I’ll tell you one thing I won’t miss about this neighborhood: the parking meters. Sure, city living has its perks. Yes, I live right around the corner from one of the best comic shops in town and dozens of interesting stores and eclectic restaurants, all of which I get to see again and again as I circle the block like a vulture with an inner ear problem. Say what you want about the suburbs– and I will– but by God, when you go to the comic shop in the burbs there’s a big, ugly parking lot right out front. Yes, a lot of those suburban stores think Scott Pilgrim is about Thanksgiving, but at least it doesn’t take twice as long to park as it took to drive there.
Surely, all these people can’t be out here because of Free Comic Book Day, can they? Am I about to walk into a mosh pit situation?
Oh my God, a spot! Only a block and a half away from the store. I can live with a block and a half at this point. Out of the way, hipsters! The head shop is up ahead on your right.
Aaand I have absolutely nothing to put in the meter. This is what happens when you let the good people at Visa handle all your spending; never using cash means never having change. I literally cannot remember the last time I went to an ATM. Was I single? Where is our bank’s nearest ATM? Where is our bank?
If I wasn’t married, I would starve to death.
Almost there; just half a block more. Man, Blueberry Hill is hopping today. When a bar is packed at 10:00 a.m., that’s a good sign, right? Things are going pretty great for everybody?
The waiter taking orders from the outdoor diners glances quickly in my direction and sizes me up. Judging from his expression, he seems to see the word “fanboy” on my t-shirt and think, “Yeah, that looks about right.” I need to get inside with my people.
Lovely day for some free comics, though. This is like kite weather. As long as the comics are free, maybe I’ll turn one into a kite when I get home. What would be appropriate? Air?
Hey, has that security gate always been there? I wonder if they put that up just for today; perhaps the finer points of “Free Comic Book Day” are lost on some of my neighbors. I wonder exactly what cancer beams these things shoot me with every time I walk through them. Sure, bombard me with rays until I’m sterile. Anything to keep an eleven year old from taking free Pocky.
I’ll never forget that time I kept setting alarms off at Six Flags. Got dragged into a back room and frisked and everything. Frisked by a rent-a-cop in a Smokey the Bear hat. I kept saying, “How could I be shoplifting if the alarm went off when I walked into the store?” The next day doing laundry, I realized I still had the security sticker in the pocket of my new jeans. Best weekend ever.
Holy cow! This place is packed. It looks like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in here. They know how to do Free Comic Book Day right. I better take a picture for my column.
Gotta love this camera phone. What it lacks in image quality it makes up for in blurriness.
All right, now, Jimski. Steel yourself. Every year, you come in here to get free stuff and leave $45 poorer. Keep your wits about you this time. You have a five-book stack and a brand new library card sitting at home right now. Plus, you’re moving. Remember how heavy the book boxes are? Don’t make more book boxes. Browse, free stuff, Scott Pilgrim for the wife, and out. Current tally: zero dollars, zero cents.
What was it the Jesuits called this? The “proximate occasion of sin”? If you’re a drunk, don’t work in a bar. Don’t go to the places that tempt you. I never could pull off religion.
I think half of these people are employees; that’s the third guy who’s offered to help me since I walked in. Maybe it’s the iFanboy shirt. Everyone here is always nicer to me when I wear the iFanboy shirt. It’s almost worth being That Guy.
Two guys over by the manga shelf are having a nerd fight. “He’s a guest star! It’s not a ‘crossover’ just because he guest stars in another book. That’s like saying that every time Cliff from Cheers showed up on Frasier, it was a Cheers/Frasier crossover.” And thus was “ipso facto Frasier” used to settle an argument about comics for the only time in history. I must record the date.
Did Cliff spend a lot of time on Frasier? I don’t remember them being especially close.
Next to me, a film critic in a Green Lantern shirt is saying, “I guess a part of me always knew it was dumb that Wolverine fought in every pivotal battle of every war throughout American history like Forrest Gump Dracula, but there’s something about seeing it all at once in a five minute montage that brings it all home, dude. Either I’ve wasted my life, or some things just weren’t meant to be adapted to film.”
