Well, they're doing a release at midnight in addition to the ones they now have scheduled for 8:00, 9:00, and 11:00 that evening! We'll be there from 10:30 to Midnight, giving out some free comics, and we'll also be at the theater on Friday, accompanied by some costumed characters! We'll also have some people around on Saturday at Mayfaire, too, giving out even more free comics. Definitely be sure to check it out!
Come early! We're getting started early this Free Comic Book Day! Well, we're not opening any earlier, but we are giving stuff away early! At 9:00 AM we'll be giving away 9 door prizes, including a 99 dollar omnibus! We'll also be giving away door prizes every hour thereafter, and the first fifty people through the door will get special gift bags, and Chick-Fil-A will be giving away free chicken biscuits that morning, and Cuppy's Coffee will be giving away free coffee to the people in line, and even more!
Don't miss the game demos we'll be running later that day at 2:00!
Find out more at our Free Comic Book Day webpage!
And don't forget the charity raffle we're doing:
We'd ust like to take a moment to thank all of these businesses that have supported the silent auction, and post their contact information if you wanted to, say, buy something from them, which would be a good thing to do, if you know what I mean:
The Little Dipper
138 S. Front St.
Wilmington, NC 28401
www.littledipperfondue.com
Townhouse Art and Frame Center
730 Saint James Dr
Wilmington, NC 28403
Chick-Fil-A at Mayfaire
6891 Swan Mill Rd.
Wilmington, NC 28405
Cucalorus Film Festival
www.cucalorus.org
Encore Magazine
encorepub.com
Games Workshop
us.games-workshop.com
Good Sessions Surf and Skate Shop
3500 Oleander Dr
Wilmington, NC 28403
J and C Sports
1051 S Kerr Ave
Wilmington, NC 28403
Mayfaire Cinemas
900 Town Center Dr
Wilmington, NC 28405
Mom's Tattoo and Piercing
5042 Market St
Wilmington, NC 28405
Tom Fleming
www.flemart.com
www.flemingeditions.com
WE Fest
www.wefestival.com
Many of these businesses have also given us coupons to give away on Free Comic Book Day, so definitely check that out!
We still need some volunteers for Free Comic Book Day! We need someone to take photos and video of FCBD events, and even if you don't want to help out that day, you can also help out by passing the silent auction and raffle information along to anyone you know who might be interested!
For a mere $20 Entry, you get 5 packs of Shadowmoor you can use to build your deck and compete in this sealed event on Sunday, May 4th. Since we don't charge tax on the tournament entry, you're saving money right there, and we've even got prizes on top of that! Check these out:
1st Prize - Sealed Booster Box
2nd Prize - 16 Booster Packs
3rd Prize - 12 Booster Packs
4th Prize - 8 Booster Packs
That's right, two whole boxes of prize support provided we get the minimum 15 players. That's a pretty ridiculously awesome prize payout, considering that the worst you can do is save money!
Booster Packs: $3.99
36ct. Booster Box: $97.00
Theme Decks: $12.99
Tournament Packs: $12.99
Fatpacks: $35.00
In Shadowmoor, even the all-new game mechanics are warped. Wither and Persist make -1/-1 counters matter, and can turn creature combat into a meat grinder where attrition or reanimation can determine the victor. The untap symbol also makes its debut, allowing you to spring new tricks on the unwary.
Hybrid mana costs are back, and appear on over one third of the cards in Shadowmoor. Mono-colored hybrid cards join Wither, Persist, the Untap Symbol, and Conspire as all-new mechanics unleashed in this dark world.
$39.99
You might be scared of the forty dollar price tag on that Messiah Complex HC, but you really need to think about it. Marvel could have packaged this 13-part miniseries into three four-issue hardcovers and charged $19.99 for each of them (like, say, Justice), but they didn't. They're giving you all the issues in a single hardcover, and they even made it oversized, so you get to see more detail on the art. Heck, forty dollars is pretty much how much it would cost to buy the issues individually, but you don't have to deal with ads! And if you're waiting for the trade, learn the lesson of those who waited for the trade on Planet Hulk--you'll probably save 5 dollars, and get the book four months later. I'd say five dollars is a fair price for larger art, a nice hardcover, and getting this amazing X-Men story (I haven't mentioned this because I feel it is widely known that this story is amazing) right now, wouldn't you?
