Free Comic Book Day 2010: A Free Checklist

 

For some people–thieves with unseasonably large parkas, let's say–every day is Free Comic Book Day. For the rest of us, Saturday, May 1st is Free Comic Book Day around the globe. Are you ready, the world? 

Every comic book shop is different, just as you and me and everyone we know are precious, precious snowflakes. So every retailer is going to have their own rules and procedures regarding this very special holiday. Don't be alarmed if there are people dressed up like Thor or Usagi Yojimbo in the parking lot, so long as it's the parking lot outside your shop and not Perkins, in which case RUN! Some retailers might have soft pretzels. Others might have a boom box outside playing the 300 soundtrack or the new Gogol Bordello record. Maybe a trampoline or bouncy castle (for real). Most importantly, different shops will have rules about how many free comics you will be allowed to walk away with. If you're after a bunch, you may even need to hit up multiple shops in your area. Don't think of this as a chore, but instead as an opportunity to storm multiple bouncy castles or score more pretzels.  

 

 

Remember, only special FCBD comics and flipbooks are freely purloinable. This is not your chance to nick that Right Hand of Doom maquette or all the X-Factor back issues you can stuff into the trunk of your Ford Focus. Not for free anyway. 

Here's a checklist of free FCBD issues to look out for

  • Archie's Summer Splash! #1 written and drawn by Dan Parent (Archie) PREVIEWS and SIGNINGS
  • Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom / Magnus: Robot Fighter written by Jim Shooter, art by Dennis Calero and Bill Reinhold (Dark Horse)
  • Fractured Fables written by Bryan Talbot, Doug TenNapel, Alexander Grecian, Derek McCulloch, Ted McKeever; art by Camilla d'Errico, Doug TenNapel, Christian Ward, Anthony Peruzzo, Ted McKeever, cover by Mike and Laura Allred (Image)
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #155½ written by Larry Hama (IDW)
  • Iron Man / Thor written by Matt Fraction, art by John Romita Jr. (Marvel) PREVIEW
  • Mouse Guard / Fraggle Rock, featuring David Petersen (Archaia) PREVIEWS and SIGNINGS
  • KiZOIC Presents: Shrek & The Penguins Of Madagascar written and drawn by Dan Parent (KiZOIC)
  • YOW! The John Stanley Library, written and drawn by John Stanley, featuring Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Toy Story written by Jesse Blaze Snider, art by Nathan Watson (Boom! Studios)
  • War of the Supermen #0 written by James Robinson, art by Eddy Barrows and Ruy Jose, cover by J.G. Jones (DC) PREVIEW
  • Sonic the Hedgehog written by Ian Flynn, art by James Fry, Jim Amash (Archie Comics) PREVIEW AND SIGNINGS
  • Worlds of Aspen written by David Wohl, JT Krul, David Schwartz, Vince Hernandez; art by Joe Benitez, Scott Clark, Marcus To, Eduardo Francisco, Alex Konat; cover by Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald, Various (Aspen)
  • Fearless Dawn #1 written by Steve Mannion (Asylum)
  • S.E. Hinton / Fame written by S.E. Hinton, CW Cooke, Dan Rafter, art by Various (Blue Water)
  • Bongo Comics Free-For-All! written and drawn by Matt Groening (Bongo)
  • Irredeemable #1 written by Mark Waid, art by Peter Krause, cover by John Cassaday (Boom! Studios)
  • DC Kids Mega-Sampler written by Landry Walker, Art Baltazar, Franco, Sholly Fisch; art by Eric Jones, Art Baltazar, Mike Norton, Dario Brizuela, cover by Art Baltazar (DC) PREVIEW
  • Del Rey Showcase by various (Del Rey)
  • Green Hornet #1 by Kevin Smith; art by Jonathan Lau, Ariel Padilla, Aaron Campbell; cover by Alex Ross (Dynamite) PREVIEWS
  • Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales written and drawn by Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics)
  • The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics (Gemstone)
  • Library of America Comics #0 (IDW)
  • Artifacts: First Look written by Ron Marz, art by various (Top Cow) SIGNINGS
  • Love and Capes #13 written and drawn by Thomas F. Zahler (Maerkle)
  • Iron Man: Supernova written by Paul Tobin, art by Craig Rousseau (Marvel) PREVIEW
  • The Tick #1 written and drawn by Ben Edlund (NEC)
  • Oni Press Free For All written and drawn by Chris Schweizer, Matthew Loux, Ray Fawkes (Oni)
  • The Sixth Gun written by Cullen Bunn, art by Brian Hurtt (Oni)
  • Radical: Bigger Books! Bigger Value! by various (Radical)
  • Atomic Robo and Friends written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wagener (Red 5)
  • Freedom Formula: Speed Metal Overtures #0 written by Edmund Shern, Brandon Jerwa, Andrew Dabb, Tony Lee; art by Puppeteer Lee, Zid, Leah Liu, Zhaoweiyi (Storm Lion)
  • The Stuff of Legend: Mortal Instruments written by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith, art by Charles Paul Wilson III (Th3rd World Studios)
  • Owly and Friends written and drawn by Andy Runton, James Kochalka, Christian Slade (Top Shelf)

