One of my favorite days of the year is coming up next week. On Saturday, May the Fourth (Star Wars Day, too!), it will be Free Comic Book Day. Participating local comic book stores will be hosting events and giving out special editions of a variety of comics, all for the effort of you walking in their doors.
The store that I go to does a great job putting together an all-ages packet of books that make it both quick and relatively painless for parents to let their kids get in on the comic book action. At the door, they just hand you a bag with anywhere between five and seven comics in it, all dependent upon that year’s selection. In addition, you can usually pick out another few from the titles arrayed on the counter.
While Free Comic Book Day does offer up quite a few titles that are all-ages, there are also titles that are geared towards the teen and older teen and adult markets. If the comic book store that you go to is as busy that day as the one that I frequent, then the chances that you’ll be able to get a good solid look at the books up for grabs is probably almost non-existent.
Since Free Comic Book Day is intended to be fun and to help people find new comics that they want to read and buy, it’s good to do a little bit of research beforehand. Nobody wants a little kid to get their hands on a comic that they really shouldn’t be reading. The free comics that are offered are produced with a family-friendly atmosphere in mind. That said, they aren’t all sporting the shiny, happy mark of the solid G rating, either.
People make the mistake all the time of assuming that just because something’s animated or something’s a comic book that it’s all just “kid’s stuff”. That’s never been less true than it is today. You’ve only got to watch Fox’s Sunday Animation Block to see that. Hopefully, even if you’re not into comic books, you’d still support a kid who wants to read them. You’re also probably trying to be mindful of what they read.
Fortunately, you’ve got some readily available materials to help you make some decisions about the comic books that you’ll see available on Free Comic Book Day. One of the best resources is the Free Comic Book Day website itself: http://www.freecomicbookday.com. To see which books are going to have special issues available, just click on the link that says “The Comics.” You’ll find a page with the covers and titles of the comics that are going to be offered. That list is going to evolve over the course of the several months that it’s available (I’ve seen that list popping up as early as January). You’ll want to check back periodically. As the list gets closer to being finalized, you’ll see it get longer and you’ll see cover art change.
More important than the cover art, however, is the PDF preview offered for many of the comics. There are very few of the comics on the final list that don’t have one of those previews available. This can give you a golden opportunity to see what your kid might be reading on Free Comic Book Day. It can be invaluable in helping you make selections that fit with your child’s reading skill level and what kinds of material you’re comfortable with them seeing. Being aware of content is being a smart consumer and a smart parent.
There are a few comics that you’re probably going to be able to judge their content without ever opening their covers, dependent, of course, on how much current media you’ve watched. The “Bongo Comics Free For All” is pretty much the print version of watching an episode of “The Simpsons”. If you’re cool with your kid watching “The Simpsons”, then you’ve got no problem. If the thought of your kid watching and/or imitating any facet of “The Simpsons” world, then you’ll probably want to skip that one.
Kaboom! Studios frequently offers up very kid-friendly fare. This year’s “Kaboom Summer Blast” has stories from “Adventure Time”, “Peanuts”, and “Garfield”, all of which are usually fairly safe for an all-ages crowd. The familiar characters are certainly going to be a bonus and the “Peanuts” and “Garfield” stories usually hold fairly closely to the models set forth in both the animated specials and the daily comic strips.
There’s nothing wrong with some familiarity amongst the Free Comic Book Day offerings. This year includes “Smurfs”, “Spongebob Squarepants”, and a “Sesame Street & Strawberry Shortcake” comic. Kids are going to be able to pick out comics that they’ll readily understand because they recognize the characters. Ultimately, you as a parent are going to be responsible for the comics you’re going to allow in your home and your own familiarity with all of those characters should help inform your decision.
There are of course “Archie” comics and “Batman” comics, along with “Avengers” and “Spiderman” comics. The publishers know their audiences and they’re going to do their best to appeal not only to them, but to new readers as well. Expect Free Comic Book Day issues to be samplers more than anything else. Most of them contain a special “one-shot” story that gets the general ideas of the characters involved across as coherently and concisely as possible and, for some of the longer comics, there will be stories that will continue in future issues. Naturally, they’re pretty good about letting you know which comic will continue that story so you’ve got time to (hopefully) order it from your local comic book store.
The comic that I would most highly recommend for smaller kids would be the “Top Shelf Kids Club” book. Top Shelf usually features a new story starring Owly, a character drawn by Andy Runton. Owly stories are entirely wordless, but they’re so well-drawn that even the smallest readers will easily understand what is going on. The other stories in the book won’t be wordless, but the artwork and writing styles are clean and easy to decipher. The Top Shelf book also has stories about the friendliest ghost this side of Casper, a Corgi, named Korgi, Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken, and a vampire.
Free Comic Book Day can be a great way to encourage kids who might not otherwise be convinced to go anywhere near a book to pick up a comic book and start reading. It’s become very much the kind of event that comic book geeks are celebrating as much as they can.
If it’s your first Free Comic Book Day and your first time around geeks, don’t worry, they’re, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, “mostly harmless.” They still might take just a little preparation on your part. There will probably be people in costume. My local comic book store has three guys that show up dressed as Stormtroopers from “Star Wars”. They come out and pose for pictures with the crowd, ask if anyone has seen a pair of droids anywhere, and get everyone hyped up about going into the store. Fans will dress in superhero costumes. We had at least one Adam West-era Batman outfit in the crowd. If they’re in costume, they’re probably more than happy to answer questions about the outfit itself and the media that it’s from.
There’s going to be a line. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth. There will be a line. Adult geeks, teenaged geeks, little geeks and their parents, the crowd is going to have a wide range of ages and sizes. Most stores have the process down pat and have managed to streamline filtering people through the store, getting them their comics, and getting them back out again to an enviable level of efficiency. It’s usually a very quick and painless process once you get in the door.
I’ve witnessed fathers holding up tiny daughters in My Little Pony and Wonder Woman shirts to look at all of the comics and seen them happily point to “that one” while the people clearly waiting for indie comics on offer patiently stay out of the way. The store fills with squeals of delight as little boys recognize Iron Man and Thor and reach for a comic book that they get to take home. It’s a cool thing to see, that new generation of starry-eyed little sprockets, some of whom will become the geeks of the future. I wonder how many of these kids in line with me will throw away all of their comics sometime around junior high, dismissing them as little kids stuff. I wonder how many of them will still have ragged copies of their Free Comic Book Day comics stashed lovingly away to be taken out and gingerly reread as one of the comics that started a life-long love.
If you can, plan ahead for that wait. You might need to bring along your own shade in the form of an umbrella and it’s just good policy to bring along snacks and water. The line starts forming at my local comic book store around nine am and while things move smoothly, they don’t always move quickly.
Waiting aside, Free Comic Book Day can be a whole lot of fun. It’s an opportunity to share comics with people who may not read them and, if you’re already a comic book fan, it’s a good way to check out some new titles without having to break your bank. You get a chance to bond with fellow geeks and you get to see the next generation learning about the joy that is comic books. Have a happy Free Comic Book Day and, most importantly, have fun.