Free Comic Book Day 2015

Free Comic Book Day is one of my favorite days of the year. Comic Books were a passion of mine as a kid and, even though I don’t collect them like I used to, I still love the comic book industry. I used to walk miles to my local comic book store to spend my allowance on Saturdays. That was Comics Kingdom which was bought and moved and then moved again since. Comics Kingdom was kind of an intimidating place to go into and it was very small. The new owners renamed the place The Amazing Spiral and moved it to just south of Northern and York across from the Senator. The new place is bright, big and the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable about comics and tons of geeky stuff.

The Amazing Spiral is where I’ve gone for the last three Free Comic Book Days and it’s where I went today. I got into the store shortly after opening and the place was packed but everybody was polite and nobody ever blocked access to a shelf for long. Several of the staff were dressed as costumed characters. We got a Spidey, Harley, Fiona (from Shrek), Loki and Finn (from Adventure Time) and that was just the staff. I saw a lot of kids dressed up in pretty great costumes. It made me feel good to see so many people there enjoying comics, especially seeing the next generation getting into the genre.

I picked up Grimm Fairy Tales’ Wonderland, Doctor Who, Avengers, Captain Canuck #0, Mega Man, Teen Titans Go! and I was lucky enough to pick up the last copy of Step Aside Pops. I am especially excited to see Step Aside Pops as I’m a huge fan of Kate Beaton and to see a webcomic artist hitting the mainstream is always cool.

I also picked these two graphic novels for the 25% off sale.

I’ve heard great things about this run of She-Hulk a it focuses equally on her law career and superheroics and mixes in quite a bit of comedy. I’ve been focusing a little more on female heroes lately because I neglected them when I was younger and, while I think I missed out, I think they’re written way better now.

I’ve been a fan of the Sandman Mystery Theater series since college. I like the Sandman (Wesley Dodds) character and I like the mix of 1940’s and dreamlike setting. You’re seeing the world through the eyes of an insomniac, a man troubled by nightmares who instead fights crime.

I hit Qdoba for a burrito and headed over to the Rotunda for Phase 2 of my day. Of course, it was Phase 2 literally because it was Avengers: Age of Ultron, the end of the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I got there right before the theater opened and ended up fifth in line to buy tickets. This turned out to be lucky because even at this matinee, the theater was packed to the gills.

The movie was awesome. I had high expectations after the rest of Phase 2 was so, so good and this movie actually exceeded those expectations. I laughed, I teared up, I gasped and several of us even clapped at moments. I don’t want to spoil anything but everybody turned in good performances, even the characters with the smallest amount of screen time. Please, if you like these movies even an iota, do yourself a favor and check this one out.

Now I’ve got plenty of read and plenty to think about before I see Avengers 2 probably about ten more times. It was a good day.

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Tags: Comic Books, Comics, Free Comic Book Day, Kate Beaton, Sandman, She-Hulk