$19.99
So they killed Thor, and then they brought him back, BUT WAIT, it's a clone, no, it's a cyborg, oh and just pretend it doesn't exist while you're at it. Ignore all of that, though, because it's largely irrelevant to this new, amazing Thor comic. The book may move a little slow, but that's because that's exactly how fast it needs to move at this point. Thor's rebuilding Asgard, and, hey, he's doing it right in the middle of the American heartland, an area which Marvel has more or less done nothing with in its 50-year-history except for stories where their sophisticated New York heroes go and deal with injustices perpetrated by the ignorant backwater savages that live in places that aren't New York or New England. Straczynski's heartland is more akin to the Ma and Pa Kent heartland of hard-working salt-of-the-Earth folks which leads to some nice character moments and some laugh-out-loud funny comedy scenes. Oh, and Oliver Coipel is a good artist, too. Seriously, you can't go wrong with this one. Between this and the Twelve, Straczynski is writing some of the best comics you'll ever read.
$19.99 EachHey, they made New Gods action figures, to capitalize on the popularity of the New Gods! Jack Kirby! New Gods! Kamandi! The King! Jack Kirby! WOAHHHHHHHHHHH!
Um...that's what the action figures look like. that tiny picture to the left. There's Lightray, Orion, Darkseid, and Mister Miracle, who are your favorites from JACK "THE KING" KIRBY'S NEW GODS! EVERYBODY LOVES THEM! Or it might just be that DC writers love them. Who knows, really.
The next few weeks of Tuesday Specials following Free Comic Book Day will be extra-awesome, so check them out!
But what do we buy? Why, we buy:
For more information, check out our Services Page.
As usual, a great many comic books have been pushed back to a later date. This news is so shocking that we are now developing a weekly section where we announce comic delays, so you can better know when your favorite books are coming out. Or when the next delay announcement will be, whatever. We'll also include other schedule announcements, like different products coming back in stock, second printings, and the like. But this is the comic industry, and we all know which type of announcment we will see the most.
Changed Release Dates
| OLD DATE | NEW DATE | |
| Women of the DCU Ser. 2: Batwoman Bust | 04/30/08 | 05/07/08 |
| Scalped #17 (MR) | 05/07/08 | 05/21/08 |
| Twelve #5 | 05/07/08 | 05/14/08 |
| All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #10 Reg./Var. | 05/07/08 | 05/28/08 |
| Clandestine #4 | 05/07/08 | 05/14/08 |
| Northlanders #6 (MR) | 05/07/08 | 05/28/08 |
| Thunderbolts #120 | 05/07/08 | 05/14/08 |
| Spider-Man: With Great Power #4 | 05/07/08 | 05/14/08 |
| Powers #29 (MR) | 05/07/08 | 05/14/08 |
| X-Men: Legacy Finch Poster | 05/14/08 | 05/28/08 |
| Captain Marvel/Ms Marvel SI: Infiltration | 05/14/08 | 05/21/08 |
| Ultimate Iron Man II #5 | 05/21/08 | 06/18/08 |
| Jack of Fables #23 (MR) | 05/28/08 | 06/18/08 |
| Loveless TP Vol. 03: Blackwater Falls (MR) | 05/28/08 | 08/20/08 |
| Angel: After the Fall Director’s Cut #1 | 05/28/08 | 05/21/08 |
| Star Trek: Assignment Earth #1 | 05/28/08 | 05/21/08 |
| Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales Here/Now S/N HC | 05/28/08 | 06/04/08 |
| Powers #30 (MR) | 05/28/08 | 06/11/08 |
| Powers #31 (MR) | 06/25/08 | 07/09/08 |
| Jack of Fables #24 (MR) | 06/25/08 | 07/16/08 |
As part of my efforts to help out the cats at Fanboy comics, I wrote an article for the Star-News about Free Comic Day (It should run this week!). My idea for the column was to have people that never read comics, you know, read some comics. That's why Free Comics Day got started; to introduce comic books to an audience that have never read them before.
When I spoke to some of the people who read the comics, I recognized that comics could be a bit unapproachable at times. We love comics because of their complexities, because of how intricate they are, how amazingly powerful the story can be. But, are we exposing these new-comers to the proper comic books? For example, All-Star Superman #1 (Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely) is a critically acclaimed comic written by a master of his field, with art by one of the geniuses of the industry. The story is epic, the outcome is interesting. The characterization is stunning with story-telling that is truly refreshing and wonderful. However, if you never read a comic book before in your life, you would think this was the most absurd thing you've ever seen. Superman is flying into the Sun? To save people who were sent there to steal fire? And a guy in the space ship says this?
"See, I just remembered something. I'm a genetically modified suicide bomb in human form. Death. Courtesy of Lex Luthor!"
