Free Comic Book Day

 

Hope every one had a good Free Comic Book Day this year. The girls and I headed out and hit five different shops in our quest to complete a FCBD set.

We started off over at Carol and John’s. It’s a go-to place in Cleveland, very family friendly and they general have events all year long. They did a midnight FCBD party, but I skipped it this year. Too crowded last time. My friend Mark went and had a reasonably good time, and managed to get the Thor Heroclix for FCBD. (I got a thor in my started set so I just didn’t care that much this year). The girls got to play a guessing game outside Carol and Johns and got an extra comic for wearing their costumes! We then made our selections and headed out to York Comics.

They usually have a really nice selection, and this year, probably the biggest selection of anywhere we went. We were bummed that the limit was one of each per family rather than per person, but we still managed a nice haul. The owner came over to the girls, got down on their level and told them how much he liked their costumes. He then told them “I like to see little girls and little boys in costumes, because when I was a little boy, I liked to dress up in costumes too.” Then he let them each pick a package of silly bands for dressing up.

Since we were on the Parma border we headed down ridge road to hit B&L’s and Northcoast Nostalgia. They’d both gotten hit pretty hard earlier in the day, and Northcoast Nostalgia was out completely. They were nice enough to give the girls some buttons since they were out of FCBD comics. I grabbed a couple of things out of the 35 cent bins, and considering how nice they were to my girls, I’ll be heading back after my next paycheck to empty out their discount boxes.

B&L’s had the Joker taking photos with people earlier in the day. We were too late to see him, but we still got a photo by the gotham backdrop.

Finally, I got a call from my wife while we were on the road that she had just spotted the Flash while she was driving. Apparently there was a new comic shop in Sheffield (on our way home). We plugged the address into the GPS and off we went.

It turns out that my favorite comic shop, “Astound!” which I thought had closed, has moved from that building close to my work, to this location close to my home and changed the name to “Comics are Go!” Scott waved us in and loaded my girls up with more comics.

All in all, it was nice day. It’s fun to bring the girls into my world for a little while. Maddie has been asking for that She-Ra costume for months. I’m happy to have finished it. Everyone asked her who she was, and she would always tell them “I’m She-Ra!” in this kind of condescending voice – like it should be perfectly natural for everyone to know that. In fact, as soon as she would tell someone there’s be this kind of “I should have known that!” moment and they would all remember what she was dress like. Once again Lydia wore the Rainbow Brite costume Maddie handed down to her . I think Lydia has worn it more times than Maddie now.

I came home with about forty comics. I make a point to buy something at each stop. That’s kind of the point of FCBD. To get you into the shop and to get kids interested. So I look for the discount bins, or grab a new issue off the racks for the girls (Maddie found a Scooby-Doo comic she HAD to have over at B&L’s). I may have only spent $2-$3, but I felt a bit less like a punk…especially in some of these shops I only get out to a couple of times a year. Maddie collected about twenty comics and Lydia had almost a dozen (she wasn’t grabbing as many as Maddie).  We read a bunch and then watched the Wonder Woman animated movie during dinner.

I hope you had as nice a FCBD as we did, and if you’re in the Cleveland area, try heading out to one of those shops and see what they have to offer. In the meantime, there’s new Violent Blue up tomorrow!

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