FCBD 2014 Quick De-Brief

Great turnout with many generations of readers represented! (From Comics Etc. FB page

The drizzle could not keep the fanboys (including your's truly) from yesterday's Free Comic Book Day 2014 celebration. I arrive at my local comic shop 30 minutes prior to opening, where a healthy line had already formed. Thanks to some online reading, I already had in mind both the comic books I would be picking up that morning, as well as a number of titles for that I would gladly pay $1 the following Wednesday when I came to the same shop to pick up the items on my pull-list.

FCBD offerings were stacked on the table with care... (Comics Etc. FB page)

This year's offerings were significant, with so many smaller presses taking advantage of the opportunity to show their wares. It was these less well-known titles (except for maybe IDW's Transformers vs. G.I. Joe teaser which I picked up for my stepson) that I gravitated too. Last year, my son accompanied me, a happy circumstance which permitted he and I to cumulatively haul away twice the treasure (each customer can take any four titles they's like), so my selection process had to be slightly more careful. I suspect some folks use today as an opportunity to test their speculative collecting skills (picking those books which may increase in value due to future success), though I continue just to pic those which seemed most interesting and entertaining.

... knowing that fanboys soon would be there.  (From Comics Etc. FB page)

I brought home four titles (which I will review more fully at a later date), that can quickly be recapped using blurbs from a recent NPR Monkey See post:

• TRANSFORMERS VS. GI JOE (Not reviewed) Didn't get a review copy of this toyetic tome, but the preview art on the FCBD site is channeling the great Jack Kirby like it's Whoopi in Ghost. 
• ATOMIC ROBO/BODIE TROLL/HAUNTED (Recommended) If you have learned nothing else from me about Free Comic Book Day over these 5 years, remember at least this: always pick up the Atomic Robo. Funny, fast-paced, robot-punchy adventure. Dependably great comics, as is the Bodie Troll story, which finds our furry hero facing off against a scarecrow. The excerpt from "Haunted," however, doesn't provide enough story to get a bead on – a woman is chased by a creepy hooded beast-thing, I guess? Yay?
• HIP HOP FAMILY TREE (Recommended) A collection of chapters from cartoonist Ed Piskor's exhaustive, hugely informative and hugely entertaining two-volume history of Hip Hop. Piskor's infectious love for his subject, and for comics, radiates from every panel. So good, you guys.
• RAISING A READER! (Recommended) The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting comics censorship on behalf of retailers, creators, publishers, and libraries. They've produced the useful Raising a Reader, a hands-on guide to the nuts and bolts of comics language, and how to use comics to encourage kids to read.

This year's FCBD haul. (5/3/14)

While waiting out the rain at my son's track meet, I had the chance to thumb through the titles and was very satisfied with the quality of those I selected, as well as intrigued by some of the more extensive products some represented a sampling of.