Free Comic Book Day!

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day (1st Saturday in May), and to celebrate the occasion I went to Flying Colors Comics in Concord, CA (2980 Treat Blvd) (flyingcolorscomics.com). Besides being one of the best comic book stores in the Bay Area, it is also where Free Comic Book Day originated!

Here were my prizes for waiting in line for an hour:

Free pink lemonade by a Trader Joe's employee dressed as Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter


A photo of a guy in a pretty impressive Darth Vader costume (my oldest son now thinks I know the actual Darth Vader)


A free assortment of homemade cookies

An hour long conversation with few 5 star comic book readers. (*FYI- Unless you are at least a 3 star comic book reader, these conversations should be avoided.) Luckily, the conversation eventual shifted to the topic of Chinese urbanization. Though I did get some great recommendations on titles I should explore.

Autographs by several writers and authors that everyone in line seemed impressed with but I was clueless about. The one writer/artist I looked up that is pretty impressive is Gene Luen Yang (twitter @geneluenyang). He is the author of American Born Chinese (currently #31 on goodreads.com best graphic novels list http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/210.Best_Graphic_Novels#118944)

Additionally, he is the author of the Avatar: Last Airbender comic series and the graphic novels Boxers and Saints.


Finally, the comics. There were about 30 to choose from. We were allowed to pick 3. With my 3 picks and the 2 author signings I left with 5 in all. Some for me, some for my little ones.