Dustin Harbin of Heroes Aren't Hard To Find in Charlotte, North Carolina pronounced Free Comic Book Day 2005 (see '2005 Free Comic Book Day in the Books') 'a doozie:'
Whoa! Another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone, and boy, was it ever a doozie! Tons of people, eight awesome artists, beautiful weather, and dozens of free comics. What could be better?
While in the past we've always 'turned it out' on Free Comic Book Day, this year we really swung for the bleachers; sending postcards to our enormous mailing list, doing promotions with local TV and radio stations, and pushing it in our store months in advance. And, when we learned that the weather would (finally!) be lovely for Free Comic Book Day, we arranged to expand our already large store--outside! That's right, we set up three different tents in front of the store, along with boxes full of 'dollar' books, and our selection of 50% off graphic novels and manga!
By 10:00 Saturday morning, we were finally ready, and just in time, too: the line was curling around the parking lot, the sun was shining, and we'd been shooing customers out the door all morning. As soon as we opened, POW! the store was full of people, and the race was on! Tons of new faces in our store for the first time, and fortunately, not stopping with the freebies!
For the event, we'd doubled the size of our kids' section, so most kids and families were bringing two stacks of books to the register: 20 or so free comics, then a second stack of kids' books like Archie, Batman Strikes, and even European classics like Asterix & Obelix!
Well, I'd like to give you more 'morning' details, but this reporter is here to tell you that the time flew by--about 20 minutes after we opened at 10, it was 1pm and the guests were arriving, one by one. Here's a quick roll-call of our star-studded Free Comic Book Day guest list: Randy Green (New X-Men, Marvel Adventures cover artist), Cully Hamner (Red, The Ride), Casey Jones (Fantastic Four, Jubilee), Rick Ketcham (New X-Men, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man), Jason Latour (Expatriate, Simpsons Comics), Andy Smith (Armor X, Green Lantern), Brian Stelfreeze (Matador, The Ride), and Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four, Tellos). You have to admit, that's a pretty strong list of names for a one-day event, but we like to go big!
At any rate, due to the awesome weather, we put Ringo and Casey inside, so their fair skin wouldn't burn, and seated Randy, Rick, and Andy under one tent, and Brian, Cully, and Jason under another, so their giant lines wouldn't get in each other's ways. Good thing, too--people were waiting in line for autographs and free sketches almost from the time we opened! It's one thing to give away free comics--but we've become famous over the years for the incredible sketches our guests produce for the fans, all absolutely free!
And what sketches! Spider-Man seemed to get the lion's share of requests (as usual; it might be the giant Spider-Man sculpture dominating the front of the store), but this year Batman ran a close second, followed by Simpsons sketches, courtesy of Jason Latour--who, aside from his current stint on The Expatriate, colored some Simpsons books a while ago, which we helpfully mentioned on the informative placard we placed in front of his seat. Poor Jason was mobbed by kids demanding sketches of the Simpsons, but I have to say, he manfully met the challenge. There were once again some dizzying sketches, and fans were woozy when they finally got theirs, and realized that it was really, really free, and that there wasn't a catch after all. When it finally started to wind down, and the artists one by one finished their lines--which we had to cap off at 5:30, half an hour after the advertised time--Brian Stelfreeze was once again the last one done, some time around 7 or so, much to the chagrin of the other guests, who were all starving by this time.
By 7:30, it was back to normal--Shelton whisked the guests away for dinner and drinks; staff member and former fashion fiend Tony had left with another employee for a prom(?!); and Phil, returning champion Kelly Williams, and the other guy were left to clean up all that fun.
