Free Comic Book Day: May 6!

DC dropped the ball BIG TIME on this one. JLU, while a far better choice than a TWO YEAR OLD book (which happens to be the intro to a 6 parter, which you obviously won’t be getting on Free Comic Book Day), still isn’t a new book. Marvel had a good plan putting Runaways with the X-Men, because that’s a great way to hook new readers into Runaways. X-books are like crack, based upon their sales records.

My biggest beef with the day, however, is how the local shops handled it. The two shops I visit had 3 different books available to pick from when I showed, at 11:30. And based upon shelf space, it looks like neither of them had a huge selection. I drove across town to the shop that allegedly had “all the FCBD books.” It had about 6 or 7 different books, which far exceeded the other shops, but still isn’t “all” the books by a long shot. There were about 5 or 6 books I was kind of excited to see, and no one on the entire damn island apparently is bothering to carry them. I thought at least today the shops might be trying more indy stuff, rather than ramrodding more super-heroes down everyone’s throat. Honestly, everyone knows that super-hero books are out there. This is a revelation to no one.

Of course, I shouldn’t have expected all that much anyway, based upon the complete and utter lack of advertising ANYWHERE. No posters, no little signs by the registers, no mention by the people that work there. If it wasn’t for the comic sites I hammer daily, I would’ve probably missed the day.

All in all, compared to the sparse shop that I visited in the bay area, the day was a major letdown for me. Next year I plan on kicking the asses of the people at the shop I frequent in advance. This is a huge PR day for the comic book industry, and they did nothing to help anyone, despite the resources available.

No wonder there’s no damn comic-cons in Hawaii.

I mean clearly. Not cleary.

Screw me, I’m going to bed.