 

Tons of great stuff this year. Literally something for everybody. Super-heroics from Marvel, DC, Boom!, Dynamite, and Dark Horse, plus a nifty looking western in Oni's The Sixth Gun. Palmiotti and Gray turn up in that Radical collection. There's even a book with S.E. Hinton and Lady Gaga comics all within the same binding! I refuse, in principle, to pass up on something called Freedom Formula: Speed Metal Overtures (soon to be a major motion picture from Bryan Singer? What?). As my dad's been collecting old Nancy comics merch, I'll definitely be grabbing that John Stanley Library collection. Overstreet Guide? How'd that get in there? Oh, and most importantly, heaps and heaps of great comics for kids, from Toy Story to a Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock flip book, Owly and more. Some real treasures to be had this year. 

 

 

We'll have previews for several of these books as well as listings for writer and artist appearances by publisher throughout the day. 

If this is your first trip to a comic shop–awesome, by the way; welcome to the jungle–you might need to track down your local retailer. Because who knows if that skeevy card shop you went to as a little kid even sells comics anymore. You can use the Comic Shop Locator Service to find your venue.

One last note. Free Comic Book Day is a great day for retailers, regulars and new customers alike. Have fun. Make friends. Thank your shop for any great promotions or sales, and please, leave the place with a little less money in your wallet than you came with. You're getting some free loot, but if your retailer is anything like mine, the great Brave New Worlds in Willowgrove, PA, they deserve a great day of sales. Buy a trade or two and leave with that and a pile of free stuff. Everybody wins. 

Question: If you had to pick only five of these books, what would you get? Once you're back from the big day, let us know what you picked up!  

Comments

  1. If I can only pick five…

    Iron Man/Thor

    Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock

    War of the Supermen

    Dr. Solar/Magnus

    G.I. Joe #155 1/2

  2. My store only lets me pick three =

    I’m going to get The Tick… then I don’t know… The selection isn’t nearly as good as last year.  I’ll probably grab War of the Superman and Iron Man/Thor, despite not really caring about either.  The real draw for me this Saturday is the 50% Off Back Issue sale combined with the fact that I’ve started collecting a GL run. 

  3. Iron Man/Thor, Iron Man: Supernova, Love and Capes #13, The Sixth Gun, and…either Lady Gaga or Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock. Hard choice, there.

     

  4. I always seem to miss out on at least one or two titles that I wanted to try each FCBD. This year the five I’m trying to snag are: Fractured Fables, DC Kids Mega Sampler, Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales, Atomic Robo and Friends, and The Stuff of Legend.

  5. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    Let’s see. If I had to pick 5, I’d go with Iron Man/Thor, The Sixth Gun, Stuff of Legend, The John Stanley Library, and War of the Supermen. But I’d be leaving SO many behind. 

  6. Tiny Titans
    The Tick
    G.I. Joe
    War of the Supermen
    Bongo Comics Free For All

    Unfortunately, there isn’t a comic shop within a 45 minute drive of my house taking part in this.  Oh, well. 

