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Free Comic Day! 118

Posted by CmdrTaco from the cheap-at-twice-the-price dept.
turkeywrap writes "Today is Free Comic Day! Go to your local comic store, pick up some free comics, and support the comic industry. Check and see if there are any special signings or events at a store near you." Ack! I'm in Warren at Penguicon this weekend, and nowhere near my precious comic store! I guess I'll have to pay for my comics ;)
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Free Comic Day! More

Free Comic Day!

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  • Wow (Score:1, Redundant)

    by SWPadnos ( 191329 )
    And there's even an event in my hometown (Burlington, VT).
  • Why not just use your favorite P2P app to download the comics :)

  • X-Men comics (Score:3, Interesting)

    by richmlpdx ( 446378 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @10:59AM (#5868748)
    After watching X2 last night (good movie), I'm feeling inspired to checkout the actual comics. Is there a bound edition with large parts of the series available or would I have to hunt and peck to find each individual comic book?

    • Re:X-Men comics (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:12AM (#5868803)
      Check your local bookstore, it's quite likely you'll find some trade paperback collections of X-Men comics in the graphic novel section. Essential X-Men, X-Tinction Agenda, and several others.

      If you're new to the comics, I'd recommend the Essential X-Men (there are more volumes released since then as well) as a good starting point.

      The big downside: it's in black and white, and not printed on the best quality paper. If you want the full experience, you would still need the comics. (except for some like the X-Tinction Agenda which were reprinted in better quality trade paperbacks)

    • Re:X-Men comics (Score:5, Informative)

      by RdsArts ( 667685 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:14AM (#5868812) Homepage Journal
      Actually, yes. Marvel has been releasing complete collections of the early XMen comics, along with other comics, for a while as bound, telephone-book sized collections. I can't remember the name, I believe it was "Absolute Xmen," but they may have gone out of print by now. (The first printing was some time around 1997)

      If your looking for them, go into a comic shop, and ask them about the Xmen "trade paperback." (A trade paperback is just a collection of the comics in one large volume)

      • Actually, yes. Marvel has been releasing complete collections of the early XMen comics, along with other comics, for a while as bound, telephone-book sized collections. I can't remember the name, I believe it was "Absolute Xmen," but they may have gone out of print by now. (The first printing was some time around 1997)

        You're referring to Marvel's "Essentials" line. They do it for X-Men and Wolverine both, as well as other Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, etc. You get a whole ton of issues in

    • Re:X-Men comics (Score:3, Informative)

      by ghack ( 454608 )
      There are many such bound series available...but since we are talking upwards of 1000 comics in the X-Universe...

      To start off, I would look at Uncanny X-Men Masterworks http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785 108459/qid=1051974731/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-108143 4-6039167?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 [amazon.com]

      And the New X-Men Masterworks is also a good place to start http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871 35988X/qid=1051974807/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-108143 4-6039167?v=glance&s=book [amazon.com]
    • Marvel has something called the Visionaries line of paperbacks. Has most of the important backstories. I would pick up the Byrne Visionaries, and maybe if there are, Claremont Visionaries. You could also get the Phoenix Sage trade paperback (next movie is going to deal with that storyline), and Days of Future Past. Also check out "God Loves, Man Kills" graphic novel.
      • I know I'm going way OT, forgive me.

        Oh, and very oblique spoilers.

        I was pretty sure we were gonna see Phoenix in the next one by the end, though unfortunately I looked away right before the shot of the lake. But can they really explain the Phoenix Force, Madeline Pryor, what happens to Jean and everything else in two hours? Backstory has been implicit in the first two movies, that kinda needs to be explicit. There've been hints of what we geeks know (Nightcrawler and Mystique's moment together, for exa

    • Re:X-Men comics (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Though I'll have to politely disagree with you over the quality of X-Men movies, I'll point you in the right direction for comics. X2 was sort of based off an graphic novel called "God Loves, Man Kills" by Chris Claremont. It's an alright book. If you want intense x-men action, try to get the newer x-men trade paper backs with Grant Morrisons name on them. His stories are better than anything in an x-men comic in decades and his other comics are what The Matrix is heavily based off of.

