Can't Wait for Saturday (Part 2)

With Free Comic Book Day coming up this Saturday, we decided to check in with not only our own contributors, but with comic creators, retailers, bloggers, journalists and fans to get their thoughts on the comic industry's big day.

We tossed out two questions:

1) What are your plans for this Saturday?
2) What FCBD book are you most looking forward to?

And here are some of the responses to the first question ...

Sean McKeever, writer of Funky Winkerbean, Marvel's Sentinel and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: I'll be hanging out at the Laughing Ogre in Columbus for a couple hours, and I may go to a local theatre later that day to hand out some comics to unsuspecting moviegoers. I'll also be speaking to kids and adults at the New Albany library for their Free Comic Book Day event in July.

Brian Scot Johnson, owner of Khepri Comics in Arizona/khepri.com: AZ cartoonist Rob Osborne (absolutetyrant.com) will be signing and sketching (1-5 pm) while Free Comic Books are given away (12-6 pm) @ Khepri Comics (khepri.com). Osborne's done editorial cartoons for the Arizona Republic, and currently has 3 books in-print: the award-winning 1000 STEPS TO WORLD DOMINATION, the senior-citizen saga SUNSET CITY, and his new super-villain sitcom THE NEARLY INFAMOUS ZANGO. Bring a friend. Bring ten friends. Khepri Comics (NEC of McClintock/Apache in Tempe, AZ).

Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim books: I'll be at Strange Adventures in Halifax, signing copies of FREE SCOTT PILGRIM and whatever else people put in front of me. I plan to be there all day, barring coffee breaks, or until I get sick of the whole deal.

Laura Gjovaag, Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog: My shop is having a back issue contest, but I'm not able to buy much at the moment so I may just go and watch the fun. The shop owner will be hiding "Wolverine's Claws" in a number of back issues, and if the back issue you buy has claws in it, you win a prize. Last year they did a Golden Ticket promotion based on the same idea, and it was a great success.

Tim Leong of Comic Foundry: I've either been busy, incapacitated or out of town on previous FCBDs, so this is the first time I'll be an active participant. I plan to roll down to my regular store, Midtown Comics (at Grand Central). I'm pals with a bunch of the guys there, so it should be a good time.

Craig McKenney, writer of The Brontes: Infernal Angria: I'm going to see Mission Impossible: III. I now HATE Tom Cruise, but I love Mission: Impossible. The rest of the cast should make up for his recent public antics, and I hear that JJ Abrams has saved the franchise.

Drew Melbourne, writer of Dark Horse's ArchEnemies: No signings scheduled. I'm here in NYC, which is positively swimming in creators, so I don't think anyone is going to miss my presence terribly. A lot of years, I skip FCBD entirely. After all, the real point of FCBD is to encourage new readers, and not to placate idiots like me who already drop $20 or $30 or $60 a week on comics. That said, there are some good books out this year, so I'll definitely be making the trek out to my shop on Saturday.

Gary from Gary's Comics and More, Morgantown, West Virginia: I anticipate that the most sought after of all the FCBD fare that I'm stocking is the Superman/Batman #1, and the Free Scott Pilgrim, followed closely by the FCBD Stargate O'Neil AF.

We're supplementing with a plethora of non-specific FCBD fare, such as manga and comics (from more mainstream titles), toys and the occasional flogging (get your parent's permission before getting flogged kids!).

We're hoping to see more than just the local comic community come out for this, we want to see new faces, that's the goal. We hope to hunt down the stereotype of the Simpsons Comic Guy, stake it out on a hot rock, and hose it down with fruit-loops cereal and bricks.

No smurfs.

All in all, other than having a good time and enjoying ourselves (and maybe forcing others to enjoy themselves, damnit!), we have no expectations.

Jason Burns, creator of Viper Comics' The Expendable One: I actually have a friend coming into town that I haven't seen in years, so I will probably only make a brief appearance at my local shop. I was supposed to be doing a signing, but The Expendable One was delayed by a few weeks and we didn't get the copies in time. Doh!

Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of Punks and Elk's Run: Well, living in Los Angeles, we're lucky to have some of the best comic shops in the country all within miles of each other, so, my plan is to swing by Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks for their Boom signing and say hi to all my buddies, then do a nice tour-de-LA swinging by as many shops as possible.

