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Free Comic Book day for 2012 took place last month and here are just some thoughts that I and my siblings had about it. I'm trying to avoid spoilers in case you are like me and want to sit on your comics for a while before reading them all at once.
The Serenity story picks up from where the one shot Dark Horse put out in either 2010 or 2011 left off. You know, the one where the big Zoe revelation was made and they spent the whole issue talking about Wash. I have no problem with the story; it was good and gives you the flavor of Mal as a character and his motivation. The art on the other hand, well let me tell you what a on and off fan said. My younger brother said of the art on the Serenity story, "Looks like fan art." This is from someone who is not too well educated in comic art. He has an entire collection of What Ifs so he is used to random artists being thrown onto a book. I'll have to agree with him about the whole fan art thing. The art on that half of the book was not that great. It seemed to simple and childish, almost like a cartoon. I got the feeling that someone in a freshman drawing class in college could have done better. Although what do you expect for a free book?
The Star Wars half of the book had much better art and a similar story to the Serenity half. It was written by the same guy that did the flip side of the book's story. It has to many similarities to the other story that it just smacked of laziness if the writer did it on his own without editorial intervention. If editorial said make it that way then it is not laziness on his part and more of a lack of creativity on the editors part. The art on the other hand was very well done; Han Solo looked like Harrison Ford while River Tam looked nothing like Summer Glau and instead looked more like Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon. The aliens in the story looked like the gray aliens everyone seems to describe in alien abductions only much taller. Which was okay, but why were they trying to do what they did? I can see some other already established race trying to do that sort of thing, but some no name race that has never been in the Star Wars universe before? That just seems wrong. Little brother didn't see the art in this story so his usual biting commentary is not mentioned in this paragraph.
I also picked up the Mouse Guard hardcover, but have yet to read it. I have glanced at it, and seeing that the older folks were taking this book in droves at the store then I know I made the right call. Ever since they started offering Mouse Guard as an option during FCBD I have been meaning to pick it up, but my three choices were always going to something else. It's a hardcover anthology of stories all in black and white of not only Mouse Guard, but of other Arcana Studios books. I don't know if they are original stories or if they are reprints of things already published by them. I hate when they reprint something they have already put out in a Free Comic Book Day book. Bongo, Marvel; I am looking in your direction about this. If Dark Horse can have original stories in their FCBD comics, then every other company can too.
I wanted to get IDW's Transformers 80.5 as well, but three was the limit. After bouncing a couple of texts to older brother, he swung by Titan and grabbed a copy of it for me as well as getting something not-free as well. The book is a thing of beauty in terms of the art compared to the Serenity book. Everything looks like it was pulled from the cartoon or was redone from the original comic series. The story kind of goes over what has happened in the original eighty issue Marvel series as well as sets up what is going to be taking place in the new series picking up at issue 81. Some of the events they illustrate in the flashbacks I had totally forgotten about. I think IDW needs to do this sort of thing with more old Marvel titles. I don't think they will be doing it anymore because all the licensed titles they got the rights to publish from Marvel have been restarted as of July.
As for what was happening at the store I went to for Free Comic Book Day, Titan Comics is in the shopping center at the southwest corner of Webb Chapel and Forest in northwest Dallas and it was a madhouse. I got there at about 12:30 pm, an hour and a half after they opened, after going to the bank. They had face painting outside for the kids. It was a bit breezy outside as well as it being hot and humid as all get out; one of the joys of Texas during the late spring. I get into the air conditioning and wait in a line of mostly younger kids (I'd say 8 to 10 year-olds) that are just cutting in line in front of each other and taking their sweet time at picking out their three books. Finally I get up close enough to take my massive arms and reach out to get everything that I wanted. One thing that I like about Titan, is that they put the books in various age categories. The older and taller you are, the higher up the books are for your age group. For example, the My Favorite Martian book was on the second shelf up while the Lady Death book was up at the very top where only adults could reach it. In the back of the store, behind the glass cases of statues and where the employee who normally works packing and shipping stuff as well as advising you on what books are hot this week; they had a couple of local independent comic artists doing sketches for $20, and had prints of their work for $10. I'm tempted to take them up on their offer of a sketch after cashing in a plastic sandwich sized bag full of change at the bank before going there, but can't because I need all the money I can gather up this month. I pick up a couple of books from the "new this week" wall; Valiant Comics' X-O Manowar #1 and Worlds Finest #1 from DC Comics (from the second round of the New 52). I was hoping they would have had more copies of Earth 2 #1, but it was not meant to be, so that is why I got World's Finest. I make my purchase because I don't want to look like I just came for the free comics and nothing else. Granted some other people probably have no qualms about taking free stuff that actually cost the store money and not buying something that they might enjoy in the way of a monthly title or two.
I had not seen this many young women (in their 20's) in a comic book store in a long time. There was a good looking woman who came in looking at what was going on and was in a woman's t-shirt that was emblazoned with the Avengers logo from the cover of the comic during the 1960's. She must have been going to the movie just after visiting the store along with her boyfriend/husband. There was also a woman from Le Cordon Bleu School across Forest coming and looking for things as well as getting her three free comics. Titan must do a lot of business from the school because when I am there every week, there are always at least one or two people in the school's uniform looking at comics, trades or statues.
This year's FCBD was not as bad as some of them that I had been to in the past. The selection was good for all ages and I got everything that I wanted. The only thing that would have made this one really good was if the crowd of people had been smaller or if there was a bit of crowd control. Maybe split up the books and put them in different parts of the store for the different age groups. This would have probably been a logistical nightmare, but it would keep people from crowding around the shelves near the only public entrance/exit to the store. That had to be a fire code violation of some sort.
Look for a review of one of the books I purchased coming as soon as I have the time to sit down and read, analyze and process them. I have done my cursory read though of just looking at the pictures and reading the dialog, but I need to do a second reading to really get my thoughts in order. Let me just say right now, Power Girl with no boob window is no Power Girl. She's just another Superman clone. Granted, we do see her in a torn up outfit in the main part of the story and a cleavage showing dress in another part of the book. That I can live with if there is no boob window.
Here's a picture of the three books that I picked up initially:
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