    • Re:X-Men comics (Score:2, Informative)

      by grum ( 92363 )
      One suggestion is to go looking for the original "God Loves, Man Kills" X-Men graphic novel [ebay.com]. It's from the 1982, and the storyline is fantastic and puts a lot of the more recent stuff to shame. As well, I have heard from friends that the main villian has been reworked to appear in the X2 movie (Stryker).
      I believe Marvel has just reprinted the story in normal comic book form as well.
    • If you're just starting out, and aren't wanting to get overwhelmed by nearly 40 years of deep X-Men mythology, check out this [amazon.com] and this [amazon.com]. It's a revamp/retooling of the series that isn't too far off of the movie storylines. Plus, it basically starts off it's own storylines at ground zero, with pretty kicking artwork.
    • I recommend the Grant Morrison X-Men, starting with E is for Extinction.
    • Hmmm..

      Against all recommendations before (which go for the more comic-geeky, yesteryear X-men material of Chris Claremont, which might be a bit too much for some), I'd recommend the current stuff like...

      Ultimate X-Men Collection 1: The Tomorrow People [amazon.com]
      Ultimate X-Men Collection 2: Return to Weapon X [amazon.com]

      the recent stuff by Grant Morrison is also good, a good twist on the stuff you might or might not remember, and best of all, without the INSANE AMMOUNT OF BAGGAGE required to grasp some of the older stories:
    • Don't bother, the movie is much better than the comic books. In fact, the comic books are harder to follow than Jacob's Ladder and if you want to find out what anything is about then you'll have to read about 200 of them. Of course, that's just to find out basically what happened in one universe, and not the several parrallel universes that have been written to explain tremendous screw ups in continuity. It's a great idea, with horrible implementation.
    • If you get the chance and desire to follow this advice, please do. I can understand reasons why not though.

      Please try to buy comics comic by comic if you can instead of buying the series in a book. The comic world is at a rather low point, for a while now. Getting back issues isn't too hard. It supports the comic world better.
    • I'm sure all these suggestions are great, and I intend to check some of them out myself as a comic reader who's lapsed for about seven years. But a good resource on the characters and some storyline is marveldirectory.com.

      And, I know I've asked this elsewhere, does anyone know who the kid watching television in the middle of the night was? The one who told Logan he didn't sleep.

  • Support the industry (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:00AM (#5868753)
    pick up some free comics, and support the comic industry

    How do they make a profit? Volume.

  • Last time I picked up a few "free" comics (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:00AM (#5868754)
    They told me to never come back to the store again.

  • Business modell: (Score:4, Funny)

    by trikberg ( 621893 ) <trikberg@hotmail. c o m> on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:01AM (#5868759)
    pick up some free comics, and support the comic industry 1. Give away free comics 2. ?? 3. Profit!
    • Comic book dealers must be like drug dealers. They give you a free sample to get you hooked. At least comic books encourage imagination instead of killing brain cells. :)
  • And of course it has to be on one of those days where I'm stuck at work for 12+ hours. Phooey. The price I pay for being a geek.
  • Free comics.. i have a feeling that all swedish stores will disagree.

  • Heh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 ) * on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:07AM (#5868780) Journal
    And tomorrow it's free jewlery day! Just show up at your local jewelery store with a gun! :)

  • obligatory link (Score:5, Funny)

    by exhilaration ( 587191 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:09AM (#5868789)
    "Er, excuse me. No banging your head on the display case please, it contains a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide. Thank you." - The Comic Book Guy [nohomers.net] from the Simpsons

    • My favorite... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 )
      CBG: No you may not, the bathroom is for paying customers only, if you purchase an item you may use the bathroom. Millhouse: Uhhh, how bout that. CBG: That is a rare photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore.

  • Woo hoo! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Gefiltefish ( 125066 )

    Free comic day? This is terribly exciting!

    But the event I can't wait for is next Saturday: FREE COLONOSCOPY DAY!

  • Should be a UN day (Score:3, Funny)

    by IroNick ( 668714 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:13AM (#5868809)
    There should be a "UN World free comic day", so we could do this all over the world. This could very well be the UN proposal the US actually would agreee with... ;P
    • Well, it's here in the UK as well, FWIW.

    • Re:Should be a UN day (Score:5, Funny)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @01:36PM (#5869463)
      It would be a Zionist conspiracy to distract the world from their crimes against humanity in Palestine. That, or it would be a unilateralist act that flies in the face of "international law." But I can see it now...

