Two days ago was the day!
Just a brief follow-up on this year’s Free Comic Book Day event, presented at my store, Sterling Silver Comics, Ventura County’s spiritual home of FCBD. (Because, you know, I was there 22(?) years ago when FCBD started locally, and I’ve been doing ’em ever since!)
Anyway, it was very successful, moving lots of comics and also being the best financially-performing FCBD I’ve had at the store yet thanks to the storewide sales I use to supplement the event. I’m still doing the COVID-inspired set-up, putting the free comic book tables out in front of the shop, which leaves more room for shopping inside. Here’s I think the one photo we managed to get this year, thanks to my dad:
Yes, my dad helped out again this year, as did Pal Dorian (whom you can see in the above photo, wearing the black mask just sorta right of center). Former boss Ralph was there too, helping me keep an eye on things as I was mostly at the register. And Batman (AKA orimo-cosplayer customer Mark) came by to guard to festivities.
Dorian reported that the comics of choice this year seemed to be the Red Sonja giveaway, and (unsurprisingly) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book. The Conan comic seemed to be a slow-starter but ultimately did well. The Marvel books were popular, of course, and DC’s Batman crossover preview thing moved plenty of copies. DC’s more kid-friendly books didn’t do quite as well, despite having plenty of kids come through. And I think Dor and I decided that the 2000 AD giveaway may have performed better if, say, Judge Dredd, their one character recognized by the general public, had been on the comic somewhere. Ah well, What Can You Do?
One oddity this year was that a couple weeks ago, a person came by with piles of circa-2018 Marvel comics for sale. I didn’t need them, so she said “well, I don’t want to take them back home, so you can have them.” I didn’t really want them, frankly, so for FCBD I put them out in a couple of short boxes with signs that read “Take as many as you want, just leave the boxes.” Dor let me know that they didn’t last very long once the event started. I think next year I’m going to have to go through the too-many boxes in the store’s back room and find more dead stock to unload this way.
And the streak continues…no weirdos or strange problems or anything cropped up to spoil the fun again this year! I did have a light fixture go out during the day, which was kind of bad timing but not a crippling blow or anything.
I also sold a couple more copies of Write More Good, the @FakeAPStylebook book that both Dorian and I helped write several years ago. One copy I sold to customer who asked if I’d sign it by saying “sure, and you can get another writer to sign it too, today only!” So I’m out again, and since Marvel’s new distributor Penguin Random House also carries copies of this book, I can get more easily enough! (Someone at the PRH warehouse is probably thinking “who’s asking for copies of this book now?”)
Plus two-thirds of the Vintage Video crew dropped by…Vintage Video of course being the podcast where I helped them discuss the 1981 Heavy Metal animated movie. (Look for me on their eventual coverage of the first Swamp Thing movie sometime next year!)
Okay, I’ve successfully moved the FCBD coverage to “how did FCBD go” to “let’s plug stuff I worked on,” so let’s wrap this up. A big thanks to everyone who showed up…every single time I sweat it out the morning of, thinking “oh man what if nobody shows up” and every year I’m shown that I worried for nothing. So, you know, I suppose I’ll do this again next year.
My earliest memory of Faust was figuring out quite what to do with it, since we couldn’t exactly just put it on the shelf as is between Checkmate and Daredevil. We put a single copy in a sealed bag on the shelf, with a little sign attached saying that copies were available at the counter. I think if I were to do that today, I’d probably bag each of ’em, or I’d do what we did with very adult material later at the shop and put them in the customer-accessible “naughty box,” but I discussed that in depth 
So Steve Moncuse’s Fish Police was not a series I read, but I do recall that the first issue of this series was, for a time, “hot,” perhaps part of that It had a pretty good run, as Comico picked it up following the initial Fishwrap run, and then continued under the Warp Graphics label after Comico went under. 
Hoo boy, my entries here are getting a bit long. And given that I’ve been a fan of Groo for decades, this could go on forever, but I’ll try to keep it down. Created by Serio Aragones, Groo first appeared in the benefit comic Destroyer Duck #1 in 1981 (
I made an oblique mention of Dynamo Joe in 
Was this the series that put Ted McKeever on the map? I feel like this was the comic that introduced his particular and peculiar vision to the world. 
Okay, you got me, I know nothing about this comic. I mean, I remember seeing it at the shop, but I can’t tell you a darned thing about it. 
Created as a benefit book to help Steve Gerber scrape together some dough for his lawsuit against Marvel Comics, the seven issue run contained some interesting work. Not least of which was the lead, featuring the title character, written by Gerber and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Alfredo Alcala. The first issue alone contained work by Dan Spiegle, Mark Evanier, Marty Pasko, Joe Staton, Shary Flenniken and more…plus the first appearance of Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragones!
Whelp, you got me, here’s a comic I know very little about. I mean, I know it exists, we carried it at my previous place of employment, even sold a few out of the back issue bins. But I never cracked open a cover on any of the three issues released. 
Well, here we go, a comic that, as opposed to Dinosaur Rex, I know almost too much about. In fact, when I intially started this topic, it was this series that was going to get my vote for favorite ’80s indie. It did not, however (we haven’t yet got to the title that did) but boy oh boy was it a close one. 
