Free Comic Book Day 2017 – Madman

Well, another FCBD has came and went meaning summer is almost about to drop us in the slow cooker know as Indiana humidity. Also known a Swampass… It also means I’ve undoubtedly stood in the line outside of Comics Cubed, or C3 as the cool kids call it, for roughly 2 hrs not just to acquire the free comic book offerings and all the plunder that goes with it. Equally as important are the deals and sales C3 offers on this sacred and glorious day where we celebrate all things geek. In that regard I and every other geek living in or near Kokomo, Indiana are truly blessed with our own slice of Heaven located in the heart of downtown…    


Imagine a block  where you walked down the street and come across a comic book store that not only sells comics and comics related goods, but board games, miniature games (I’m telling you if you haven’t played Tanks from Gale Force nine, you suck so bad), and everything else under our red sun. The chances are very good that if they don’t have what you’re looking for they will always order it…at least from my experience. It really is someplace I look forward to visiting a couple times a week. Just about then you start to get hungry, because there is a wing place right next door.  You don’t stop for wings, though, because it’s 4:30 and you have exactly 30 minutes to hit up Kokomo Toys & Collectables and it takes at least…all day to look around. This store is truly amazing. I believe it is actually Indiana’s largest vintage toy store, and believe me it’s massive. It’s packed wall-to-wall with the diary of my childhood and my man-child diary as well. You name it; this place has it or at one time had it. Their window display is always a head turner and more important to the locals then the front page of the local newspaper… That’s when you realize you still had to hit up American HI-FI for some vinyl for the wife or, sometimes, just sometimes, for yourself. Sunday morning porch coffee goes mighty fine with some Cat Stevens or Miles Davis. Well, now you really are hungry so you head across the street to Cook’s, an authentic Irish pub, for the best cod sandwich on the planet… Fact. Then you are a bit thirsty so you get yourself a couple adult beverages and all is well. That place does exist and with their powers combined we get Geek Street. And it is marvelous.

It’s never about the free comics for me. It’s for the excitement and atmosphere that you can only find standing in line surrounded by geeks and stormtroopers. Let’s face it: the comics are in most cases just glorified previews or elaborate advertisements. Not always, but more often then not, at least in my opinion. This years FCDB was unique and sort of a new milestone as I talked my wife into braving the geek hordes and spending her Saturday morning and afternoon roaming Geek Street. She even got herself some Wonder Woman plunder (her favorite superhero), so that was neat….and a little bit of a turn on…just saying.

I Hate Image

This was the first book I snagged on my first trip through the line. I’ve been on the Skottie Young bandwagon since the first variant cover of his I saw. They’re all fantastic, but I’m sure you already know that. Here we are blessed with a full book of his Skottie Young artwork and, not only that, he gets credit for the wordsmithing too. As long as your eyeballs aren’t exploding with ecstasy and you can actually see the words through the torrential downpour of tears of joy, you should get a good laugh in here or there. Young takes Gert and the reader through the wonderful worlds of Image with mass slaughter and carnage everywhere…good times.

Zelda

Well, this was a let down for me. Like everyone else on the planet, I’m a big fan of the Zelda game on the original Nintendo. So, hey, on my 2nd trip through C3 I grabbed a copy for old time’s sake… Turns out it’s Manga and I hate it. No specific reason. I mean, I’ve never read a single Manga book until now, but even before that I’ve just always hated Manga. Every geek has that line in the sand and for me that line is Manga. I didn’t even get past the first couple of pages as I had zero interest whatsoever.

Secret Empire

I’m still taking a stand on Marvel's latest mega-event. I’m not on either side. I don’t care if Cap is a Nazi. I just don’t care! It has nothing to do with having an opinion one way or another. After Civil War I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy into another Big Two mega-event… But then I was like…OK, maybe the one after Monsters Unleashed, because that’s just fun as hell. It just turned out to be Secret Empire and I’m totally fine with that. I didn’t really even care enough to read that first half of this book, because it was really the 2nd half of the book that I was here for. I overheard someone in line say, “Oh cool, there’s a preview of Spectacular Spider-Man in Secret Empire!” Well, hell… So I got back in line and got lucky enough to snag a copy on my 3rd trip around the prickly pear… Not with a bang, but a whimper. Anyway I have to say I’m pumped about the release. Not that the contents of the preview were all that knee-weakening, it’s just Spider-Man so I love it. We are graced with an appearance of the Vulture, and it’s not a modernized Michael Keaton version either. It’s old man Toomes in his classic green feathery suit, which I appreciate. The new version of the Trapster shows up and makes a few jokes. I laughed and immediately added it to my pull list.