      The Security Council would push for a role for UN "Peacekeepers" to hand out the comics, the General Assembly will elect to put a price tag of $1.50 on the free comics (to cover the administrative overhead, of course), and comic book publishers will have to spend years in negotiations with various NGOs to hammer out the details.

      After agreeing to five or six different documents all titled "Roadmap to Free Comics," the first few issues would be distributed around 2025. Aside from a few compilations of Bazooka bubble gum wrappers and reprints of Radio Shack's "Whiz Kids," the comics include such insightful ("inciteful?") titles as "Fidel has Feelings Too" and "Triumphs of the Ba'ath Party." The comics themselves are thicker than one would expect because each speech bubble contains the same text in six different languages, with the order of the languages rotated every frame so that no one language is seen as superior to another. The credits at the beginning of each comic contain around 1500 names each, to ensure that nobody involved in the UN effort is left out. In support of UN efforts to combat illiteracy, each illiterate person would receive two comics instead of just one.

      After the diplomatic fiasco in which several thousand "Peacekeepers" were killed and/or tortured while trying to carry out their humanitarian comic book efforts, someone will point out that distributing all this paper violates certain environmental agreements. After an additional two or three years of debate, it is decided to pass the blame and the clean-up costs to those truly responsible the Comic Holocaust (as it will by then be referred to): the comic book publishers. After his high-profile capture, Stan Lee awaits trial at The Hague, while France and several other EU supporters introduce a draft it likes to call "The Comprehensive Comic Book Test Ban Treaty."

  • True economy... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:17AM (#5868832)
    Go to your local * store, pick up some free *, and support the * industry.

    ...in your face, RIAA!

    Support industry by taking free stuff with you. And you thought, business is hard to understand...

  • Free, but there's a catch. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Recovery1 ( 217499 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:21AM (#5868844) Homepage
    It's not exactly free. I noted milk and cheese comic a few months ago in prevus and asked my local guy to order it for me with the rest of the ones I usually pick up. He apologized and told me that he couldn't do it. In order to get it (the free comic book that is) he had to either by $70 of comics in some way, either by purchasing these "free comics" or by sales of other books from the supplier totalling $70. He never explained it and I never thought to ask further.I kind of wish I had now. .. so I don't get my milk and cheese. So depressing. I think I'll go to the fridge now and get the milk and cheese out and make cool action figures that go sour in the sun.

    MURDER MAYHEM MERV GRIFFIN!!!!
    • Thats odd, because the books are donated by publishers in the induster. I think there are 3 levels.
      Gold: new, or special comics relesed for the event.
      Silver New comic books, not specific to the evenr
      and copper: bacj issues.
      I do not remember there being a minimum purchase involved. OTOH, if a comic book store isn't purchasing for then 70 dollars worth of comic book a month, they're in serious trouble. financially.

  • Do kids still buy comics? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Are these still popular? or is it mostly guys in their late 20's and up. I know the comic book stores I frequented as a youth have closed.
  • Anyone know if Thorgal [thorgal.com] can be found in English? It's a Belgian comic written in French, but also translated into some other languages.

  • Beer or speech? (Score:3, Funny)

    by anonymous cowfart ( 576665 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @11:40AM (#5868915) Journal
    Is that "Free as in beer" or "Free as in speech?"
  • Hopefully this will inspire parents to pick up something for the children to read instead of having them play video games or watch T.V. My guess is that it won't do a thing.
    • You know, a proper book, without PICTURES. Now that gives your imagination a workout. Comics, my friend, are entertainment, NOT literature...
      • 95 percent of children these days don't read anything and don't have the desire to read a book. Comic books are a great tool to help them transition into real literature. And even if its not true literature at least they are reading something !
        • If the point is to "read something", hell turn on the closed captions thingie on the TV and let them read!

          How on earth is reading Superman, Spiderman or X-Men better than watching tv and playing videogames? Answer: it is not. Comic books offer a serialised story, with no conclusion and their ONLY purpose is to interest the reader so that he buys the next comic. They are not "designed" to be educational. They are not "designed" to instil moral values.

          Being a parent myself I try to stimulate my child's bra

          • Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard these lines when I was a kid in the 1950s/1960s, except they said "Mad Magazine" instead of "video games" back then. Every teacher and parent yelled about how comic books and Mad Magazine would rot our brains, and how we should read nothing but "real" books, blah blah, blah.

