Talking cars, sci-fi stars and stalwart superheroes are invading local comic shops this Saturday for Free Comic Book Day 2009.
Comic books began as a way for publishers to make money from idle printing presses by reprinting newspaper comic strips, but they have clearly taken on a life of their own. The industry celebrates this success each year on the first Saturday in May and tries to bring new readers into the fold with Free Comic Book Day.
But there’s more than free comics. Atomic Comics will host a slew of comic book creators at its various Valley locations, including Green Lantern: Blackest Night writer Geoff Johns, Flash and Green Lantern Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver and Supergirl writer Sterling Gates at the Mesa store. The official Marvel Comics Wolverine will appear 10 a.m. to noon at the Phoenix store, 1 to 3 p.m. at the Paradise Valley store and 5 p.m. to closing at the Chandler Fashion Center location. And select artists will be doing sketches for $5, with proceeds benefiting the Hero Iniative, a financial safety net for comic creators.
Spazdog Comics in Phoenix will have Jeff Mariotte, fomerly of IDW, author of many novels and writer for Presidential Material: Barack Obama, and local Daniel Davis who creates the daily webcomic Monster Commute.
Other local participants include Samurai Comics, All About Books and Comics, Greg’s Comics and many more. You can find a participating location near you using the Free Comic Book Day store locator.
What will you be getting? One freebie per person. And there’s something for everyone — from Archie to Wolverine — as the official list will tell you.
Here are the Gold Sponsors and their comic books for this year’s event:
- Archie Presents: The Mighty Archie Art Players (Archie Comics)
- Disney/Pixar’s Cars (BOOM! Studios)
- Bongo Comics 2009 Free For All (The Simpsons and Futurama)
- Star Wars: Clone Wars (Dark Horse Comics, of course!)
- Green Lantern: Blackest Night #0 (DC Comics)
- Transformers Animated/G.I. Joe (IDW Publishing)
- Savage Dragon #148 (Image Comics)
- The Avengers (Marvel Comics)
- Resurrection #0 (Oni Press)
- Shonen Jump Presents: Ultimo (Viz Media)
So head on over and start planning your Free Comic Book Day strategy.