Given that he had that thought and is still here on Free Comic Book Day, let’s hope it’s the latter.
Scott Pilgrim for the missus. Current tally: ten dollars. There. That should do i– wait, what did that say? “40% off all hardcovers”? All of them?
Uh-oh.
A sighting of the phrase “comic book store sale” happens about as often as a sighting of an albino leprechaun. I probably ought to give these shelves a once-over before I leave.
Maybe I need this Gotham Central. Which I’ve already read. Such an excellent chance to try something new, but when the chips and the prices are down I always run right over and buy something I already read printed on different-sized paper.
Ooh, wait! I’ll get Scalped, and get everyone off my back! Volume 1 was a good read, but Volume 1 is the only part the library has, so I’ll just go over and… of course they have every volume except two. They have two copies of volume three, I see, so on that day I’ll be all set.
Look at all the freebies. Sheesh. “Limit 3 per customer.” Smart. What do we have here? Is that Ninja Turtles #1?? That… was a choice. “Once a year, we have a chance to lure in new readers by giving them a taste. I know; how about something twenty-five years old and homemade?”
DC is milking the “After Watchmen, What’s Next?” thing until the udder bleeds. Planetary #1? Don’t mind if I do. Rumor has it the last issue is in progress and should be out by 2011; this will help me figure out whether I want to start reading it once it’s not being published anymore.
These comics are all here for the express purpose of being taken for free, and yet I can’t pick one up without thinking, “Yoink!” I should be dressed as the Hamburglar or something.
All right. I’ll get the Gotham Central. And that copy of The Literals I swore I wouldn’t buy. I’d better get out of here before I buy a Venom t-shirt or something.
The woman and child in front of me in line have no idea it’s Free Comic Book Day. In their minds, comic shops are always this crowded. When the owner tells them to go over to the tables and load up on their way out, the kid makes a face like he found a golden ticket in his Wonka Bar. He’ll be back.
I love the idea that a mom would be shopping with her kid in 2009 and go, “Hey, a comic book store. Let’s go in and pick something out for you at random.” And that they would happen to do it on the day when they’re giving stuff away.
Finally ready to check out. Yikes! Look at that. Dozens and dozens of copies of the Obama Spider-Man. it’s like the comic shop’s own Tickle Me Elmo. In December, grandmas were punching one another in the throat to get one; by March, a red, giggling, unsold wall of the bastards practically obstructed the entrance to Toys R Us.
Ah, Toys R Us. I do not miss collecting action figures. Driving out to the Manchester Wal-Mart at midnight because you heard they had an R5-D4? I was single, and this is what I was doing with my midnights in the summer of 1996. At least comics show up in every store on a scheduled day.
There’s never gonna be a Free Toy Day to get new customers interested in toys. Nobody needs to clue you in that you like playing.
This is a weird industry.
Final tally: thirty-five dollars, ninety-five cents. I got off easy this year.
Jim Mroczkowski didn’t end up getting a parking ticket, so this one goes in the “Win” column. He is here, and here, and also here.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
Great article Jim; especially observating how many people were at your LCS
I swear when I went first thing on Saturday there was more people at my LCS….people I have never seen before, plus there kids were there!
The FCBD comics I got were good for the most apart. Blackest Night #0 ftw! I literally was giddy when I saw the final pages with the Black Hand. Other comics like Bongo Free for All, or Mercy Sparx, or William Shatner Presents was also good. The stinker of the bunch though was Savage Dragon #148….Man that was a bad comic.
Also got Transmetropolitan vol.1 and The Boys vol.1 during the event too. Transmetro is my new favorite comic.
THere’s a place in St. Louis where it’s hard to find parking? Well, you might as well just move to Chicago then!
At my store they only let us choose one comic each, but they did give out two packs of back issues to everyone. Four World War Hulk tie-ins? Dreams are made of emotion!