            The funny thing is, all the major comics-reading kids I knew grew up to be major book-reading adults.

            My first *pleasure* reading was comic books. I later graduated to "juvenile" science fiction, even later to
            • Respectfully, I call bollocks. I, too, grew up with Spiderman, Iron Man, Viz and Asterix. I, too, managed to find the strength to open a proper book and learn that you don't really need pictures to have imagination, and that there actually exist more than 500 words in the English language. Fact is that for every kid out there for whom comic books are a stepping stone, there are hundreds for whom comic books will be the equivalent of proper literature.

              I never said they should be prohibited to kids. I think

      • This is why comic books are important (Score:5, Insightful)

        by starvingartist12 ( 464372 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @03:53PM (#5870099) Homepage
        This is why comic books are important [hypethis.com]
        "I'd never actually seen a comic in person before that, and though even then I knew they were lame, I was fascinated by the kind of stories that used both pictures and words."

        ...
        "Truth is, I was a slow student initially, because we were always going from town to town, and the curriculum varied tremendously across locations. (I was also near-sighted, something my father didn't want to admit, so I didn't get glasses until late Junior High School.) So in a very real way, comics taught me how to read, taught me a love of language, and storytelling, and most of all, an appreciation for heroes, for chivalry and bravery and a refusal to surrender."
        ...
        "In addition to the elements just noted, I learned my sense of morality, my sense of right and wrong, from comics. That may sound stupid and naive, but it's true, and that understanding is what propels me to this day."
        ...
        "And there was never any question in his mind about doing the right thing. You just do it. And that, to me, became very important to my moral development. I still tend to see things in black-and-white terms, and if I come into a situation where the only way to keep my job is to do something I don't agree with on principle, I'll quit. It's cost me any number of jobs over the years, but I can't do otherwise. Wouldn't be right.

        My family, of course, didn't see it that way at the time, and when my grades slipped, my father blamed it on comics, and as I sat there, he took all the comics that I'd so carefully stored and protected, kept in pristine condition, all my number one issues of X-Men and Spider-Man and the rest ... and tore them in half, one after another, until they were all gone. It still makes me angry. But the other thing about comics is that this was where I first began to appreciate the process of storytelling. I was kind of oblivious at first to the idea of writers, but over time I gradually began to figure it out, that somebody sat down and wrote down these words. And I was entranced by that."


        Just who was this person? It's none other than J. Michael Straczynski, writer and creator of Babylon 5, Crusade and Jeremiah (He's currently enjoying getting a chance at writing Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel) =)
      • Listen you popus ass. Comic is just the medium, its the story that counts, and you know what? thats true with "Real" books.

        Based on your post, you think it is better to read a trashy romance, then a comic book that show examples of standing up what you believ in, and doing the right thing because it is the right thing.

        please define literature?
        I think a great many things you call literature was not considered literatuire in its day.
        • I normally don't give a shit about spelling, grammar, syntax and other elements that could make or break a conversation but man your English stinks! I am amazed you know enough English to understand those complicated words in comic books.

          You want me to define literature? Go to amazon. Book section. Fiction. Take your pick. There are good books, there are bad books. Don't want "trashy romances"? Read Asimov. Read Greg Bear. Read the excellent books of George RR Martin. For fuck's sake, read Tolkien. READ HA

          • I share your outrage at the decline of intellectual rigour and the human spirit, and I think that good literature is central to being a educated, cosmopolitan early-21st-century Western subject, but he's right about one thing: comics are just a medium. Where he's wrong is that it's a different medium - it isn't literature, because by definition literature works entirely through text. That doesn't mean, however, that comics (including graphic novels and manga) can't have high artistic value; they are just di
      • No. They are not entertainment. They are ART.

        What passes for comic books these days simply blows my mind. I have been to the museums of the world. I have seen David and the Mona Lisa, and the water lillies of Monet and the sunflowers of Van Gogh, and there are things I have seen today on the printed page which have made me shake my head in wonderment.

        I love books, plain, printed, textual books, as much as anyone. More than you, most likely. But comics and books are apples and oranges, and your comments sh
    • marketed right, children would be asking there parents to take them to get there free comic book.
  • This is a great way to bring in new readers into stores. I applaud it, even though I stopped collecting (on a regular monthly basis) years ago.