  7. I mostly just want the War Machine heroclick 🙂

  8. For stuclach and anyone else with either no/an uncooperative LCBS.

    http://heavyink.com/fcbd

  9. I don’t know if I can afford all of these… oh wait.
  10. Iron Man / Thor
    War of the Supermen #0
    Iron Man: Supernova
    The Sixth Gun
    The Stuff of Legend: Mortal Instruments

    @MaglnetGirl: I’m also looking forward to my War Machine HeroClick.

  11. Love & Capes

    War of the Supermen 

    Iron Man/Thor

    Iron Man: Supernova

    Fractured Fables

    I wonder how Love & Capes makes money–it was a FCBD book last year too, and it doesn’t even show up at my store any other time–I have to order the issues directly from the site!

  12. There are a few stores, that get a ton of traffic on FCBD. In some cases there is too much traffic for the regular staff to handle. Some of these stores use volunteers to help. If your store is one of these give them a call and see if you can help. I know of at least one store that gives all of their volunteers one copy of each book for helping out. 

  13. My Five:

    1) GI Joe A Real American Hero #155 1/2 

    2) Iron Man/Thor

    3) War of the Supermen #0

    4) Weathcraft and Other Unusual Tales

    5) Oni Press Free For All

    Im actually going to be late to work on Saturday because of this, as my shop opens at 10am but work starts at 9:30am. Totally Worth It.

    @OttoBott   Thats really coo! I’m sure alot of people will take advantage of the offer!

  14. My five, in order of my choosing in case I’m limited to less than 5:

    1) G.I. Joe

    2) Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock

    3) Iron Man/Thor

    4) The Sixth Gun

    5) DC Kids Special or Iron Man: Supernova, can’t decide yet.

     Really excited, this is the first FCBD I’ve been able to go to, hopefully I can actually get something 

  15. Lots of good stuff on here.  I want to put in a special word for ‘Love & Capes’.  This book written and drawn by Thom Zahler is like a combination of a lot of awesome things — a genuinely funny sitcom, a classic-style comic strip, and a fun superhero book.  It looks great, it has a ton of appealing characters and has some great superhero in-jokes without using them as a crutch.  I have yet to talk to anybody who didn’t love this comic once they gave it a try.  I try to plug it whenever it comes out, but it’s not always widely available, so FCBD could be the perfect time to check it out!

    And of course, I really want both those Iron Man books.  And The Tick.  For my fifth choice, GI Joe.  The guys always have great things to say about these comics (and I loved the cartoon!) but I’ve never given them a shot.

  16. I do a tour of three comic shops within 30 min of me and get them all. I love living in a geek powered town 🙂

  17. Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom / Magnus: Robot Fighter , Iron Man / Thor , War of the Supermen #0 ,Irredeemable #1 , and Green Hornet #1.

    For the most part i was kind of hoping for more y’know. But hey its free.

  18. i never get to go =( i have to settle for the leftovers the following week. 

  19. Wow, I like Iron Man and JR jr. But the two together? Eeesh!

  20. Would it be completely counter to the idea of free comic day if a store did something like: first five issues free, next five free with purchase of 10$-15$?  I mean if all stores are capping issues anyway already, and ideally Free Comic Book Day stimulate sales and new customers for local shops, I feel like I wouldn’t have a problem with my local shop doing this.  But I’m at least a little conflicted about the idea. 

    Mind you, I’m not looking for more books for myself – I have a bunch of shops near me I could go to, and probably will anyway just to say ‘hi’ to people – but I feel like this might be something to reward the shops a little bit for participating in the day.  Though, maybe the free comics should already be enough reward.

     I don’t know.  Thoughts? 

  21. Weathercraft

    Overstreet

    Iron Man/Thor

    Solar/Magnus

    and either YOW! or Fractured Fables or Library of America or Owly 

    (but maybe Green Hornet just for the Ross cover)

  22. Not sure what my LCS is doing. Last year he was just like:

    "Pick out what you want, as many as you want. Just save some for everyone."

    So I could get as much as I want, as long it was stuff I was going to read. So ignoring Mercy Sparxx and got William Shatner instead. Either way I am most excited about:

    Fractured Fables, GI Joe, Thor/Iron Man, War of Superman, Bongo Comics Free for All, The Green Hornet, The Tick.

