Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Free Comic Book Day

Got my haul today. On a related note: Capstone's "Incredible Rockhead and Zinc Alloy" includes an awesome clip-out mini poster by Art Baltazar (he illustrates their DC Super Pets book books) that includes Chameleon Boy and Proty.

Lesse, I got:

Buffy/the Guild (for the Buffy story)
The Avengers
Young Justice/Batman

The great thing was, my wife took my daughter to a ballet showing at the library, and they had free comic book day as well. My daughter picked up a few comics there.

Then, later on, we all went to the local comic shop and got some stuff. My daughter got a couple of the Spiderman comics, and my youngest (5-yr-old boy) got a Yo Gabba Gabba, and Green Lantern, and several others. The "Donald Duck" comic was great, btw.

PJ (11 yrs old) really wanted the "Dinosaurs vs. Aliens" but it was long gone.

Patrick (the 5-yr-old) continues to amaze me. I asked him to read the cover of the Buffy comic and he said, "In space, no one can hear you..."

I knew he wouldn't know the last word, so I asked him if he could sound it out, and he pronounced "slay" correctly! Such a clever boy; he might be my retirement plan, haha.

He will start kindergarten this fall - I don't know what he is going to do there.

Such a proud papa, Lance is.

Glad to hear your kids are avid readers.

So, any one get the DC FCBD issue and want to spill on what it was about? All I've heard so far is vague references that don't actually sound like anything other than Vibe was in it.

FYI, my CBS kept for me the Atomic Robo issue and the awesome Archaia hardcover mini GN (which BTW, is the coolest thing ever!).

Thanks!

Now question #2. Did Marvel do one? Was it any good? Did anything noteworthy happen within?

Ew. Just read the bleeding cool link. The new Question? Wow--awful. Worst DCnU news yet maybe.

After "Shazam", no proper JSA, no Wally West, no J'Onn in JL (or even JLI) and various other Bad Decisions?

A reprint of Avengers #13.1 as "Age of Ultron #0.1"

You know I'm prone to overstatement.

It has been something I've occasionally noted

Free Comic Book Day was awesome... scored tons of books to give away at school... if there's anything folks are looking for that they might have missed, I may have it so let me know...

So the high point of the FCBD event has to be te Atomic Robo issue. Once again--simply brilliant.

It should always be a Dr. Dinosaur / Robo story every year. Because they just topped Batman / Joker as best comic book rivalry.

Seriously, when was the last time the Joker did something as cool as sending a T Rex egg through a time loop to evolve a futuristic T Rex with rocket launchers?

Probably not since the days when he rode around on giant ostriches.

So I finally got around to reading the coolest thing anyone has published for Free Comic Book Day...which also turned out to be the best thing any one has published too. I'm referring to the Archea Free Hardcover Anthology, which is just mind-blowing in terms of quality and in how much a company would give customers for free.

I'm still stunned that it cost me nothing. Talk about trusting your product--they know anyone who gets this, which surely cost a bit to print, will be coming back for more.

And theyre right. Because I will be. It's a collection of six short stories (one an excerpt I think), each one Eisner Award level of quality. The first was a Mouse Guard story, which is great as I've been meaning to check out Mouse Guard for years. And it was fantastic--I'd rank it alongside any issue of Sandman or Eisner's the Spirit in terms of making something incredible out of a small amount of space. I will be beginning my entrenchment in that universe shortly.

There was also an excerpt of the new Dapper Men GN. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of the medium surely has heard about 'Return of the Dapper Men' though I suspect many like me have not checked it out yet. It looks fascinating and totally original. This was a great tease and consider me curious for more.

But the big two mind-blowing stories were the following:

'Rust' which in 6 pages had me yearning for thousands more. It features a young farm boy with a prostetic limb whose father is off in a world war, and meanwhile a preteen rocketpack wearing adventurer named Jett Jones has crashed landed on their farm. In mere panels, I felt like I knew the boy / narrator and could relate to what he was feeling: missing his dad, unsure of how to feel about world events, jealousy and mistrust of Jett Jones, a longing to be an adventurer himself...or even just have both arms. I MUST have the rest of this story.

The other MUST HAVE was 'Cow Boy', a story in the tradition of Calvin and Hobbes (by the guy who did the Adventures of Franklin Richards) that plays it totally strait. It's about a young boy who was born into a family of criminals and because of the shame now hunts them all down for their crimes. Except hes like 8 years old and has a dinosaur holster for his gun. It's hilarious and totally charming and I'm so glad I found out about it.