    On the other hand, the web has plenty of free comics -- it'd be great to somehow find a way to tie in web comics to this event.

    Free Bob! [pcweenies.com]
  • What's a nubian? ;-)

  • Mostly Free (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @12:25PM (#5869091)
    The idea is to get people interested in comics that may have not looked into them before.

    The official blurb:

    **

    On Saturday, May 3, thousands of comic book shops around the world will celebrate the unique American artform that is comic books. The day has been dubbed "Free Comic Book Day," and its goal is to introduce as many people to the wonders of comic books as possible.

    There are comics for children, for families to enjoy together, for adults, and especially for people who think they would never read a comic book. Come by on May 3rd and let us change your mind - for free!

    Regular updates, information about comic books, and lists of participating publishers
    (and their comics) are all online at http://www.FreeComicBookDay.com.

    **

    It is Free Comic Book Day (FCBD), and yes, there are free comics to be had. Stores like ours do have to pay for these promotional issues, and we give them out for free to get people interested in comics. Here are the titles to be given out today:

    Alternative Comics #1 - FCBD Edition
    Archie & Friends - FCBD Edition
    Avatar Graphic Novel Sampler - FCBD Edition
    Batman Adventures #1 - FCBD Edition
    Christa's 100% Guaranteed How-to Manual For Getting Anyone To Read Comic Books! - FCBD Edition
    Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things - FCBD Edition
    Frank Miller's Robocop / Stargate Sg1- FCBD Edition
    Keenspace.com 2003 - FCBD Edition
    Keenspot Spotlight 2003 - FCBD Edition
    Landis #0 - FCBD Edition
    Leave It To Chance - FCBD Edition
    Metallix #1 - FCBD Edition
    Peanutbutter & Jeremy #4 - FCBD Edition
    Rocket Comics: Ignite - FCBD Edition
    Skinwalker #1 - FCBD Edition
    Slave Labor Stories - FCBD Edition
    The Best Of Dork Storm Number 1 - FCBD Edition
    Transformers: Armada - FCBD Edition
    Ultimate X-men #1 - FCBD Edition
    Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures - FCBD Edition
    Way Of The Rat Movie - FCBD Special #1

    If you need help trying to find a store, please check out:

    http://www.freecomicbookday.com/fcbd_locator.asp

    Enjoy!

    A-1 Comics, Inc.
    1850 Douglas Blvd., Suite 514
    Roseville, CA 95661

    E-Mail: a1roseville@a-1comics.com
    Web: http://www.a-1comics.com

    Phone: (916) 783-8005
    Fax: (916) 783-8040

  • Manga? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MagPulse ( 316 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @12:31PM (#5869118)
    Do any of these comic book stores sell manga? I don't go for American comics, but I love manga. Even my local Barnes and Noble devotes a shelf to them now, though at $10 they're twice as expensive as the original Japanese versions that I get at Mitsuwa.
    • Don't forget that $10 price is because of a few things:
      - Licensing
      - Translation
      - Editing (to replace the Japanese with English)
      and is primarily the result of a far smaller marketplace. The volume of manga produced and sold in Japan alone is many, many times larger than the entire comic market in the US.
  • I read through the abstracts for the comics, and wow are they not-very-exciting-looking. I guess they have to convince you to buy other comics in as few pages as possible, in order to make a profit. But boy oh boy, do they look stooge-a-riffic.

  • Sorry but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 03, 2003 @01:15PM (#5869356)
    I stopped supporting the Comic industry in the mid 90's, after they clearly abused consumers. Starting with Valliant (now dead) who printed outrageous amount of comics, hyped it, but kept most of it in warehouses until the price went up. Some comics could be 10 to 50$ after a few weeks/months, then suddenly appeared on the market in large quantities. Today most are available for a few cents. As a young kid I spent a fortunes on comics, not to collect them, but because I enjoyed reading them.

    Remember that "Death of Superman" hype? In less than a month it was going for 60$, then 100$ and some places went as high as 200$ BUT It was the most! printed! comic! ever! (6 million prints? or was it only 2?) but you could NOT find it anywhere for months. Every distributor, reseller and stores just kept stacks of hundreds in the back waiting for the hype and rarity to increase the price. You can get it for a dollar today.

