Saturday, May 05, 2007

Free Comic Book Day!!!

Oh my. I'm tired. Rumour has it that Strange Adventures gave aways somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 comics today. I believe it. It was a fun day! Lots of people walked out with lots of comics, and I saw some fans carrying out some pretty amazing sketches. The artists were all amazing, most of them drawing for six straight hours! I was a little surprised that Andy Runton swore like a sailor the whole time, but...I'm just kidding. That guy is as nice as you would imagine him to be.

I've got pictures!

An overhead shot of the room:

A shot of Artist Alley:

Local animators throw down some mad skillz for the fans. Kids love Wolverine. And look at that awesome Hulk!

Mike Holmes gets a rare breather between sketches:

Darwyn Cooke lays down a fine-looking Peter Parker:

Andy Runton not only drew for six hours, he smiled for six hours. I'm serious.

This was our security at the door. Pretty intimidating:

Tiina and me are starting to go crazy here. And I am wearing the most powerful weapon in the universe:
And, yes. I do have one eye that is larger than the other. Thanks for noticing. Stop calling me 'Hex.'

Mark Oakley (bandanna) was doing some really amazing drawings of full scenes for fans:

Andy Runton draws Owly as Leonardo the Ninja Turtle:

I get an Owly as The Spirit! Eeeeeee!!!

My brain was so fried by the time I got this sketch, that when he asked me what I wanted I blurted out "Batman as The Spirit." Then I corrected myself. It's like, you practice what you're going to say for an important moment like this one, and then you just screw it up so spectacularly. That's life. Anyway, Batman is my default word whenever I can't think of the right one. ("What would you like on your burger." "Batman...I mean, mustard.").

Dead man walking:

Double Doom! (One by Cooke, one by Holmes):

A Sentinal cartoon by Mike Holmes (hilarious):

Darwyn Cooke reluctantly draws Gambit:

But, come on. That's a nice-looking Gambit. Kinda reminds me of why I had a giant crush on the Cajun X-Man in my teen years. I believe Cooke's exact words while drawing it were "Gambit, how I hate your stupid 90s ass." And that's why we love Darwyn Cooke.

Super Grover and Spider-Man. BFF.

Meanwhile, at the shop itself, things were jumpin':

And back at the church hall....

...Spider Owly!

Robin by Darwyn Cooke (after six hours of drawing! What a trooper!):

Kids love Andy Runton:

Darwyn Cooke loves Free Comic Book Day:

And let's give it up for the man with the plan, the undisputed kingpin of comics in Halifax, Calum Johnston for putting on the event:

He doesn't always look so crazy. But he may be using his x-ray vision in that photo.

One of my favourite things about today was seeing young kids walk away from the artists table with drawings of Saturn Girl and other Legion characters, thanks to the new cartoon. So awesome! The number of kids getting drawings of Venom was less inspiring.

Good job, team! I hope everyone got lots of free comics today.

Oh, and kid who was arguing with me: Wolverine is not, and never will be, cooler than Batman. Don't even start with me.

19 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm so envious of that FCBD event! Here I thought my comic shop was all cool because they gave away grab bags. I'm still happy with my 11 free Robin comics and my GL ring, but I wish we'd had Darwyn Cooke. It's just weird because I spent most of my time in the shop talking to someone about how awesome Darwyn Cooke was. That Batman=Owly=Mustard thing was hilarious.

Jon said...

Damn, that's an awesome looking event. I don't know what my local store did this year, but usually it's "here, you can choose one of these five really lame comics".

Brett said...

Great report, looks like it was a loud of fun!Our local shop was quieter, but still lots of laughs and a great day. I celebrate Free Comic Books Day as the nerd holiday of the year.

Jon Hex said...

My comic geek Christmas was spent at Big Monkey learning Heroclix and snagging grab bags of old Starman and Milestone comics. So of course, it was awesome. In general, it was a lot of hanging out and that is why I love it.


My word verification is 'xlrge'. I can do without the judgment.

Skeleton Munroe said...

A new generation of Legion Geeks is born!

Ah hahahahahahaha!

And it was a classy time.

Bill D. said...