Brian Wood, writer of Vertigo's DMZ and Oni's Local: Myself, Rick Spears, Rob G are going to be at That's Entertainment in Worcester, Mass. Details here: http://thatse.com/

And I'm most looking forward to the Free Scott Pilgrim comic.

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Brian's not the only one looking forward to Scott Pilgrim, as many people noted it was the book they were most looking forward to. Which is a great transition into the second question ...

Brian Scot Johnson, Khepri Comics in Arizona/khepri.com: FREE SCOTT PILGRIM, because at this point we have none on-hand. Diamond shorted us our entire order. GAH. HurryHelpFast!!!

Alan David Doane, Comic Book Galaxy: The Scott Pilgrim book is the winner of the year, without a doubt...new story, great work, and a wonderful way to fill the gap between now and Vol. 3.

Drew Melbourne, writer of Dark Horse's ArchEnemies: It's a close call, but I think the Scott Pilgrim comic from Oni narrowly edges out Brian K. Vaughan's X-MEN/RUNAWAYS one-shot.

Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim books: I've really been too busy to look at the other comics, and I guess I have little interest in most of them. OWLY should be nice. X-MEN/RUNAWAYS might be fun, I guess.

Sean McKeever, writer of Funky Winkerbean, Marvel's Sentinel and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: It's gotta be the Runaways book. It's great to see Marvel putting out original content this year, and you can't go wrong with Skottie Young.

Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of Punks and Elk's Run: Definitely the Runaways book from Marvel. Kudos to them for finally coming up with something to actually get comic fans excited, and introduce one of the best books on the stands to a prospective new audience.

Tim Leong of The Comic Foundry: I think I can speak for everyone (and by everyone, I mean everyone in America) when I say the most anticipated book is "Wizard Presents: The Top 100 Trade Paperbacks of All Time." The quality. The in-depth reporting. The deft use of the exclamation point. Get there early, folks.

Laura Gjovaag, Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog: That would be a toss-up between Amelia Rules, Owly, and the Donald Duck book. Owly isn't a meaty kind of book, but it's always a great deal of fun and accessible to just about anybody. Amelia Rules is a solid book for anyone who likes the chaos of youth. And Donald Duck... well, it's Donald Duck. How can you go wrong?

Craig McKenney, writer of The Brontes: Infernal Angria: I'm looking forward to Drawn & Quarterly's Mr. Jean special/preview. D&Q consistently puts out beautiful books, both on the inside and out.

Jason Burns, creator of Viper Comics' The Expendable One: I have to be slightly biased here and say I'll pick up the Viper Comics offering because I have a couple of previews of my own stuff in there, including "A Dummy's Guide To Danger" and "Museum of Terror," which has recently been renamed actually. Other than that I think I'm just going to pick up some of the stuff I'm not familiar with and see if I can find something new to put on my pull list. I'm looking for something new to read... you know... to add a little spice to my weekly reading.

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We even found a few people who already got their hands on some of this Saturday's loot ...

Brian Cronin, The Great Curve/Comics Should Be Good: I read Runaways/X-Men, and I thought it was very good. So that's the one I'm looking forward to the most!

Lucas Siegel, Comic fan: Runaways/X-Men: This is the best FCBD comic I've read in the three years of its existence. Without delving too deeply into spoilers, The story is based around the Astonishing X-Men coming to try to bring our favorite little Princess Powerful, Molly Hayes, to their big mutant mansion. Hilarity and the gratuitous "first team meeting" fight ensues. Lines said by both sets of characters point to continuity, and this is a great introduction to both teams. I think Astonishing X-Men will get the sales boost they sorely need thanks to help from our favorite West Coast superteam.

A Franklin Richards story follows this one up and is an entertaining read. Marvel Adventures: Avengers previews itself with a slightly confusing group of team members, and the Ultimate Spider-man saga that has shown its head elsewhere brings up the rear (unchanged). All in all, you'll get your money's worth on this book, natch.

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For more information on FCBD events, signings, media coverage, etc. check out our post Can't Wait for Saturday, Part 1. Many thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts for this article.

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