    I got angry at the comic industry when, in that period, I had a summer job in a comic book store. I went to the warehouse and saw 1$ comics every store in many towns where selling for 10-50$. Titles like Solar man of the atom, X-O Man of war, Superman (death), Batman (broken back), and many many more.

    I consider them dishonest and on the limit of fraudulent. At a minimum, ethically very wrong. My (not so) hard earned cash goes to only a very few rare paperback reprints of the 'best'.

    On a side note at least I could learn to better my English with all that reading!!! ;)

    • Re:Sorry but... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Nope, you've got it wrong, Valiant never horded their comics in warehouses. Here's the real story: Back when Valiant first started publishing, their books were printed in limited supply because no one bought them, they were just an unknown startup. Then once they started getting popular, people chased after the older books which drove them up in price. Seeing that the old books were worth so much, a bunch of speculators entered the market, buying hundreds of copies of the newer Valiant books hopinh to flip

    • Re:Sorry but... (Score:3, Informative)

      by SageLikeFool ( 547462 )
      The comic book industry as a whole has cleaned up its act on this issue for the most part. I think most of it had to do with the push to make comic books a collector's market that happened through the 90's with the mass of foil-chromium-0-issue-bad-girl-centric comics dumped on the market during that time. The effort by publishers to create and control the collectability of their products really killed the comic market in the late 90's which is something it is still bouncing back from.

      Luckily, most publish

    • Re:Sorry but... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by rtechie ( 244489 )
      I'd like to echo your statement because I'm in exactly the same position. In the early 90's I bought lots of comics, many of wich used obvious scam tactics to attract "collectors" like variant and special covers, multiple covers, "special issues", etc. The industry likes to blame the "speculators" but they deliberately encouraged this speculation, quite blatantly. They are ENTIRELY to blame for the collapse of the comic book industry. (It's similar to what happened with Magic: The Gathering, the speculation
  • Thanks for posting this now, stores closed two hours ago so I won't be able to pick anything up in Vienna/Austria...doh!

  • I posted this elsewhere, but anyway (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lightPhoenix ( 28084 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @02:41PM (#5869755)
    Allow me to make some recommendations of comics to pick up alongside the freebies. if you do Free Comics Day. One should not discount this form of communication, as I find the storytelling to often be better than movies and tv.

    -The latest issue of Shonen Jump. This is a manga compilation from Japan. It has the familiar (Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh, YuYu Hakusho) to the odd (Sandland, Shaman King, One Piece) and it's like 5 bucks for a small phone book of stuff. An incredible investment. Plus, it's a magazine so there's bunches of other stuff.

    -Ultimate X-Men. It's like at issue 33, but it's a reset of the X-Men universe. Should be approachable by everyone. The current storyline is Return Of The King and involves Magneto, nice stuff.

    -Fables. A new story started this month with the 'mundies' investigating all the fables that have fled to NYC. Bigby Wolf, Blue Beard, Snow White, The 3 Bears, they're all in the story and adapting to modern life. Great stuff.

    -Astro City: Local Heroes. Very approachable, a series of one shots that talk about life in a super hero city. It's... The Steriotypical super hero city where they make up a normal part of daily life. It's explains superhero life better than Superman ever could.

    -Transformers. They just started a new series with issue 1 this month. Dreamwave is doing a great job on the art, and well with the toys long dead they can make a story that isn't puddle deep. The War Within is another 6 issue series that you might be able to find and it goes back to the first civil war. Awesome design, with Prime, Megatron and Grimlock taking the spotlight. It goes unsaid to ignore Armada.

    -Fray. For you Buffy fans in the house, Joss is writing the story of a Slayer in the future. Good stuff, it's 8 issues long with 7 out already, so you might take a look. The character is cool and really isn't like Buff or Faith.

    -Girl Genius. Some of you magic players might recognize the art of Phil Foglio with this title. It's a steampunk setting, with mostly good and funny storytelling. Sparks have the ability to build great contraptions, and the main character is a fairly useless clutz without a Spark... So it seems. It regularly makes me LAHL.

    -AgentX. This is Deadpool actually, still kicking... Well, for a couple more issues. Anyway, if you like 3 Stooges and violence, then read this. Definetly one of my favorites. Actually, it was even better with a previous artist that had a strong anime f flavor that hit the spot just so... But oh well.

