Free Comic Book Day 2012

The first Saturday of May is International Free Comic Book Day. I can’t believe it’s already May! I feel like it really snuck up on me this year!

Every year, comic book stores all around the world get together on the first Saturday of May to offer a selection of limited edition comics for FREE to anyone who passes through their doors.

As is our tradition, a few of my fellow nerd-friends and I met up in the city to hit up Kinokuniya Bookstore and Kings Comics for our free comic books.

Moomin comic! Just part of our stash. I also got: Avengers, DC New 52, Adventure Time and Mouse Guard 🙂

Gosh! I don’t know what happened since last year – but this year’s FCBD seems to have grown exponentially! Huge crowds, even LINES of people outside King’s Comics. I have never seen anything remotely close to a line at King’s Comics – let alone one that was over 100m long!

IS THIS REAL LIFE??

Actually I do know what’s changed since last year – The Avengers movie has made superheroes cool again! Marvel and DC costumes definitely dominated the scene. I saw plenty of Thors (and baby Thors!), and quite a few Captain Americas.

One particularly ingenious costume 😉

Super cute Supergirl, Batgirl and Loki!

The awesome-as-usual Kinokuniya staff get in on the action too

Even my friend Chewie decided that he’d gone through enough DC villains (what about Catwoman Chewie??) and decided to jump ship to Marvel’s Avengers this year

Captain Chewie!

It was definitely more crowded this year – but I kind of loved it. I love seeing nerd culture being embraced and celebrated. And I don’t think I’m alone; the mood remained chilled and fun despite the crowds.

A lot more people brought their kids this year (dressed in super cute costumes!) – which I think bodes well for future generations of comic book fans. Speaking briefly with Chewie (one of the organisers of events at Kinokuniya), I got the sense of how gratifying it must be to see a community-based event like this grow year-upon-year. Not only is it a great vehicle for introducing people to the bookstore… thanks to Chewie, FCBD has also become a venue for local artists to showcase their skills and wares in the Artist’s Alley.

Local comic book artists and creators in Kinokuniya’s Artist Alley

However, my favourite part of Free Comic Book Day (besides the free comics) has got to be taking photos of people dressed as fantastic superheroes and cartoon characters while doing ordinary things:

Capt America checking out the latest new releases

Doc Manhattan doing some light shelving

Poison Ivy answering queries at the comics desk

Ash Ketchum buying some 2nd hand books

Spidey running around generally being awesome

Heaps of fun! Can’t wait until next year 🙂

More photos from FCBD 2012 are in my Flickr set here: Free Comic Book Day

You can also check out my posts from FCBD in previous years:
Free Comic Book Day! 2010
Free Comic Book Day 2011 – Food Blogger Yumcha aka Epic Saturday

Free Comic Book Day is on the first Saturday of May every year
You can find out more about it here on their official website

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