Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 18

This week’s Waiting for Wednesday is getting hijacked by a very special announcement: This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day! Also, The Avengers comes to theaters!

Kind of a big comic book weekend, I’d say.

In honor of all that, then, instead of talking about the new books that ship today, what I’d like to focus on this week is Free Comic Book Day itself, mostly because I think the day can be a great way for people unfamiliar with comics to get themselves acquainted to the medium.

But it’s also a great day to be a tried and true Wednesday Warrior.

If you are a regular (or semi-regular, for that matter) customer of a local comics shop, please make an effort to check out what your store has in store this Saturday. While it may be “Free” Comic Book Day for us fans, it’s anything but that for the retailers, who have to pay shipping and handling costs on all those “free” books.

On that note, consider picking up a non-free book or two while you’re there this Saturday. I’d recommend grabbing something that you’ve never tried before, by someone you’ve never read before.

If you’re new to comics and you’re thinking about jumping aboard our geeky little bandwagon this weekend, I’d suggest checking out The Comic Shop Locator to figure out where your nearest funny book forum may be. And if it is your first time participating in Free Comic Book Day, please do realize that not everything in the store is free.

You snicker, sure, but I didn’t mention that last line for you.

I mentioned that last line for the person who read that line and became disappointed.

I’ve been in enough shops on FCBD to know that every single year, every single shop gets at least one disappointed customer who is unable to walk away with that issue of Daredevil #1 for free.

Fear not, though, because there are going to be plenty of free books to choose from.

So go forth and start collecting, and please feel free to send in your own stories of your Free Comic Book Day hunt!

3 comments:

Mr. E [PostApocolyptica] said...

Ah, Free Comic Book Day. In the UK, they tend to have less free comics than the US. Last time, there were around three or four free comics (that were noticeable), but things change.

The Avengers is one awesome film, though. My friend joked that "[he] saw The Avengers twice in one day, even before the US had seen it once." It's definitely worth the wait, though.

JoeReviewer said...

Oh dude you don't know how much I have needed that link! I have no idea where that thing was when I tried to find the nearest comic book store to me! BTW, out of curiosity, would you happen to know the reputations of some individual comic book stores? Also, what exactly does the "games" mean when a store says they sell "comics & games"? It do not think it means, what I think it means :P

I wonder if anyone has walked into a store and the cashier told them "No you misheard, it's FEE comic book day, you have to pay extra"

AJG said...

Mr. E: I've also heard really great things about it. My boss actually saw a screening of it and said it was amazing. I'm excited to see it.

Joe: Glad to help out with the link! As for individual stores, I've got a pretty good sense of stores in Connecticut and some in NY, too.

And by "games" they typically mean RPGs, but sometimes it's also board games.

Hope that helps!