Review- Free Comic Book Day 2016

Free Comic Book Day 2016

Another Free Comic Book Day is in the books! I took my kids to eight shops in two counties. This is our story.

My son was Anakin Skywalker, my daughter was a hero of her own creation. 

We started out at Time Travelers in Berkley, MI. The Detroit area is fortunate to have many great comic shops. They offered five free comics. My son picked up a few issues of the title he collects that he was missing. By the end of the day he completed his run. The Force is strong with this one.

Next up was Detroit Comics in Ferndale, MI. They had Yanick Paquette signing autographs, although I was unfortunately too early to see him. Bummer. They offered two free comics for adults and three for children. My brother came along this year and he grabbed a Deadpool action figure.

The line at Warp 9. I forgot to get a picture of their sign.

Warp 9 in Clawson, MI had a super long line. We arrived a few minutes before they opened, and stood in line for a while. They offered 10, count them, ten free comics. I picked up the first issue of the new Micronauts series. I try to pick something up at each store I go to, as these free comics are not free to retailers.

After lunch at Burger King we headed over to Back To The Past in Redford, MI. They offered one free comic book for person, three if you purchased something. I picked up a couple of records, as they were offering 20% off on their vinyl.

My son wanted me to buy these at Back To The Past. I got him to settle with having a picture taken with them.

The dude with the clipboard on the right was trying to get people to sign up for some new crackpot political party. I told him that I was a member of Andrew W.K.'s Party Party. He was not amused.  

Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, MI was next. Their line was at a more manageable level this year. Coming later was a better idea. I like hitting all of the different shops because not all of them order everything, and each one had one or more titles that none of the other ones had, so that was cool. I never grab more than one of any given title unless it is by accident, as eBay flipping of FCBD titles isn't my bag. I have an extra Bruce Lee if anyone needs one.

Big Ben's Comix Oasis in Allen Park, MI is the longest running comic shop in the Detroit area. His store is huge and has tons of stuff. The line was manageable by 3 PM, although parking was a trick because both lots were full. I ended up parking at the dollar show and walking over. I take my son here every so often and give him five bucks and let him kill an hour or three rummaging through the .50 boxes. I started out as a quarter box scavenger in 1983 and enjoy digging through the sand with him to unearth the odd piece of gold. My daughter likes their gumball machine.

At Big Ben's. 

I was ready to call it a day but the kids were not ready to let the party end. Our next stop was Quick Stop Comic Shop in Lincoln Park, MI, which was formerly known as Wonderworld Comics in Taylor. This is a pretty cool store, with tons of toys as well. My son grabbed a Lego Iron Man from an Iron Man 2 set. It delighted my son, as it came from an out of print set. It is a scientific fact that things that are out of print are more enjoyable than things that are in print.

Our final stop of the day was Hero Time Comics And Toys in Southgate, MI. This is the newest shop that we stopped at, and they have a lot of cool toys here. They were out of many titles but bolstered their supply with some overstock things, which is what I grabbed since I had all of the FCBD titles that I wanted and don't grab extras just to grab them.

We were seven hours in at this point. The kids wanted more more more, but I was done. Plus I would have to go either farther west or farther north. It was 4:30 already.

As always, a huge thank you to every shop who participates in this event. This was my son's sixth Free Comic Book Day marathon with me and my daughter's fourth. I hope that we are able to do this again next year. We shall see.