  23. If you can’t get to a comic shop on Free Comic Book Day, go to HeavyInk.com/fcbd! They just sent me an e-mail saying you can order, like, three books and get ’em shipped for three bucks. Or something. 🙂

     

  24. I’m really looking forward to this. I imagine I’ll get many more than five books. There are six comic shops in town all participating and all easily within travel distance. Hell, most are within walking distance from each other.

    My store of choice is also doing 50% off of all back issues, 30% off trades,  and 25% off of toys. I imagine adding my 23% membership discount ontop of that would be a little much to ask for.

    Five of the local shops are also doing a promotion. If you get your free books from all five shops they will stamp this "passport" for you. After five stamps you can be entered into a draw to win busts, action figures, hardcovers, an issue of Amazing Spider-Man from the ’70’s.

    I’m giddy.

  25. Pick only five huh? I would go with War of the Supermen, Iron Man/Thor, G.I. Joe, Green Hornet and Irredeemable.

  26. Whoohoo!  Didnt have to be late, found a shop that opened at eight! Not only that but Cullin Bunn and Brian Hurtt were their signing issues of The Sixth Gun!!!Great guys. Got to look at the original artwork. Beautiful!

    Awesome! I got a stack of comics for nothi…wait a minute…$67?  How did the at Elephantmen HC and the Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 HC get in there?  Are those bags and boards?    Oh Well!  I love FREE (kinda) Comic Book Day!

    One more thing…Why is it that Marvel tends to skimp on FCBD? Cant they  put out a standard Current sized comic?

  27. This year’s FCBD looks amazing. Just saying.

  28. Got a TON of stuff at a couple of shops today, but didn’t get the GI Joe issue (both places I went were either out of it or didn’t get it). My haul:

    Freedom Fighters #11 and #12, Firestorm #2 (old series): Orbital Comics in London has a TON of really old back issues for a pound or two a piece, so I went bin diving today with these results. I love old comics

    Muppet Robin Hood paperback

    Sixth Gun, Mouseguard/Fraggle Rock, The Tick, Bongo Comics Free-For-All, both Iron Man stories, War of the Supermen, Fractured Fables, a GL ring and a BL ring (most of these were given out in a goody bag by Forbidden Planet). I’m slightly daunted by the stack on my desk right now… good thing I have a lot of time 

  29. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    Ended up grabbing 10 books and also nabbed Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown and the first three Guardians of the Galaxy trades.  

    Oh, and I might have picked up a toy or two… 

  30. So far I’ve got Ironman/Thor and the Del Ray Showcase. Still playing Heavyink’s roulette for my last pick. I’m pulling for either Atomic Robo or Sixth Gun.

  31. @Paul I think you’re going to like those GotG trades. Good stuff man.

  32. I love my comic book store, no limits. I got all that I wanted and gave the kids comics to the children next door.

    I think the best free comic this year is irredeemable/incorruptible. what a sweet deal!

    most disappointed: what the heck is up with marvels small size comics. if small publishers can print out regular sizd ones, anyone can.

  33. I got three freebies and a pin but couldn’t find much else in the sale bins.

  34. I had to do the Heavy Ink thing this year, (not LCS) picked up: Iron Man/Thor, Aspen, and Artifacts. I wanted to pick up Yow, Six Gun, Del Rey, and The Tick but I was slightly more intrested in these three titles.

     Also have someone sending the Archie Summer Splash, I’ve never read an Archie comic and thanks to Conor I want to check one out.

     

  35. Dr. Solar
    Sixth gun
    Welcome to R Universe
    Archie
    GI Joe
    Fractured Tales
    War of Supermen

  36. No irredeemable or atomic robo for this guy, but hit up 4 stores and got 25 different books.  Free Comic Book Day is awesome-sauce!  Special shout out for any store that lets you take one of each issue instead of just one book, although the one of each store was pretty much bombed out after about an hour.

  37. My LCS only had about 30% of what was out there… so I got nothing today expect the Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock issue.  Ordered Weathercraft, Dr. Solar and Six Gun off their website for free and I’ll have my 5 other selections (ordered so long ago I can’t even remember what I selected) from DCBS next month.

  38. My store let everyone take one of everything they ordered if you wanted.  It was awesome.  Also, I rocked my FEAR Agent shirt to the store, so I was looking pretty spiffy.

