Free Comic Book Day/Star Wars Day

“…You there, boy. What day is it?” Why sir, it’s both Star Wars Day and Free Comic Book Day. It’s Saturday May the Fourth, and may the 4th be with you. You are going to have to be a tad bit more specific because it sure as hell isn’t Christmas Day.

That’s right, as if you didn’t know already, but today is both Star Wars Day and Free Comic Book Day. They only line up once ever 600 years and today will be the only one in your lifetime so enjoy (none of that’s true). The great Maggie Thatcher once said, “May the 4th be with you…” because she was an avid Star Wars fan and she only quoted A New Hope as her only way of communication in later years (also not true), and hence forth today has been known as Star Wars Day. Not to be confused with International Geek Pride Day on May 25th. Sure Cali (not to be confused with the God Khali) said that the 25th shall be known as Star Wars Day, but no one other than Callians seem to be riding that train to no where. We don’t need to combine to geek holidays into one. Today is Star Wars Day!

IMG426 - CopyWe stopped at a myriad of venues today. Not to scam all the comics we could (no need, there are four of us). Really, it was just to check out what each place had to offer and partake in a little bit of  it all. These are new comic shops to us since we are new to the DFW area. Sure we’ve already scouted our favorites and we have a pull list at our local shop, but you should always have a back up plan (what if God strikes your shop down with a tornado or locusts? What will you do then?). We had a gay-old-time with our plethora of comic day shops.

 

We saw Darth Vader, face painter, and street musicians. We even met Peter Mayhew (not to be confused with Peter Dinklage) and the boys entered a costume contest. It wasn’t the perfect Saturday because that involves a lot more sleeping, but it was good. By far the best Free Comic Book Day or Star Wars Day I’ve had.

IMG423The lines were long at some. We hit up our local shop Boomerang, Zeus Comics in Dallas, and Titan Comics also in Dallas. The Lewisville shop is in the middle of transitioning to a bigger building so they were packed. But “mi amore” has been picking up all of our comics since the move and this was my first experience with them. I was impressed with their collection of graphic novels, which are honestly my favorite form of reading comics. I feel comics are as valid or more valid a medium of story telling to any other, but the disconnect is with the delay in story sagas told through multiple issues over months or years. Graphic Novels much like the prophet (or 90’s hip hop artist) Vanilla Ice say “…if you gotta problem, YO I’ll solve it”.

IMG425 - Copy At Zeus Comics in Dallas we met the great Peter Mayhew. I saw Mayhew at Celebration V a few years ago and there was a troop of guys around him preventing any pictures from being taken as he moved through the general area with all of the “less than worthies”. He signed stuff and took pictures at the signing booth along with Mark Hamill, Ray Park, and Carrie Fisher but if memory serves correct it cost a shiny mint coin to have a photo taken. It was an even shinier mint coin to get an autograph (I can’t even imagine how much the guys who had the autographs tattooed in ended up paying). At Zeus though they lines were short and the Mayhew wasn’t cornering every piece of available space. We were able to get right in and snap this nifty shot to the right (the guy in the upper right is making a weird face).

IMG424The whole event was fun. Now all I need to do is continue to read, watch, and play Star Wars games, movies, and books for the day to make a lot of since. I’ve already burned through a few of the free comic books handed out. The Steam Punk OZ book put out by Arcana has been the highlight so far. But I’m definitely looking forward to the Avatar book and the Mousegaurd stuff. I grabbed a free Mousegaurd a few years ago and it has been a good series over all but the art alone is worth coming back to. There’s a Guardians of the Galaxy Book with Thanos face breaking through a prism of scenes that looks interesting. I have high hopes for this years pull. No matter which way you slice it, it has been a grand holiday. CAn’t wait until next years.

As always feel free to comment below or contact me directly @werewolforigin via twitter. Other wise, May the 4th be with you.

 

 

 

 

About Eric bookout

Writer/Artist for X amount of years. Recently worked with people from IGN on a comic and studied writing under Victor Gischler of Marvel Comics at RSU in Oklahoma more X amount of years ago. Follow me @WerewolfOrigin on twitter
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One Comment

  1. That guy in the right corner or that one photograph sure is strange looking.

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