Free Comic Book Day 2008

Free Comic Day Came and much fun was had by all. It started with me getting to the movie theater just a tad late to meet Dean Wormer and his gaggle of Deltas to see Iron Man but all was well. It looks like Marvel Studios is off to a great start and Iron Man might not be such a B-Lister (as the Press has dubbed him) anymore. There were many things I enjoyed about the film but the choice of actors and the humor rose to the top for me. I’ll have a longer review later. What was also very cool was seeing this film with kids; sometimes I forget how exciting these things can be for the younger set. Plus, nobody kicked the back of the chairs, spoke on their cell phone, or mouthed off during the film. What more could you ask for?

Excalibur Comics

They've got a ton of back issues here!

After a dim sum lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we headed over to our first comic store, Excalibur. They still had a great selection of free comics available and all of us picked up several titles. I think I was most happy with the EC reprint myself. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the store and it reminded me of when I discovered the comic book store for the first time. What’s really interesting is that the Excalibur owners and staff are very serious about their comics. It’s the best place for back issues in the city and they are very knowledgeable about the comic book field. They don’t go in much for extras like toys and games and consequently carry a decent selection of indy and mature titles. Dean was feeling little punch drunk from the Indiana Jones 4 trailer and so he picked up Vol. 1 of Dark Horse’s Indiana Jones omnibus.

Cosmic Monkey
This is the sign on the side of building. How many comic characters can you identify?

For round two, we zipped off to Cosmic Monkey. Dean and the deltas hadn’t been to the store’s new location so part of the fun was watching their reaction to what turned out to be an incredibly fun leg of our free comic book day tour. The experience didn’t disappoint, as a herd of comic creators (mostly from Periscope) was inside along with a bunch of hipster fans. We all raided the free comics and I got a copy of Gumby this time around. Dean was impressed with the selection of new titles and he picked up the 2nd issue of the Army of Darkness / Xena crossover that he’d missed out on. While the kids got some Iron Man sketches from Jessie Hamm, Dean revealed that one of his female offspring was really into horror comics. This told me several things: 1, Dean is a very cool dad; 2, his daughter is very cool (but I already knew that as all his kids are very cool); and 3, Comics have changed permanently and thank goodness for that. Some of the kids also picked up some Harvey Dent buttons.

I hope the World of Comics is a little less Secret nowadays. heh heh

Andy Mangels and Kurt Busick
Andy had a new book out on the history Iron Man and Kurt had copies of his Conan and Astro City titles.

Some of the Creators at Cosmic Monkey
That's Ron Randall with his back to the camera talking to David Hahn. Paul Tobin is covered up by Ron and then next to him is Colleen Coover with Kieron Dwyer (reading to whom I assume is his son) next to her.

Shannon Wheeler and Carolyn Main
Shannon is known for Too Much Coffee Man and Carolyn for her deliciously naughty cartoons

A Cosmic Monkey Comic!
Hey remember that 24-hour comic party that CM had a about an month ago (see here)? Well Jim Valentino produced a comic for CM with their very own mascot. It's great and only available at Cosmic Monkey. Lucky me! Thanks to Andy for allowing me to post a couple of pages.



Cosmic Monkey T-Shirts!
Cosmic Monkey, the local sensation.

Things From Another World
A bike next to a comic book store sign, now that's Portland!

Our last leg of the comics’ journey led us to Things From Another World, a chain in the Portland metro area. TFAW is more of a corporate style of store and has lots of toys, other knickknacks in addition to comics. The place was jam-packed with kids. All the stores had grade-schoolers but Things had the most. That might be because there was a big sale going on and their parents might have found the reduced prices too enticing. The sad part was that most of TFAW’s free comics were gone by this point and so I just picked up the Hellboy Golden Army giveaway, It wasn’t that big of a deal anyway as these guys like to stamp their info on the comic covers, which I think is kinda lame. While perusing the store Dean convinced me to pick up the first issue of the D.C. Fontana’s Star Trek by IDW. I was really turned off by the last Year Four title but this one is much better.

A cute Vietnamese family was buying a bunch of stuff when I snapped this shot.

The kids had great time, Dean had a great time, and I had a great time. Free Comic Book Day rules!


-Swinebread