Free Comic Book Day 2015

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, the annual event I've gotten to enjoy nearly every year for the last decade.

These days I work across the street from my local comic book store, and I work overnight, so this year it was absolutely not a question of getting there or getting there early or any other complication I've experienced in the past.  I had four and a half hours to kill.  I started by walking over to Dunkin' Donuts.  I'd planned to stick around there a while, reading Tom De Haven's It's Superman! (this came up in my reading order, so it was merely serendipitous to be reading something absolutely appropriate on the comic book geek holiday), but decided to leave pretty quickly because, I don't know, anticipation.  I spent a lot of time walking around, and by 8 (the store opened at 10) I found out I'd lost my designation as first in line.  And then because I didn't stick around even at that point, I became fourth in line.

This was obviously not much a problem.  But still.  The only real problem was listening to the inane chatter.  Not dorky comics chatter, but anyway...at one point a trio of genuine hobos came up and I got to listen to that, explaining how they've been all over the country in a surprisingly brief amount of time, and how best to sneak into Canada and not get into trouble.  Hobos, ladies and gentlemen.

(Hobos rock!)

The owners of the store, I learned during the waiting period, had decided to do things differently this year.  They thought last year was too chaotic.  (Remember, my chief complaint was about the idiot who thought taking a recommendation was a ridiculous idea.  Yeah.)  So I started to worry a little.  And then a Ghostbuster came up and started setting up a table with all the awesome gear he's constructed (he said it took him about a year to put together the backpack).

And then the store opened.  And we literally became an assembly line, and the only assemblage necessary was: being handed a bag and shuffling out the store again.  Person + bag = happy person.  Probably.

The bag was stuffed, literally, with every Free Comic Book Day release the store received.  Fifty-one free comics!  Insane!  This I absolutely did not expect.  How could you???  In Colorado I became used to the store's three comic limit.  That sucked, but it made priorities an absolute priority.  And much, much easier to calculate subsequent reading time.  Last year was incredible, being able to pick anything I wanted, as much as I wanted.  Which makes this year's haul absolutely ridiculous!

Seriously.  So I won't be providing thoughts on everything.  So I will probably leave it at this list of everything from the bag:

1. 2000 AD (Rebellion)
2. And Then Evil Was Gone (Comix Tribe)
3. Attack on Titan (Kodansha)
4. Avatar: The Last Airbender (Dark Horse)
5. The All-New, All Different Avengers (Marvel)
6. Bob's Burgers (Dynamite)
7. Bongo Comics Free-For-All (Bongo)
8. Bodie Troll (Red 5, not featuring Atomic Robo for the first time ever!)
9. Captain Canuck (Chapter House)
10. Chakra the Invincible (Graphic India)
11. Cleopatra in Space (Graphix)
12. Comics Festival 2015 (Beguiling)
13. Dark Circle Comics (Archie)
14. Divergence (DC)
15. Doctor Who (Titan)
16. Fight Club (Dark Horse)
17. Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Wonderland (Zenescope)
18. Gronk (Action Lab)
19. Hatter M: Love of Wonder (Automatic)
20. Help the CBLDF Defend Comics (CBLDF)
21. Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantographics)
22. I.C.E. (12-Gauge)
23. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Viz)
24. Jurassic Strike Force (Silver Dragon)
25. Lady Justice (Super Genius)
26. Legendary Comics 2015 Preview (Legendary)
27. March Grand Prix (Capstone)
28. Mega Man/Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie)
29. Mercury Heat (Avatar)
30. Motorcycle Samurai (Top Shelf; best title)
31. Overstreet's Comic Book Marketplace (Gemstone)
32. The Phantom (Hermes)
33. Pokemon (Perfect Square)
34. Rabbids (Papercutz)
35. Savage Dragon Legacy (Image; seriously, though, Erik Larsen is going to eclipse Dave Sim at this point)
36. Secret Wars [Free Previews edition] (Marvel)
37. Secret Wars (Marvel)
38. SpongeBob Freestyle Funnies (United Plankton)
39. Steampunk Goldilocks (Antarctic)
40. Street Fighter (Udon)
41. Super Mutant Magic Academy (Drawn & Quarterly)
42. Tales of Honor (Top Cow)
43. Teen Titans Go!/Scooby-Doo Team-up (DC)
44. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW)
45. Ten Year Celebration (Boom!)
46. Terrible Lizard (Oni)
47. Thanatos Diver/The Stuff of Legend (Th3rdworld)
48. The Tick (New England)
49. Transformers: Robots in Disguise (IDW)
50. Valiant 25th Anniversary Special (Valiant)
51. Worlds of Aspen (Aspen)

Plus, New York Bulletin (a newspaper-style Marvel Secret Wars preview...making that three for the year) and a leaflet advertising the 2015 Boston Comic Con.  And, you know, air.