With the dust finally settling from Record Store Day, independent comic book stores across the nation are stocking their shelves with free comic books. That's because this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and, as the name implies, independent comic book stores will be handing out free comics.
Free Comic Book Day is a celebration of all things comics, a day to let go of inhibitions and just be a kid. It began in 2002 for a multitude of reasons.
Like Record Store Day and the promotion of independent record stores, Free Comic Book Day promotes independent comic book stores.
The goal is to bring attention back to the medium of comic books, one that has certainly seen its ups and downs.
Unfortunately, not everyone celebrates Free Comic Book Day. This Saturday, you will not be able to find free comics at chain bookstores or at the spinner rack at Woodman's—you have to dig a little bit deeper to take part in the experience.
Cap City Comics (1910 Monroe St.), Wisconsin's oldest comic book store, began selling back-issues in 1971. The store will be handing out free comic books as well as holding a book signing, hoping to attract new readers and keep connections with the regular crowd.
Cap City Comics owner Bruce Ayres was getting ready for Free Comic Book Day on Wednesday, an already busy day in the comic book world.
""We think of Free Comic Book Day more as a goodwill thing,"" Ayres said. ""Hopefully, our customers will come in to the store, become turned on to comics, and find something new. We really hope we can turn someone on to comics, but that isn't always the case.""
In the comic book world, every Wednesday is a holiday. Wednesdays are the days when new comics are released. They become days of joy, relief and sometimes pain as the latest issues hit the shelves, and independent comic stores like Cap City Comics pride themselves on their connection with their customers. This is what separates an independent comic book store from a Borders.
The stores are places to discuss comics and to keep up with the overwhelming amount of new material being produced. The intricately linked Marvel Universe has more than 30 different series running at any given time. The series often coincide with one another, and that doesn't factor in crossovers or zombie spin-offs.
The big comic book companies, Marvel and DC Comics, take Free Comic Book Day as a day to release previews of upcoming series. Marvel will be releasing an Avengers comic, and it will most likely be a sort of prequel for the series that will follow. DC Comics is debuting its first-ever all-new title for Free Comic Book Day, ""Blackest Night."" Other pleasant surprises are the return of Archie, a Star Wars: Clone Wars preview and a special William Shatner Presents comic.
Elsewhere on campus there are some comic book-themed events occurring. These cater more towards the history of comic books as an art form.
The Chazen will be opening the exhibit Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix (open until July 12th), which will explore the other side of comics—the side without all the men in tights.
Patrick Rosenkranz, filmmaker and the author
of ""Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975,"" will be speaking at the Cinematheque Saturday evening but only after signing his books at Cap City Comics in the afternoon. The exhibit at the Chazen deals extensively with Rosenkranz's research on underground comix.
Comic books are an integral part of American culture, as the medium originated here and spread throughout the world. Today, Hollywood has a large influence on the public's perception of comic books, pumping out film adaptations of popular comics faster than the DC series 52.
""It's so sad to think that of all the people who have watched the Batman movies, only a small fraction have read the comic books,"" Ayres commented, on the boom in celluloid remakes of comic book classics. Film adaptations do spur some interest in comic books, but not normally in well-established characters such as Batman or Spider-Man.
All Hollywood distractions aside, more than anything Free Comic Book Day is a day to share experiences and perhaps even start new traditions. It is a day to try something new and learn about something that has always been around, but you just haven't had time to digest. Saturday is the day to actually go out and pick up that Batman comic.