I choose the DC Sampler for my ungrateful kids who couldn’t be bothered to come along, and I paid for the Fantastic Four lost issue and Muppet Show #2 and went home with only a faint hint of disappointment.
That’s funny. I have kind of an opposite reaction to FCBD. When I went to my store b/c it was FCBD I felt as though I had to buy other things besides just gettin the free stuff. My store lets you take as many of the freebies as you wish, but after the first free one they’re 50 cents, it get donated to the library. So that’s cool. (Though I did miss out on TMNT #1).
I get this weird guilt from FCBD b/c the freebies are supposed to get new readers into comics, whereas I am hardly a new reader. So I feel as though I need to offset that by buying something I don’t need at all just to balance out. This year that was specifically Glamourpuss #1, an Owly book and at the other store (yeah i went to two) X-Force/Cable Messiah War #1.
I (God willing) Graduate soon. I’ll learn the Secret Jesuit Handshake at last. I went to a diatant LCS to pick up JSA #26 AND Legion of 3 Worlds yesterday, but there were out due to FCBD. Picked up the first trade of NORTHLANDERS (A+) And AIR (still trying to figure that one out.)
Yeah I went in with the intention of just getting the free stuff at JHU, and then left with a bunch of battle for the cowl, and the final crisis issues I had forgotten to pickup, spent around $30 as well
great day though! too bad it was pouring
On FCBD I usually partake in an odyssey that takes me from midtown to East Village in NYC. I started off in Jim Hanley’s Universe, where there was a creator signing of this indy book that I can’t remember (they were out of copies of it :(). Nice guys though, we talked for a bit about old school wrestling (I was wearing a Hurricane shirt, and that brought it up). They had a sale going on in their basement where this treasure trove of random back issues were like 60 cents each, and I was able to find a bunch of Losers, Metabarons and Heavy Metal issues (I also found a Married with Children book, WTF??) Also got a Savage Dragon trade.
Then I got a chilli dog and papaya drink from the amazing Greg’s Papaya, then walked down to 23rd st to Cosmic Comics, which didnt have many comics left, but was able to snag the Bongo issue, an issue of Godland, War of Kings #2, the Love & Rockets sampler, and some other stuff. Also snagged an Invincible trade and some more Losers and Metabarons.
Walked down to Union Square and met up with my gf and gave her the Shonen Jump sampler I snagged, and laughed at the fact that Stan Lee is now apparently a manga character! Went into Forbidden Planet which at this point was clean out of free stuff, but regardless picked up some stuff, including a new copy of Ghost World and something else I cant remember.
The last stop was St. Marks Comics, which had a 1 per customer thing, and it was random. You’d say whether or not you wanted action/adventure or comedy/family. Naturally since I have huge manly balls, I chose action/adventure and got the Avengers book. Already had it, so I traded up and got the Savage Dragon issue (which I’m not reading since I’m up to only the sixth trade>) They were having a half off sale on back issues, so I got all the original Longshot issues, plus the Superman/Brainiac stuff that Geoff Johns wrote. Finished off the long and tiring day by going to the Japanese Yakitori place nearby 🙂
The big two free issues I was looking out for was Blackest Night and Avengers. Blackest Night was cool, loved the Black Lantern oath! Avengers was ok, it very much highlighted Bendis’ big strength and weakness when he tackles an Avengers team.
Reading your article was more fun than reading some of my old comics — but not as much fun as getting new free comics. Then again, what CAN compete with free stuff? Nicely written.
But you can’t overcome temptation without being tempted…
The twitter format hurts my eyes.
Nice article. Comic book stores sometimes have sales in action figures… I got several at 66% off, one day after FCBD. It’s almost free, right?
