FCBD 2018

Another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone, and I got to participate again, visiting a couple shops here in sunny Tampa.  The first was Nerd Out Comics, my first visit there, and then Comics & Stuff, where I've been a number of times since last fall.  I was there for Nerd Out's opening, a little past Comics & Stuff's, and both were very different from what I've come to know over the years on FCBD.  No cosplay!  I've seen that in Colorado and Maine.  No lines.  I've seen that everywhere!  So a lot of the essential comics chatter was missing, congregating, an "event feel."  There were certainly people who showed up, and I wasn't there for too long at either shop...it just felt more subdued, so that was weird. 

I picked up two comics (the limit) at Nerd Out, and four at Comics & Stuff (the limit).  But despite the negative(ish) takeaways I've mentioned, Nerd Out managed to surprise me with something new!  They had not one but two tables, outside their shop, one for the 2018 FCBD comics and...leftover freebies from past FCBDs, Halloween ComicFest, and assorted other releases.  That was awesome!  Picked up ten additional comics that way, plus one for my niece.  Also bought ten dollar comics there, because I love rifling through cheapy bins.

Of the 2018 material, this is what I scored:

• Avengers/Captain America (Marvel) Spotlighting Jason Aaron's new Avengers comic and Ta-Nehisi Coates' new Captain America.
• Barrier (Image) New from Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin.
• Marvel Rising (Marvel) Not actually a FCBD release, but I still scooped it up, as it was free, and Devin Grayson material!
• Maxwell's Demons (Vault) I spend a lot of time at the MillarWorld forums these days, and so I knew about this comic from MillarWorld Annual 2016 winner Deniz Camp (he wrote the Starlight short).  It was one of my targets, so I scooped it up at Nerd Out.
• The Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel) Featuring Nick Spencer's new Amazing Spider-Man.
• Starburns Presents (SBI Press) Dan Harmon, currently best known for Rick & Morty, was previously best known for Community, where one of the recurring background characters was a dude named Starburns.  So that's the secret origin of that.  This was my other target.  Because of the 2 comic limit at Nerd Out, I missed out on Valiant's Shadowman, as Comics & Stuff didn't have it.

Lots of Marvel, yeah.  While I may not be a Marvel diehard, FCBD has been pretty good for Marvel material over the years, including how I ended up experiencing the start of Civil War II, which is still one of my favorite recent comics memories.  Hopefully some good reading material in this lot!