Saturday, May 5th is Free Comic Book Day! Have you had a chance to pick up your favorite title?
Last year a new comic book shop opened up a few blocks away from my home, so I decided to make the trek down there to check out their selection.
A three comic per person limit was enforced, and I saw at least twenty-five available series in the offer. Some of these were titles from Halloween Comic Fest.
The full selection offered can be viewed on the official Free Comic Book Day website here.
The store also had a discount sale, but a few of their figurines seemed to be of a questionable quality so I kept it moving after picking out my lot.
To explain, some merchandise was sitting bare on top of book stacks out-of-box serving as decorations, which no doubt are now collecting dust and scuff marks; sticky bright orange manual retail price gun tags stuck onto the objects directly. Others were in banged-up boxes that seemed to have fingerprints on the inside plastic that should have been unopened. I
t was as if someone had opened them and placed them back in, or they are hammy downs being passed off as quality merch.
Usually from what I’ve seen in the past, any display is enclosed in a specialty glass box. Collectors would not go for the sorts of items I witnessed today. Although I do not collect much myself, I’ve had to brush up on shady selling practices to not get scammed at conventions.
*cough* New York Comic Con *cough*
The store owner also had a plethora of (I’m sorry but) worthless Funko Vinyl pop figures with inflated prices.
I usually wait until Cons or visit Kinokuniya for my figma needs. Those last-minute I-need-to-get-rid-of-this-stock deals are what dreams are made of.
What graphic novels caught my interest during Free Comic Book Day in 2018?
Dark Horse released a The Legend of Korra comic, as they always had in years prior. I believe I own issues from 2013 & 2015.
For those of you who don’t know, there is also a graphic novel series for Korra as well as Avatar: The Last Airbender. Gene Yang is the writer for the novel series and the last issue I picked up was the ending of The Rift arc.
So as of now, the full titles in the saga for ATLA are:
The Promise, The Search (which answers the eternal question of what really happened to Zuko’s mother), The Rift, Smoke and Shadow, and North and South.
For now, The Legend of Korra only has Turf Wars.
In the free issue I just picked up for LOK, Michael Dante DiMartino is directly involved – which is nice to see. I haven’t heard much from Bryke after the main series ended, although they gave Yang guidance on the overarching plot points for the stories.
I also picked up a comic from Shadow Roads (which I hadn’t previously heard of – I’m not hugely into comics – but rather manga) and Archie’s Betty & Veronica.
I’d watched the first season of The CW’s Riverdale on Netflix in conjunction with catching up on past seasons of The 100 and it kind of grew on me. I mean of course, it’s cheesy; everything on that network is somewhat cheesy to a degree – I think my lowest life moment was being chest-deep entrenched in Reign – but the core plot is interesting.
This book, however, seems to be focusing on the actual comic strip story between the two ladies. I have a crush on the actress who plays Veronica Lodge in the TV show, so this may have subconsciously influenced my decision as well.
Comixology doesn’t seem to have as broad a selection displayed as years passed. Based on my own search results, I only found single issues from long ago to read online.
The website now has an obnoxious “An Amazon Company” logo underneath their own, so I suspect this to be the culprit.
The only new comic I came across through google and internal site searches seemed to be for DC Super Hero Girls 2018. So if that’s your cup of tea, head on over for a digital download. I’ve also heard rumors of an issue of Doctor Who floating around somewhere.
I was hoping free comic book day would include manga.
If you are in Manhattan, Forbidden Planet NYC and Midtown Comics should have a hefty in-store selection.
Online Kodansha doesn’t seem to be doing much, but Viz Media is offering manga samplers for My Hero Academia, Pokemon Sun & Moon, and I did flip through a book with equal parts Sailor Moon and Akira in it – but I cannot for the life of me remember its title.
Did you pick up your comics yet?
What series would you love to see offer issues for FCBD? Did you luck out and receive a bigger haul than me?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more updates on upcoming events! We may also do a review of the Korra comic soon!
In Asian Spaces Site Update:
Life seems to have picked up for me, which is very strange.
Things had been very uneventful for months and suddenly amazing opportunities and events are falling into my lap. This has changed my intended upload frequency, but I hope to get back on track.
I tend to write many articles at once and then most of my time is spent editing and fact-checking before I upload. Lately, however, I’ve mainly just been writing and researching interesting topics without editing – hence my slight lulls in content.
I hope to get back on track soon to continue putting out thoughtful, unshallow content. I don’t fault other people for posting for the sake of just getting something out there, but that has never been my prerogative.
Currently, things have also changed (in the past two days) and I may not be able to attend Japan Day 2018 at Central Park, one of the target events on In Asian Spaces list.
Things could change, but for now I may not be covering that event.
We are also creating Anime and Japanese fashion-inspired merchandise for fellow fans, Visit our Redbubble store if you have a chance – you get cool gear, and it helps support the blog!
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