers or rather giving a free comic away to the existing readers as a token of thanks? Marvel went one way, DC went the other, you had other comics that were just reprints with a few new stories or series. It's either that or trying to make one day where your LCS would be stupid NOT to have a sale (found the Batman Private Casebook HC, so that was a plus).

Robos A Go Go

Yeah, for some publishers it seems like Free Comic Book Day is just an excuse to give away promotional materials rather than a way of earning new readers, and there's no real fun in that. I do remember liking the hauls from two and three years ago quite a bit more, though, so the drop in quality might just be a temporary thing.

Rans

this was my first year going to an FCBD and I've never seen my LCS so packed. i picked up a couple of trades along with my freebies since i know it helps the shop.

there were four people dressed as various types of star wars stormtroopers out on the sidewalk to scare away the normal folk. only the bravely geeky dared enter.

TexiKen

Yeah, at the shop I went to it seemed almost as if the "real" fans were kind of marking their territory (that's what I was trying to write in my earlier post but couldn't get the words together), which made me want to go to the people and say "come on, more people buying comics benefits everyone, don't make a snarky remark when a kid picks up a Marvel Adventures Avengers digest while you have Hulk #10 in your hands."

Servo

i grabbed the avengers comic and an oni press one. most of the others i was interested in were already gone. i bought a little run of john sable 1-7 for a buck each, which was nice, and a JLI annual. my shop was having a dollar sale.

in new comics, i bought tales designed to thrizzle 5.

Toxic Toys

I was able to grab:

TMNT #1 reprint (awesome to have)
Contract #1 (I liked it)
Wolverine (Ok I guess)
Blackest Night #0 (I might have to start reading GL now.)
The Astounding Wolf-Man #1 (It was cool, I'll check out issuse 2)
The Incredible Hulk/Iron Man #1 (A movie promo tie in from last year, meh)
A can of Jolt.

My daughter got some book too. I took one of her friend also and she got some book, so I'm trying to bring new people into the fold. I really wanted a FCBD mini-mate.

wwtMask

The owner of my LCS is really big on making sure kids have a good experience in his shop, so all of the older oriented free comics were in a table in the back of the shop, and all of the all ages free stuff was at the front. It was a very friendly atmosphere overall, though I'm not sure whether it'll encourage people to buy more comics. At the other shop, it was mostly 20-somethings in the shop because two colleges are nearby. I did see a couple of adolescent boys snapping up the dollar back issues, so I guess there's hope for the future. :P

Rans

not sure if this was a common practice, but my shop was also giving away many of the "After Watchmen... What's Next?" books for free. i thought that was pretty smart. lots of people walked away with Swamp Thing, Planetary, and Transmet and had no idea what they were getting in to.

wirehead26

My FCBD experience actually started yesterday when a local comic shop I don't normally go to was having a "buy 3 trades and get 1 free" deal. I got the first 3 Criminal trades and Secret Invasion: War Machine. My official FCBD experience was fantastic. My shop was giving out free hotdogs and cupcakes while I brought a 12 pack of Pepsi Throwbacks to share. I also brought along a bunch of comics I didn't want anymore including the first 21 current JLA books give or take a few. Some prick ended up taking all of them for himself. The free stuff I picked up was Avengers, TMNT, and Sonic: Evolution of a Hero which was pretty much Archies version of a Sonic Saga book. I then noticed that my shop had the trades of Green Lantern: Rebirth, the first 3 Johns GL trades, the first 2 GLC trades, and the first SCW trade on display. I almost bought them all when the owner said he'd give me a 30% discount on all of them which ended up being $71 total but due to the splurge yesterday I sadly declined. I did pick up the first Morrison JLA hardcover and Ultimate FF #6. I took lots of pictures with my DSi and overall had a great time.

KVW

Rans wrote: »

not sure if this was a common practice, but my shop was also giving away many of the "After Watchmen... What's Next?" books for free. i thought that was pretty smart. lots of people walked away with Swamp Thing, Planetary, and Transmet and had no idea what they were getting in to.

That is pretty good. They're only a dollar, so not a huge loss to the shop owner. DC should have packaged those as FCBD books instead/in addition to the more continuity heavy Blackest Night #0.

wwtMask

Yeah, my shop was doing that too, Rans. Actually, the owner did that for Swamp Thing when the After Watchmen issues first came out.

KidDork

My hometown usually goes crazy over FCBD, and today was no exception. There was a forty five minute wait outside one store, and even at nine thirty this morning I had to wait twenty to get into another. Even at 5:45 tonight, there were still line ups outside.

I'm not sure if this happens elsewhere, but here (London, Ontario), all the comic stores get together and create a 'passport' system. As you visit each comic book store, you stamp your passport, and when you've visited all five comic book stores, you drop off the ballot, and then there's a citywide draw for cool loot on the Sunday--things like Absolute Editions, statues, and even the anime store throws in some stuff (this year it's statues from Ghost In The Shell).

