There was a young fellow named Hemsley I struck up a conversation with in the morning on the A train because he was reading the Marvel "Civil War" paperback collection.
There was an older gray-haired man on the 5 train reading a "Simpsons" comic. I asked him if it was the FCBD "Simpsons" comic. I shot him the double thumbs up!
AND A PARTY!!
After attending the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's annual Cherry Blossom Festival with my friend Shane, I finally saw the inside of Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn, a shop I've been hearing of for months now. Very cool place. Nice wood shelves, great customer service. Owned by a husband and wife team!
Here's a cool, shoddy, little video of the festivities Shane and I enjoyed there!!
Officially, Saturday's party on Bergen Street was also a release party for four new comics from First Second Books:
"Foiled" written by Jane Yolen and drawn by Mike Cavallaro
"City of Spies" written by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan and drawn by Pascal Dizin
"Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess" by George O'Connor
and
"Resistance" written by Carla Jablonski and drawn by Leland Purvis
"Foiled" written by Jane Yolen and drawn by Mike Cavallaro
"City of Spies" written by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan and drawn by Pascal Dizin
"Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess" by George O'Connor
and
"Resistance" written by Carla Jablonski and drawn by Leland Purvis
Yolen, Cavallaro, Dizin, O'Connor, Jablonski, and Purvis were on hand to celebrate and sign their comics! And we got to meet some of them as well as a few other very talented people such as Becky Cloonan (artist of "DEMO") who both Shane and I embarrassingly gushed over.
But the really exciting festivities at Bergen Street were the ones we missed. I met one of the owners and apparently, in the afternoon, the place was packed with kids doing planned activities and picking up the free comics!
I also happen to know that at least one comic shop in New York made a hefty amount of money more than they do on a regular Saturday! (When you consider the fact that the comic shops do have to pay for the comics they are then required to give away for free that's really, really important.)
Comic shops around the country and world were on the ball as well!
Hub Comics in Somerville, MA brilliantly offered any of their usual selection $1 vintage comics for free to anyone with each piece of non-perishable food brought in. A combination Free Comic Book Day and Food Drive!
By gods even the Internet got in on the game! Look at this newsletter I received from Wowio.com:
Pretty smart!
Now if only we could get some serious mainstream advertising for Free Comic Book Day. Advertising in places not just comics people look. All the Marvel Studios ads should have a little FCBD bullet with the date. All the Warner Bros. ads that have anything to do with comics should mention it. The major mainstream magazines should be sent some conservative ads with the logo and the date. That should not be hard to pull off for next year. Give it even wider support and we'll get an even wider range of people next time!
But we got young people reading comics, we got little kids reading comics, we got older people reading comics, a whole bunch of people got some free comics, and retailers made some money!
Sounds like a check in the win column to me.