Here are some photos from the FCBD in Israel in one of the only two comicbook stores in existence there (also they’re very close to each other for some reason), if anyone’s interested. I didn’t take the photos. A couple of local creators did sketches there and I of course wasn’t there (I always miss out on FCBD, discounted days and other good stuff).
http://cnv.co.il/news/fcbd2009.html
I picked up the Avengers book, the DC book, and my favorite of the lot, Atomic Robo. I also managed to pick the first vol of the Losers for like 50 cents! im going back tomorrow for 75% off back issues
@greendart32: Wow losers vol 1 for 50 cents? awesome deal!
on FCBD my whole store was 30% off. so i bought the new absolute superman and all the glamourpuss back issues for my sister. and this weeks comics. got over a $60 bill….
Thanks for writing this Jim!
Awesome FCBD in SF, rainy day, perfect for getting your comics and going to Cafe’ Triest For some reading. I also picked up some comics I’ve been meaning to checkout, in particular New Frontier, Runaways, EX Machina Trade and GL #40.
@patio: You would be at Tenth Planet would you?
I got the same deal there with the one per customer, Blackest Night #0, which was great. Also picked up Sinestro Corps War vol.1 TPB and Thor vol. 1 TPB. I also went to one shop where nothing was going on, it was one guy sitting in the room who then laughed when I mentioned FCBD AND that I asked for a Deadpool Vol. 1 trade. So some people are party poopers and it definately was that guy.
@chlop: 66%!?
What’s the cheapest plane to Israel and do you have bunk beds? 🙂
my boyfriend got his to free ones wendsay i think. And sadly I was traped at home starday. I will say this has reminded me that I have to interlibrary reqest the other Gotham Central trades.
@greendart32: I also got that issue of Losers for that, as well as a good bulk of the series for the same price. Was that at Jim Hanley’s in NYC?
Being in an area where there is a plethora of comic shops is a great luxury. I went to 4 different shops – one I had never been to – on FCBD. I had planned on getting to 3 more, but I ran out of steam and had other obligations as the afternoon wore on.
Every shop I visited had a very steady stream of customers. I actually had to stand in line at my regular shop, and the rest of the store was just packed with folks. The owner seemed to be having a blast, even if everyone didn’t end up buying something. Third shop on my list had a signing, and navigating the narrow aisles was nearly impossible. All four shops were having a sale, which hopefully enticed some of those lookie-lous (I love that word, even if I can’t spell it) to pick up something they wouldn’t have otherwise.
All in all, I droped about $60, picked up some cool books – Strange Girl v.1 (thanks iFanboy!), The Five Fists of Science and Jesus Hates Zombies (how could I not pick that up?!?!), the latest Frank Cho art book, about 10 or 11 $.50 bin 70s DC comics, and James Robinson’s Vigilante mini from the mid 90s. Along with that, I got all the FCBD books I could use along with a couple for the nephew. Great day and a great idea that hopefully will stick around for a while.
Oh, hey, I’ve been on that strip where Blueberry Hill is. Didn’t notice a comic book store but it was 10 years ago and I wasn’t really looking. . .
I was going out of town this weekend and had to leave before my local opened (ironically: so I could get to DC and meet people for the Wolverine movie on time). I had a thought about trying to figure out where every participating comic store between Richmond and the beltway was, but the FCBD website lacks a convenient, KrustyBurger style map. I did pick out one shop to visit, though (Little Fish comics in Fredericksburg, VA) and it turned out to be a nice one that was making a big deal about the event. I picked up the Marvel Avengers & Wolverine books, a Boom studio "Cars" book for my 5 year old niece (who gave it a look of contempt and went back to watching Looney Tunes, but I tried, and also I can’t really argue with a kid who likes old-school Looney Tunes), and the Love & Capes issue for a friend whose LCS didn’t have it. Also got a trade of Preacher that I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere, and $5 action figures of Scarlet Witch & Havok (the Witch because she’s awesome, Havok because I kind of think he sucks but I have every other member of the Summers family and felt like I was treating him unfairly).