This was nothing less than a smash success. I loved every minute of this read and am likely going to be spending upwards of $80 to get the full stories of these characters. Archaea took a chance on their product and gave me something no one else would dare do. And it paid off.

Okay, I know what I'm reading at bedtime... Thanks for the rec, Cobie. I've been sitting on this since getting my EOM shipment this Saturday, and have been busy reading the three trades I got-- Book 2 of AmVamp, SCALPED: Rez Blues and the first TPB for the New52 Animal Man. But this FCBD offering has been at the back of my mind, and your review sealed it... tonight's the night!

Can't wait to hear your thoughts! The next day and I'm still blown away. I can't believe I got that for free. It was just so good.

LOVED it.

The Mouse Guard tale was excellent, tho' I'm prejudiced... I've been a MG fan since I read the solicits for the first mini, FALL 1152. This tale is set 20 years previously, as a charming puppet show. Prior readers will enjoy the little easter egg at the end of the story.

DAPPER MEN looks totally original and unique... I always meant to check out the first OGN when I had extra space on my DCBS order, but... Nice to see it was successful enough to allow a second volume.

RUST did more in 6 pages than the likes of
Bendis can do in 60... issues. I immediately want to know all about Oswald, Morgan and Jet Jones, and the world they live in. Definitely want to check this out.

But the hit of this offering from
Archaia, for me, HAS to be COW BOY. I've been a huge fan of Chris Eliopoulos' work with a C&Hish Franklin Richards, and this has alot of the qualities without coming of as repetitive in any way. An 8 yr. old out to wrangle up his criminal siblings? Like you say, totally played straight??


I see from the listings at the end of the book there are two volumes of RUST already out, along with the COW BOY trade. Looks like I need to stop by DCBS' sister site, InstockTrades...

Oh, and COW BOY had the best bit of dialogue... "Stupid croppy, bite mah bacon..."

COW BOY was just so damned awesome! The combination of Eliopolous' visual and the badass-ness of the character are just brillaint. "I was already tough." Indeed!

Just like you, I'm hot off to get RUST and COW BOY, plus it's about time I dug into the Mouse Guard phenom.

I mean, how do I go back to New Avengers or Justice League after that? Those comics are as creative as the insurance newsletter sitting on my desk at work when viewed next to RUST.

The feeling I still have--almost 24 hours later--is just that I'm loving comic books right now. Because of the knowledge that stuff on the level of RUST and COW BOY are still being produced.

Archaia knows what they're doing! Their offerings for DCBS's June orders are the two RUST trades, COW BOY: A Boy and His Horse and a new printing of Return of the Dapper Men ! This looks to be my biggest DCBS order in awhile! I'll have to make sure they know to thank Archaia...

So what's everybody doing for this year's FCBD??

I picked up the "Teen Titans Go/Scooby Doo Team Up" from DC Kids for my niece Mackenzie.

Picked up
Marvel's Secret Wars #0, All-New All-Different Avengers/Uncanny Inhumans, DC's Divergence #1, Teen Titans Go! #1/Scooby Doo Team-Up #1, IDW's Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Valiant's 25th Aniversary Special, Graphic India's Chakra the Invincible and Perfect Square's Pokemon X-Y.

I only picked up the Bob's Burgers and Bongo Comics issues. Divergence and Secret Wars left me very unimpressed.

I'm just glad FCBD is over. I had to help out at the store today after spending the last month getting everything in order for my boss. These last two weeks in particular DRAGGED.

None of the books this year were very impressive.

Making a trip to Wonderland Comics in Putnam this morning... checking out their new location to see how feasible a visit this Saturday would be. I used to go all the time when I was walking and driving, but their original location had stairs, and I couldn't get to their back issue room.
The last time I went to FCBD in person was... 4 or 5 years ago? To Sarge's in New London, CT... I didn't get to really hunt for stuff I might've wanted to buy. They're single level, but were packed to the gills with product and customers. I 'm looking to avoid the frustration this time, hence the drive by to scope out Wonderland today.
My niece wants manga and Pokemon cards, so I'll be checking those out as well...

My local shop objected to me taking Adventure 247 and Brave and Bold 28. It turned out that not all comics are free on free comic book day.