Huh? The only thing that most people know about suicide bombers is that they are used overseas in the Middle East to kill people. How do you genetically modify anything? Grant Morrison's dialogue is hard for an avid comic reader to understand, and his concepts aren't the easiest to grasp. How is this going to make a new-comer buy a comic book? The main story of All-Star Superman is that Superman is going to die. That is compelling. That will pull in readers. But, All-Star Superman is based in an alternate reality. So, chances are a new fan of Superman will be lost when they try to follow the rest of the story. It doesn't help that this comic is a reprint from months back.
Marvel Adventures (Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin, Alvin Lee) goes the exact opposite direction. Iron-man, The Hulk, and Spider-man face off against the Mandarin. It is a very easy story to follow that doesn't make the brain flex any muscles at all. The good part of this is that new readers can flip through the comic easily, have a few laughs, no problem. But there is nothing deep or interesting about this story what so ever. At all. It's made for kids, ten and under maybe. We don't get any of the complex and convoluted history of Peter Parker, Bruce Banner or Tony Stark. The only reason they are in the comic is because they have movie recognition. It has nothing to do with the current Marvel universe. Marvel Adventures has the opportunity to introduce readers to the drama and characterization that made these characters perfect for the big screen, but it only focuses on corny jokes and outdated scenarios.
X-men (Mike Carey, Greg Land) might be the perfect middle ground. The story is about Pixie, her being removed from the X-men, and being brought back in after a battle with some nasty aliens. People understand the X-men element fairly well. Besides that, the comic is an actual story, entertaining and involving. Mike Carey dodged almost all the main story of what has happened to the X-men recently, and focused just on Pixie, her powers, her fears, her doubts, and her acceptance back into the fold. This is perfect because this story is right in the middle of the X-men continuity. A reader can love this comic, go into the shop and buy more X-men comics without being confused. This comic would probably make them want to read more X-men books, just because of all the unanswered questions. Even as good as this book is, only older fans of the X-men that left the book would probably pick this up. The X-men history can be a bit daunting, especially for green comic readers.
There is no easy answer for how to pull a new reader into comics. Free Comic Day is probably the best way, actually. But, hardcore comic fans should realize how amazingly difficult it can be for new readers to get into this market. I became a comic fan completely by accident. If anything, retailers might want to ask a few questions to walk-ins on Free Comic Days, to judge what the reader might be into. A new comic reader is a good thing, for fans and the industry alike.
RATING: FREE COMICS/5
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of this month's "best Previews solicitation," Vassalord:
Charlie, a cyborg vampire who does the Vatican's dirty work, is the thrall of the local vampire playboy Johnny Rayflow. As the two of them fight crime--and each other--hilarity, violence, and sacrilege ensue! But can Charlie resist his own desperate cravings for blood?
BONUS! From the "Sell Sheet Keynote":
The adventures of a master vampire and his protege, who has become the cyborg vampire-assasin for the Vatican!
Thanks for the sales help, Tokyopop!
DC Universe Zero
Hey, it's Countdown #0! Wait, no, it's Countdown to Final Crisis #0! Oh, okay, it's just Final Crisis #0. Wait, what now? It's DC Universe Zero? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, guys. Well, anyway, it doesn't matter too much, because we're giving them away free! That's right, we're giving away a key DC issue written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns for FREE. I mean, sure, it regularly retails for fifty cents, so it's not like it's a huge discount, but, you know, FREE.
New Avengers #40 (Secret Invasion Tie-In!)
So, what exactly happened with the Skrulls that led to this wacky ol' Skrull invasion? I mean, we've seen the bits and pieces scattered around the Marvel universe in events like Annihilation, where the Skrull homeworld was destroyed, and Illuminati, where they went to beat up the Skrulls and were actually captured, but we haven't seen anything from the Skrulls' point of view. Now we do. It's a skrull-tastic skrulltacular! Crisis on Infinite Skrulls! JLAvengerskrull! Ultimate Skrull! Skrull Jams 5!
Thor: Ages of Thunder
So, while the new Thor book has been amazing, it has been very different from the traditional Thor comic you might be used to. Well, if you've got a hankering for some old-school Thor tales (as in, pseudo-mythological Thor tales) then have I got the comic for you. Thor: Ages of Thunder (awesomely written by Matt Fraction and beautifully penciled Patrick Zircher) is the book you've been looking for. Lots of Norse gods hanging around, lots of mythology, and lots of Thor killing the hell out of frost giants. What more could you want?
