Sunday, May 3, 2015

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2015


It's starting to become an annual family tradition that we swing by the local comic book store on the first Saturday morning in May to enjoy FREE COMIC BOOK DAY.  This is a special event hosted by comic book retailers and publishers to entice new customers and reward existing ones for their loyalty.  Free Comic Book Day provides a selection of specially printed issues created for the event that provide a sample of a publishers work or an interesting one-shot story to promote a particular character or series.  This year there were 50 free comic books that people could select from and pick up from participating locations that ranged from child focused issues like Scooby Doo! and Sonic the Hedgehog to ones rated for "mature audiences" like And Then Emily Was Gone or Fight Club with a whole lot of other stuff in between for tweens, teens and anyone else of whatever age to enjoy as well.

This year was the fourth year in a row our family swung by a Free Comic Book event with the very first one being in 2012 which had some great titles for our then 3 year old twins like Donald Duck, TinkerbellSnoopy, Smurfs, and Yo Gabba Gabba that were full of bright images and perfect for them to flip through.  Wow! looking at the pictures from that Free Comic Book Day and now in 2015 really shows how much these now 6 year olds have sprung up over the last few years.


My daughter wanted to dress up as her favorite Avenger for the day so our family was escorted to the comic book store by Thor.  We had to head to my son's soccer game directly after our Free Comic Book Day stop so he didn't join her in dressing up as one of his favorite super heroes as he was sporting his team uniform.  I threw on my Flash t-shirt to join my little girl in showing some festive spirit for our outing.

In addition to handing out free comic books, often times participating retailers will incorporate other fun stuff into the event like artist appearances and costume contests.  While we were waiting in line this year, the comic book store had an artist providing free sketches to the children in line of their favorite super heroes.  My son was so excited to take home with him an original piece of art featuring his favorite super hero Iron Man from a real artist.



Thor entered a costume contest for children 12 and under and enjoyed all of the attention she got from people complimenting her on the costume.


Thor's mighty steed!


Summoning the power of Mjolnir to return to Aasgard after a fun Free Comic Book Day!


So after my son's soccer game, we all lounged out in our living room relaxing and enjoying our haul of freebies.  My daughter enjoying Teen Titans Go!, Cleopatra in Space and Gronk while my son flipped through Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and Chakra The Invincible. Oh and I picked up a few free comics for myself that included a Doctor Who adventure, a comedy featuring one of my favorite cartoon characters The Tick, and a sampling of upcoming SciFi titles.


Once again we had an enjoyable family outing for Free Comic Book Day and are looking forward to the first Saturday in May for 2016.  I'm hoping that these annual outings with dad are providing some quality childhood memories for my kids, instilling with them an appreciation for the arts, and encouraging them to enjoy reading. That plan seems to be working so far!

7 comments:

  1. So fun! I really want to get my kiddos into comic books now that they're reading. That Thor costume is so cool!

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  2. Your daughter makes a great Thor! Looks like a lot of fun, I had no idea there was a free comic book day, I think next year we're going to have to plan on finding a local store and going!!

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  3. Ahhhh I love that she dressed like Thor! Go girl!!! :)

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  4. This is awesome!! I love that your kids dressed up.

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  5. We didn't end up getting to go. Our Saturday was crazy. Glad you guys had fun.

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  6. Did someone say free comic books? How did we miss this! Sounds like so much fun.

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  7. Ooooh yes! I still need to get the rest of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics!

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