    -Queen and Country. British intelligence agent, a really serious tone. They handle shitty situations and make the world a better place. Makes for better storytelling than most movies, as it covers Tara's exploits.

    And, if you so want to invest in something bigger:
    The Authority: Relentless. A Trade Paperback of Warren Ellis' first 8 of 12 issues on The Authority. They're a super hero team, but in a much bigger way than the X-Men, JLA or such. They've changed what superhero teams can do by making it so much bigger. They save Earth, kill 'god' and stop interdimensional invasions. The dialogue is great and villains don't just mwahaha.

    If you goto the store, you'll notice my lack of DC/Marvel titles. Yeah. Keep that in mind. They're alright, but they're mainstream. If you want something that will change your opinion about comics, they are most likely not it. Anyway, hopefully this should give some good leads as to see what comics can be more than just Supes and the X-Men.
    • You forgot to mention "Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye," an eight issue book of character profiles. The first isse has a few flaws, but it's still quite nice.

      Dreamwave has managed to put together some decent Transfomers comics after their first, substandard Transformers miniseries. Even the Armada comic is decent.

  • Why I gave up on comics (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sabalon ( 1684 ) on Saturday May 03, 2003 @03:30PM (#5869993)
    I had some from the early 80's - X-men and Justice League stuff...interesting sci-fi stories.

    In around '92 I started getting some again (a whole bunch of us in college got into it at once). I think I jumped in at the start of the demise.

    Anyway, it got annoying that it seemed the stories were going to crap, there was less story because half the pages were "look at the splash" or "we needed three pages to draw her breasts". Also, every other issue was a "special" one with 20 covers, all special in some way. That's fine - I'd buy one copy (in it for the story), but that one copy's price would be inflated because of the special cover.

    Other annoyances were the infinite number of cross-title tie ins, the infinite spin-off's and title involving a character (ie. Batman, Dark Knight, Detective, Bat this, bat that, bat screw the customer). Even Image was starting to get bad about this..and valiant to a degree.

    In the end I just said enough was enough and stopped...oddly enough the only thing it did do was got me REALLY into Cerebus.
  • Sigh! Its sad to fins that there is no event in CT. No comic lovers here, I guess.... Just comical people!
  • I remember last year's Free Comic Day. I was walking through Georgetown in D.C. and after, maybe an hour or two of mindless obvliousness, I found myself in front of the Russian Embassy on Mt. Alto a few miles from where I started. When I turned around and went back down Wisconsin Ave. to M St. I stopped at Another Universe comics because I had just remembered it was Free Comic Day and I also wanted to see if they had the newest issue of the Dark Knight Strikes Again or, basically, anything interesting. I en
  • They link to a list of states, with places that artists are making appearances.

    Of course, my state, Oregon, has nothing going on. Which strikes me as very odd, since Dark Horse Comics is based less than 10 miles from my house, and I have a Things From Another World (A comic/gaming store chain owned by Dark Horse Comics,) even closer!

    Bah!
    • "Things From Another World"

      I am relativly new to Oregon, is that worth going to?
      • Yeah, it's one of the better chains in the Portland area. (One in the Hollywood district, one in Beaverton, and one in Milwaukie, next door to the corporate headquarters for both TFAW and Dark Horse comics.)

        Apparently they have a few stores in California, as well.

        It's great for comics, only 'okay' for role playing games.

        If you play RPGs, Bridgetown Hobbies in Northeast Portland on Sandy Boulevard is much better.
  • I only found out about this from /. but by the time it was posted all the shops in the UK had either run out or were closed!

    Gutted!
  • I know there is one with Ant-Man. Are there any others (online or hardcopy)?
  • Well, today i went to two different comic book stores in my area. I called ahead a time to make sure this wasn't some sad post /. April fools joke. Sure enough it was legit. First shop i called said he did not have the so called "Free Comic Day Comics". He then told me to come in and check out what he did have for free. When i got there he pointed me to atleast three large tables with boxes marked .50 cents. He told me five issues are free rest make me a deal. I looked for atleast a good half hour, BSing wi
  • Everyone should support these indy gaming comics. Sure, there's Penny Arcade and Little Gamers, But there's something nostalgic both about holding the comic in your hands, and the Pencil-and-paper RPGs referenced.

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