Not sure about this as a marketing event, but the store seemed to be doing good business and I saw some enthusiastic kids, so if that’s the point, God bless ’em. I liked the Wolverine book a lot, too — it was like ‘Alpha Flight: First Class’ and it was by Fred Van Lente. Not sure if it was one of yesterday’s official issues or just something they had.
I had a great Free Comic Book Day. Strangely, Jimski and I shop in the same store. I must have been there earlier or later because I don’t remember a nerd fight or Green Lantern guy, but when I was there, there were a TON of kids reading and enjoying comics. It was awesome. Gives me hope that a newer crop of readers will sweep in.
Anyways, I picked up some good free comic books, but the 40% off all HCs in the store was the icing on the cake. I was ablel to pick up Starman Omnibus Vol. 2, Crogan’s Vengeance, and Batman RIP for under $60. Good stuff.
I’m moving away from STL at the end of the May and the one thing I’ll miss the most is the Star Clipper.
@ forestjwp – that’s the place! A good shop for the area. The thing about the SW side is there just aren’t many shops and some of them are too small to mess around with FCBD. Those comics aren’t free for retailers. Cheap, but not free.
@ohcaroline: ‘Hey, there’s a New Mexico!’
There was a one or two kids at my LCS. The owner thought of doing a few things to attract familes was face painting and a pizza party. I was there early in the morning but from what I was told there was a lot of little kids in the afternoon…..reading comics and eating pizza. Good times.
Then of course the D&D people came in and well….all hell broke loose
Three per customer? One per customer? What the hell? The two stores I went to were ten per customer and unlimited per customer, the second offering plenty of things that weren’t even FCBD books.
That and the first store was 25% off everything else and the second store was one I don’t hit that often, so I wound up spending about as much as I usually do in a month’s worth of Wednesdays. Whoops.
Here it’s usually two per customer plus as much as you want from the local creators (meaning copy-machine creations usually)
yea mine was 2 per customer. luckily i took my girlfriend so i got 4!
Mine was 4 per customer, a 15% discount overall, plus a lot of stuff on sale. They had a table of Wolverine books all 25% off.
I went to my LCS as well as another shop nearby that’s part of the same chain (Graham Crackers). They had a 3 book limit, so I brought my brother with me to both maximize the free issues as well as show him what the LCS is all about (He reads the comics I buy, but never buys his own).
I picked up both Blackest Night and Avengers. Both were very good, although BN did much more to exccite me for the event and the DCU in general, whereas Avengers was just an interesting and pointless story. I also loved Atomic Robo and Savage Dragon. Still need to read Resurrection.
The second store was smaller and not as nice as my LCS. However, they had a local writer come out to sign copies of his new book, The Supremacy. He seemed like a cool enough guy, so I bought a copy and had him sign it. It was actually pretty interesting, although you could tell it was his first book. Still, I found it better than I was expecting. That and a long box were the only things I bought.
Both stores were packed. There were a lot of kids, whcih was awesome. One lady asked me why I read comics and how I started, so that was pretty cool as well. All in all, it was a fun day.
My comic book store does literally celebrate this as a holiday, and it’s awesome. They set a sales record and everything. I picked up Blackest Night, Savage Dragon, and Avengers, and bought one of Eric Trautmann and Brandon Jerwa’s Wide Awake posters. A good time was had by all.
New England Comics in Allston was pretty packed in the afternoon. I was able to squeeze in and grab a few books… gotta say the Atomic Robo ‘Dr. Dinosaur’ story was AWESOME!!! an insane, time-travelling dinosaur fighting a wise-cracking robot… so good.
mile high comics had a buy-one-get-one. also, i got a picture of a guy in a storm trooper outfit with my newborn. good times!
It was a tiny store, with 5 billion pepol including a pan panhandling bum. There was also a littol kid dressed up like captain America who kipt throwing his shield at a guy dressed like a storm tropper. The storm tropper got all pissy and yelled at the littol kid and left in a huff. On this day I finaly realized why ewaks defeated the Empire.
I hit two stores and got pretty much every book that was available, with the exception of Archie.
