Free Comic Book Day 2015

Free Comic Book Day 2015 - It's Nerd Christmas

One of the greatest days of the year that comic fans all over the world look forward to is Free Comic Book Day which I like to refer to as Nerd Christmas. Free Comic Book Day falls on the first Saturday of May every year and participating comic book stores around the world  give out free comics. OMG! FREE COMICS!! I'M GONNA GET THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM AND THE SPECIAL EDITION SAGA VOLUME 1!!! Woah, woah, woah back up there comic lovers unfortunately you can't just run into the store and start grabbing comics off the shelves, companies bring out comics especially for Free Comic Book Day and each store will have a limit on the amount of comics that you can take but at the end of the day you will still get your hands on some sweet, sweet free comics. The comics available will often be a reprint of  an issue #1, issue #0, previews of up coming series, one shots and compilations and these aren't obscure series you have never heard of there are many popular titles such as The Avengers, Batman, The Walking Dead, Bob's Burgers, The Simpsons, The Flash and many more of your favourite characters.

My free comics haul

There are always lines for the free comics but you can usually still go in and purchase your regular pull list and purchase off the shelves like normal but be prepared the store will be very busy. I lined up for about an hour and a half at All Star Comics for my free issues but as I have mentioned before there is just something about lining up with other people in the geek community that just makes it fun. Fortunately when I went around to Classic Comics later in the day the lines had died down for the comics and I was able to walk straight in and grab my second haul.

Totally worth the wait

There were many cosplayers and as always I love cosplayers and their enthusiasm so really any excuse to pull out the old costume box is a good one.

The folks at All Star Comics looking awesome as always

Free Comic Book Day will often come with special events at the stores which can range from cosplay competitions, raffles, charity bags but my all time favourite special events are artists doing sketches for people. All Star Comics organised an artist alley that throughout the day had over 40 artists, this year I was lucky enough that this included some of my favourites Chris McQuinlan & Matty Taylor. Classic Comics had artists doing sketches including Darren Close, & Kat Young. The artists will often move from one event to another so don't worry if you miss them at the first one you can probably catch them somewhere else so keep an eye on their Facebook pages.

Classic Comics had the DeLorean!!

I got a hilarious sketch of a T-Rex wearing a sun hat done by Andrew Fitzgerald

A Triceratops wearing an apron done by Chris McQinlan

And a werewolf by Kat Young

Free Comic Book Day is always so much fun with a great combination of excited fans, special events, free comics and meeting unique people you share interests with. The only thing I would suggest is don't make plans for later in the day because part of the fun is going from shop to shop and you will be exhausted and have lots of comics to read when you get home.