  39. Got everything that came out. My store rocked it. Also picked up "Justice League: The Nail," a Teen Titans trade, first Jonah Hex trade, Batman Tenses, Two-Face Year One and Brit vol. 1.

  40. Got Artifacts, Iron Man/Thor, & Doc Solar. Picked uo Hercules, City of Dust trades from Radical & High Moon collected edition in a buy 2 get 1 free sale. Lots & lots of kids it was good to see!

  41. Wow, what a great day!  I ended up with a handful and I’m just reading through them now:

    Superman #0, Doctor Solar/Magnus, D+Q John Stanley book, Weathercraft, Atomic Robo, and the Image Fairy Tales book.

    Superman was a good set up, but so far the Dr. Solar story was the stand out of the pile.  Awesome.

  42. Oh yeah, and thanks to a 50% back issue sale at one of the stores I went to today, I got the entire 52 series for 50 cents an issue!

  43. in addition to free comic book day, my LCS was having a sale too so i finally picked up a Flash shirt. plus i got to meet Mark Waid, Philip Tan, and Dwayne McDuffie

  44. was able to pick up a couple of cool ones so i was happy. The worst part about free comic book day is that my local shop has a ridiculous sale…..spent waaaayyyyy too much on cheap back issues and $5 trades. =)

    The shop owner said this is basically their Black Friday (or whatever that day after thanksgiving is called) cool stuff.  

  45. I got Iron Man/Thor, War of Supermen, and DC Kids Mega Sampler.

    And, I got to meet Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and Ed Tadeo.

  46. Not knowing anything about "what’s good" this year, I picked up Iron Man/Thor, Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock, and the Irredeemable/Incorruptible #1 reprint (I’ve been meaning to check out Irredeemable for forever). Had I known about Sixth Gun I probably would’ve gotten that, too, but I don’t think the store had it.

  47. I got 12 free comics, a War Machine heroclix, plus a free Sergio Aragones FCBD tee! It looks awesome.

    Scored a Spider-Man: Blue oversized hc for 10, a Pope 100% hc for 9, and a Wolverine: Logan hc for 10. I was pretty happy about that.

  48. I think I have roughly 20 of the issues above.  I was also able to score some quarter bin gems, including the entire Firestar mini-series for $2, as well as some old Spiderman annuals from the early 90’s.  A great day

  49. That Superman story was cool.

    I might pick up that miniseries.

  50. Waited in line 40 minutes just to get into my LCS. It was crazy.

  51. I only got superman and Irredeemable and a fat stack of sale comics

  52. Of the free books I pulled, my favorites were: Mouse Guard, ONI Free for All, The Sixth Gun and Stuff of Legend.

    In the sale my LCS was having, I bought: All Star Superman vol. 1 & 2, The Mighty vol. 1, Terra, and a few back issues of the current Hickman Fantastic Four run. 

  53. Simpsons Free Comic takes aim at "Blackest Night" and colored lanterns.  Again creating the funniest parody and most relevant commentary on modern comics.

  54. I read the Dr. Solar/Magnus issue, and was really excited to read it based on other’s excitement, but I thought it was pretty lame. I had never heard of these characters before so maybe that had something to do with it, but I didn’t like it at all.

    @KickAss Did we read the same issue? I didn’t see any jokes about Blackest Night or colored lanterns. The only comic related joke was the whole Crisis on Two Earths parody in the last story.

  55. I picked up Yow!, War of the Supermen, Ironman Nova, Owly & Friends (for a coworker), Green Hornet, DC Kids, Artifacts, Radical (for a buddy), Mouse Guard, Dr Solar/Magnus, Atomic Robo, Oni Press, Action & Adventure, & Iron Man/Thor from Comickaze Comics in San Diego.  There was a push up contest for an Iron Man prize pack (toys, movie pass, etc) and I was about to participate until I saw a bunch of kids in it…didn’t want to be the grown up who beat out some kids.

  56. Had a chance to read some of the free books i got yesterday. Overall I was pretty pleased with them, but was slightly disappointed that Marvel cheaped out and printed that Thor/Iron Man-Romita Jr comic small on low grade junk mail paper. 

    btw…is it just me or does anyone else complete hate the "free comic book day" logo? its just kinda ugly and undesigned.