My one store often has some real issues that I guess they had too much backstock of. Last year I was able to get a copy of Cable #1, this year they were Captain America 25 and 26, as well as an issue of Buck Rogers.
Green Lantern #0 was a great issue, so I’ll definitely start picking it up.
5 per customer!! That’s right!!
Unfortunately that meant by the time I got there that I had miss out on Turtles, and the Will.i.am Shatner comic. But because it was five per I picked Blackest Night and was blown away. A great way to rope new readers, myself included. DC gave me the comic for free, but they’ll get it back and then some. And that, Charlie Brown, is what FCBD is all about.
Also, saw that the Avengers comic grabbed the attention of ‘has been’ Marvel fans. "What do you mean Norman Osbourne is in charge of everything?" "Venom is pretending to be Spider-Man?!?!"
I took a bonus day off work, I have 60 vacation hours and 5 bonus days and what better time than Free Comic Book Day to take off. I have to get up by 4:30 to get to work so I rolled out of bed at 8:30 and felt refreshed. Got on line a bit and watched a few cartoons with the kids to get the day started right. After taking care of some family biz I got my two oldest boys (7 & 5) and myself ready to go to JC Comics and Cards (the best place around). We park down around the block and as we get out I notice a Dad with two boys getting to their car (the daddy has a GreenLantern shirt on the boys have no comic gear) and as we get close to the front entrance a young man tells me "they are jammed in there". This is gonna be good! We walk in the door and wOw it is packed, I take my boys to look at the action figures and the owner dressed as the JOKER makes his way over to us, he is a very cool guy, take as many books as you want! We got a lot of books and yes I had to make a purchase or 5 before going next door to the tatoo shop to get a few temp-tats for my boys and thats when Batman showed up, my boys and I had a good time.
When we got home we shared a few comics with the kids who could not come for other reasons and broke out the Batman, TwoFace and Joker PEZ dispencers and watched some Batman tas season 4.
Then to top off the day me and my wife went to see the new X-men movie (ohh and I did some yard work and drank beer too). Sure beat goig to work for 12 hours.
didn’t pick up any trades due to the fact that i pushed my budget on friday( i was away last sunday through thursday night).
My LCS had a 20% off sale and Chad Atkins artist of GI Joe was there. I picked up Green Lantern Chronicles Vol 1 and I loved Blackest Night #0 was totally dissapointed at Avengers.
Great article.
Is Star Clipper the store you went to for FCBD?
I had a great time on Saturday. A friend and I drove to Greensboro, NC (about an hour and 1/2 away) to Acme Comics for their event. They were featuring a variety of artists and writers, several of which were members of the Bendis Board (the manager is Lord Jermaine Retail, FYI). They featured Mike Choi, Sean McKeever, Jonathan Hickman, Chris Samnee, Mark Morales, Jeremy Dale, Chris Fason, Brian Defferding, and Michael Watkins. While waiting outside to get in, they had several "heroes" walking along chatting up the crowd, including Spider-Man, Batgirl, The Question, Black Panther, and a Hugh Jackman/Wolverine lookalike whose resemblance was pretty uncanny (no pun intended…or was it?) The staff gave out pre-assembled gift bags of over 20 FCBD books for attendees once they entered the store, and had separate bags that were geared just for kids. The store was slam-packed all day, and it far surpassed the store’s expectations, but everyone had fun and the day was well-run. Huzzah and kudos, Acme Comics!
BTW, here are some videos of the event for people to check out, if you’re interested…(plug, plug)
FCBD @ Acme Comics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0VyDWT1qZg&feature=channel_page
Chris Samnee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuEB9TFr4k&feature=channel_page
Jonathan Hickman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIGNASTwfRs&feature=channel
Sean McKeever & Jeremy Dale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlQqNX6xok&feature=channel
Went to Stormwatch comics in Berlin NJ, got my free books, and a few hard covers thanks to there 50% off FCBD sale!
