Free Comic Book Day!

   As you can see, I finally made it to Free Comic Book Day - I got quite a haul from my pal John at the local comics shop!

   Several of you wrote it to share your experiences, which always makes me a happy blogger:

   Bobby Nash wrote, "Here's the write up I did for the event I attended (with photos)." Check out his blog at this link: http://bobby-nash-news.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-comic-book-day-wrap-up.html

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  Bret shared his experience: "It was a nice Free Comic Book Day at my LCS (Local Comics Shop) here in Colorado. Fun to see kids dressed in costumes and the store was packed. I grabbed Atomic Robo and Rocket Raccoon. My 8-year-old picked up Teen Titans Go! A fun day."

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   Kyle Johnson sent along several reviews: "Sorry you missed out on FCBD... I almost did as well, I stopped by a shop a little after opening and it was packed. The line wrapped around the shop and out the door. Was going to skip it, but figured I was already downtown so hit a used bookstore nearby, grabbed some lunch, and stopped back by a couple hours later. It had thinned out a little bit by then... Here are some very quick takes on what I picked up:

   Bongo Comics Free-For-All: A mix of stories by various creators. About what you would expect for a Simpsons comic. The high points are a Sergio Aragones splash page and Amy & Leela in a "Betty & Veronica" style back cover. Grade: B

   Buck Rogers: This was a collection of '30s and '40s newspaper strips. The coloring on the Sunday strips was great, but at least for my eyes, they were a little hard to read when shrunk down to fit the comic book page. I didn't have that problem with the black and white daily strips which were drawn by Murphy Anderson and which were fantastic. Great vintage pulp fun. Grade: A

   Guardians of the Galaxy: I haven't been keeping up with the new Marvel series so basically picked this up because of interest in the upcoming movie. The main feature was Tony Stark interviewing a candidate to join the GoG team, this basically provided a somewhat uninteresting voice-over for scenes of the team in action. The second was a Thanos story by Jim Starlin. The third was some kind of Elseworlds Shakespearian Spider-Man versus a vampire which was not that interesting to me.  Grade: C

   Rocket Raccoon: Now this was more like it. A great solo adventure with Rocket that brings back many of the characters from the 1985 mini-series. Was great seeing Mr. Wal-Rus, Blackjack O'Hare, Lord Dyvyne, and Uncle Pyko again. A very fun all-ages story featuring kidnapped princesses, blood-thirsty pirates, and sinister villains. There was a less interesting back-up story featuring Spider-Man, White Tiger, and Nova on the moon. I believe this is based on a cartoon and was geared for a younger crowd. Grade: A (pretty much based on the main Rocket story alone)

   Uncle $crooge and Donald Duck: A pair of wonderful stories by Don Rosa. The first featuring Magica De Spell in another plot to steal Uncle Scrooge's number one dime. The second was a story featuring Donald and Gladstone Gander, who I was not very familiar with. Both were great stories and topped off with a two-page text feature by Don Rosa himself. Grade: A

    And that wraps up my FCBD!

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    Thanks, guys! Breezing through a few of the other comics your pal Chuck picked up:

   Future's End - Apparently DC's future is a terrible place, so a hero must travel into the past (our present) to stop this from happening. (This all sounds very familiar somehow.) It'll all play out in a weekly comic from DC. 

   Project Black Sky - Dark Horse is inching into the superhero market with this team-up of Captain Midnight and Brain Boy. Sounds like fun!

   Worlds of Aspen 2014 - A preview of The Zoohunters (tracking down big game on alien worlds) and the fairy tale-inspired Damsels in Excess.

   Archie Digest - 100 pages of classic Archie fun and games!

   Rise of the Magi - Top Cow's new series about a world of magic - and the dark dangers found there.

   Armor Hunters - Valiant previews its upcoming event that centers around alien attempts to recapture the X-O Armor.

   Les Miserables - Udon presents what may be my favorite free comic - a Manga adaptation of the classic novel (or at least part of it).

   Ipso Facto - Automatic Publishing offers the first issue of the series, as odd mix of soapish mystery and science fiction. 

   Epic - Comix Tribe offers a new teen superhero - you get his origin here and discover his unusual weakness.

   Skyward and Midnight Tiger - Action Lab previews two new heroes - in Skyward, a boy and his dog face danger in a strange land; and Midnight Tiger focuses on the birth of a modern-day hero.

   Defend Comics - A fun comic to promote the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

   Red Giant took a different approach - they offered four different (small) flip-comics in one shrink-wrapped package (so, eight previews in one). It included: Tesla, Wayward Sons, Darchon, Shadow Children, Duel Identity, Pandora's Blogs, The First Daughter and Magika!

     And Bleeding Cool offered a small edition of that magazine devoted to comics news and interviews.

    Whew! And that's it! Here's hoping you had a great Free Comic Day, too!