It just makes for a great day. Here, the weather was gorgeous, and it made it one of the best FCBD days I've ever seen here.

Insert happy squee! here.

Algertman

It was crazy at the store and I had to run register. We ran commercials and everything. We open at 10:00 and by that time we had around 100 people waiting to get in the store.

desc

Local comic shop had a line of people out the door and down half the block. Mostly families with kids and easily twice as many people as there were last year.

Grabbed DC Kids, Star Wars/Indy Jokes/Yokimbo, transformers/gi joe and Owly and Friends for my cousin's kids. I have to grab them that Shazam series once it's in trade format.

werehippy

Toxic Toys wrote: »

I was able to grab:
The Astounding Wolf-Man #1 (It was cool, I'll check out issuse 2)

I like kirkman in general, and I'd really like to see Astounding Wolf-man take off, but the single issues at the beginning are pretty hit and miss. If you were interested, you might want to leaf through the first trade because that evens out the roughness and sets the hook for the story.

Toxic Toys

werehippy wrote: »

Toxic Toys wrote: »

I was able to grab:
The Astounding Wolf-Man #1 (It was cool, I'll check out issuse 2)

I like kirkman in general, and I'd really like to see Astounding Wolf-man take off, but the single issues at the beginning are pretty hit and miss. If you were interested, you might want to leaf through the first trade because that evens out the roughness and sets the hook for the story.

I don't really like "reading" before I purchase a book. I might just jump into the trade, I've bought worse.

My daughter got:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Sketchbook (She has the issuses, got this last year, but she likes the "drawings")
Tiny Titans #1 (Again, she got this last year, has a few issuses, but she LOVES Tiny Titans!)
Owly and Friends (She was upset it wasn't in color)
DC Kids Mega Sampler
The World of Cars
Sonic: Evolution of a Hero

She hasn't read them all yet, but she's 6 so I cut her some slack.

MAD!

Toxic Toys wrote: »

I was able to grab:

Contract #1 (I liked it)

Sweet, Glad to hear it.

slacktron

I got the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I'd only seen excerpts from it in the pages of the Role Playing Game.
I can see why Eastman and Laird were so successful.

Definitely chalking up my first Free Comic Book Day as a success.

Algertman

slacktron wrote: »

I got the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Blackesy Night may of had the hype but TMNT was the best book out that day.

ManonvonSuperock

did the reprint of tmnt use the ink washes or the halftoning dots?

psycojester

While i wasn't able to attend personally because of some uni work group meetings i had to attend, my FCBD was a success as it'd lead me to discover that i actually have a local comic book shop, as opposed to a 40 minute drive to the one in Newcastle. God these guys are terrible at advertising.

Algertman

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

did the reprint of tmnt use the ink washes or the halftoning dots?

I don't have my copy on hand but I think they used the toning dots then touched it up a little. Could be wrong.

slacktron

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

did the reprint of tmnt use the ink washes or the halftoning dots?

I wish I knew enough about the printing process to fully answer your question, but large swathes of gray are broken up with dots.

Great book, though. I went to FCBD with my 8-year-old son. He picked up a Sonic comic. When we got home, I asked if he wanted to read these new comics. He stated that he would prefer to bounce off the walls while making vulgar noises through his nose.

So I sat down on the couch and started reading TMNT aloud. For a visual story, it reads very well. In less than a minute, he was looking over my shoulder, asking things like, "whoa! Did he really kill that guy?" Twenty bounce- and noise-free minutes later, I finished the story. My son picked up Sonic to see if it could capture his attention as well as the turtles.

Sadly, it did not.

ManonvonSuperock

slacktron wrote: »

ManonvonSuperock wrote: »

did the reprint of tmnt use the ink washes or the halftoning dots?

I wish I knew enough about the printing process to fully answer your question, but large swathes of gray are broken up with dots.

that's bullshit, the same version they printed as the gamestop freebie w/ the last videogame.

hopefully they use the inkwashes for the trade coming out in july.

KVW

you're complaining about a free comic's printing/inking choices?

slacktron

Heh, I've got no complaints at all.

So my boy asked if I could read TMNT to him again for his bedtime story.

I'm not sure if a tale about a father figure who has raised his children to commit vengeful murder on his behalf is the best sendoff to dreamland, but I'm glad to have it available.

Robos A Go Go

On the bright side, if you're ever slain by the Foot Clan, he'll know how to respond.

Zeromus

slacktron wrote: »

Heh, I've got no complaints at all.

So my boy asked if I could read TMNT to him again for his bedtime story.

I'm not sure if a tale about a father figure who has raised his children to commit vengeful murder on his behalf is the best sendoff to dreamland, but I'm glad to have it available.

I dream of having children like this.

ManonvonSuperock

KVW wrote: »

you're complaining about a free comic's printing/inking choices?

negative. i'm complaining about the possibility of the upcoming trade using the same art.