Holy crap! Nova Scotia or not, next year I'm going to your shop for Free Comic Book Day!

And that Owly/Spirit drawing may well be the Coolest Thing Ever: 2007 Edition.

SallyP said...

It looks and sounds as though you had an AMAZING day! And may I compliment you on your fine taste in rings? I have one too!

Gosh, Darwyn Cooke is fabulous.

Anonymous said...

All those sketches are awesome. I found this little Marvel/DC parody of the Mac/PC commercials. It kind of reminded me of this blog, except kind of inverted.

Hilarity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6fWfmugds

Anonymous said...

In a twisted way, I really respect anyone who can walk up to Darwyn Cooke and ask, with a straight face, to draw Gambit. Now if I ever see him, I'm going to have to ask for a Cable (with extra gunz please) or possibly a Carnage.

Mike Holmes said...

Darwyn had actually flat-out refused to draw Venom for some kid, and I kind of hemmed and hawed when someone asked me to draw it - I ended up doing Doc Ock. Score one for the old-timers.

But I did draw Gambit. Twice (shudder).

Anonymous said...

Now now, you can always have Dark Claw, what could be cooler than the two coolest characters in comics... COMBINED!?

Spirit Owly is too adorable! Aww...

And that Free Gumby comic freaked me out... the spelling errors, the new artist, the darkness that came to gumby in the middle because of it... ahhh! No LBW review warned me against THAT!

Ahhhhm yah old timers just don't get... the glorious yet violent ballet of a Venom-battle. Also, I had no idea Gambit was from the 90's. I always thought he was kind of awesome. Such is the problem with new characters, they never stick to people unless you're 6-16 when reading them.

Mike Holmes said...

Actually, I was 11 when Venom debuted and 13 when Gambit did. But I never got into the characters. I can appreciate Venom for the whole duality thing, and Gambit for... well, no, I still don't see it. (Girls love that guy, though.) But yeah, there's always going to be characters that click with you, and those that don't.

rachelle said...

I can tell you why I liked Gambit: he was basically the comic relief on the cartoon series, so that's always going to get my attention. Also, his whole thing was sexing ladies. I also think the whole forbidden love thing with Rogue was very appealing to us girls. So angsty. Except Gambit wasn't angsty. That's why I loved him. He was all laid back and cool, plus you could never be sure if he was a good guy or not. He was a thief, and he still liked thieving. Plus, he exploded things. And he had a cute accent.

I LOVE YOU, GAMBIT!

Ben said...

Oddly enough, I was just last night thinking that Darwyn could actually draw a really cool Cable. But I would never, ever ask it of him. He would punch me in my heart.

Caleb said...

Jesus, I'm vacationing in Canada next May, I think.

Darwyn Cooke drawing Gambit is just f'ing awesome. Marvel should give him a billion dollars to do a one-shot full of Cable, Venom, Gambit, Silver Sable, Bishop and all those 90's folks.

I hate Gambit as a comic book character, but loved him on the cartoon(s). Everything he said in the '90s one was hilarious (that holds true for everyone on that show though).

Rachelle, given your argument regarding Wolverine vs. Batman, does this mean we'll be Logan's hunkiness rated soon? And what do you think of Darkclaw...sexier than Batman? Sexier than Logan? Batman's sexiness minus Wolverine's sexiness? Hmmmm....

Adam Barnett said...

Cooke looks like such a nice guy.... but I still don't like New Frontier and I want my 20 bucks back.

april said...

why, oh, why is canada so much more awesome than the states?

i taught some kid a magic trick on free comic day and his dad said "we're going to have to start calling you zatanna!" that was basically the highlight of my day.

Mike said...

Intimidating? Moi? I considered myself more of a friendly gatekeeper to the supercool comic show within.
Not that I didn't take FCBD security seriously. I DID have a green lantern ring in my pocket just in case.

Anonymous said...

I was there early, so i luckily got Darwyn to do a Wonder Woman sketch for my little girl, and Derek also did a Wonder Woman drawing for her. Sucks cause i was right in front of Mike Holmes and d'oh had to leave as soon as Darwyn was done..i always seem to miss getting a Mike Holmes original...