My store a 3 for adults and 5 for kids. Then is was 50% off back issues and 40% off everything else. Got 3 Y: the last man tp’s and the 1st fables tp. 🙂
Kind of pissed that I didn’t learn about free comic day in advanced, kind of had my head in the clouds being busy memorizing monologues for acting, so the wednesday before they told me, and I was like….crap….I have to work the entire time my comic shop is open. Yarrg, work is killing my comic life! 0_o
@patio: I agree that it is a good shop for the area. I go to Graham Cracker typcailly downtown while at work. Any other recommendations for shops in the SW side?
I swore I wouldn’t buy the Literals too but impulse bought it 20% off on FCBD.Spooky.On a side note,not sure why the crossover has me so cranky.
@ forestjwp – I’m sure you know All American Comics on 95th. That’s your prototypical small comics shop with a curmudgeonly old guy behind the counter that’s been there forever. I’m guessing that’s the place you were shot down. (The guy is actually nice, but I’m sure he can come off as gruff. They haven’t had a good experience with FCBD in the past.) Another is CCNC on 55th/Archer and Oak Park. Their focus is more on the card games than the comics, but they have some really nice pictures on the wall. That’s all I know. There were one or two more before, but I think they closed down.
I think you people need to start organizing regional iFanboy meetups. St. Louis, for example, seems prime for a gathering.
@patio @forestjwp:
I always hear that Chicago is one of the mecca cities of comicdom. I live in the suburbs myself (Joliet/Plainfield), but I don’t really know anything about the Chicago comics ‘scene.’ I’d love to go downtown once in a while and check things out, but do we really only have 3 comic book shops, or is that just the SW side? I love the city, but what makes Chicago so great for comics?
I think it would be really interesting to study the regional trends of comic books. I love reading Savage Dragon partly because it’s set in Chicago. Sure, the rest of the package is great, but the fact that Dragon is a Chicago cop is just too cool. I just watched that ‘Cities’ video episode and I’m curious if whether New Yorkers are more likely to read Marvel because so many epic things happen in the Earth616 version of New York. Just a crazy thought.
P.S. Meetups would be cool, but also potentially scary. I read comic books, I’m not supposed to socialize. 😉
@patio
That was the place, lol. Just didn’t appreciate the laughing at for asking about a Deadpool trade.
@rustyautoparts
Just on the SW side really. I was asking about stuff closer to my home. Basically there is Graham Cracker which has something close to 6 Chicago area locations, great staff and fun atmosphere. There are also smaller locations, but there was a Eisner winner for best shop in the USA in Chicago, Chicago Comics, have been there a few times great stuff there as well.
@josh:
That actually would be pretty cool expand it out to regional/city meetings maybe once a month? Just get together shoot the breeze about recommendations, etc. Would definately need to figure out the demand for it as well. IDK about St. Louis, a Chicago meet up would be great. Would have to be a different thread on here though, right?
I have been thinking about a St. Louis meetup on and off for months; I just don’t think of the prospect of hanging out with me as a "draw."
I would love to set up something here in Jersey. Cause there are quite a few New Jersey comic readers in here. But it couldnt be at my shop…..as much as I love it, it is prime in a very bad area of the town I live. So if people dont mind risking getting stabbed then come on down!
A comic book book club?
An ifanboy meet up in St. Louis would be awesome. It’d be cool meeting others as into comics. Out where I am, I don’t know anyone besides myself who reads comics.
I’m just chiming in to say that a Chicago meet up would be pretty sweet. I might even drive down to St Louis once in a great while, if I heard it was cool.
@forestjwp: Yeah, I got to the Graham Crackers in Naperville. It’s great, with an awesome atmosphere, and I’ve got the 10% off my pull list dealie. I’ll have to check out Chicago Comics when I’m in the city.
surprised people rarely mention savage dragon.
@comicBOOKchris: that was me. My book, FCHS, was sold out and we talked about Hurricane Helms. We have more copies of the book at Hanley’s, so feel free to stop by and get one!