What's better than comics? Free comics, of course! Head into your local comic shop Saturday, and you can snatch a gripload of them, ranging from the superheroic to the strange, on Free Comic Book Day.
Every first Saturday of May, comics publishers print up special editions for the annual event and ship them off to shops nationwide, who hand them out for free all day long. How many you can walk away with depends on the shop, so check out the Free Comic Book Day site for further details participating stores and a thorough reckoning of available comics and other freebies (including a War Machine figurine).
Whether you're looking for big shots like Iron Man and Thor or surreal standouts like Jim Woodring's Weathercraft, you're bound to find something that tantalizes your lobes. We've rounded up a few of our favorites below. Scan them, and then grab your own Saturday.
Marvel Comics
Marvel bats leadoff this May with two comics showing off Shell-Head, whose cinematic blockbuster Iron Man 2 arrives next week. In Iron Man/Thor (above and below), from writer Matt Fraction and artist John Romita Jr., two of Marvel's greatest superheroes struggle to save Earth's disaster-ravaged populace from a merciless enemy.
"It's exciting to see two of our most popular heroes paired with two of our top creators for Free Comic Book Day," said David Gabriel, Marvel senior vice president of sales and circulation. "Marvel is proud to be part of this annual event. Kudos to all the retailers who make this event happen year after year with outstanding success."
The Golden Avenger also teams up with the less popular hero Nova to take on a gang of menacing super-apes in Iron Man: Supernova (at bottom), from writer Paul Tobin, artist Craig Rousseau and cover artist Ed McGuinness. The low-hanging fruit of the Free Comic Book Day should whet fanboy appetite for Iron Man 2 just fine.
DC Comics
DC Comics is jumping into the gratis game with comics for adults and kids, starting with Issue 0 of War of the Supermen.
The free comic closes out the New Krypton event and clears the launchpad for a month-long war involving all the publisher's über-capes.
"War of the Supermen No. 0 is a great introduction to the weekly miniseries that will be following on from this," writer James Robinson told Wired.com in an e-mail. "Hopefully, Free Comic Book Day will provide some people who haven't checked out Superman in a while an inroad back to the series. And bottom line, it's a great way to celebrate comics. Saturday will be a blast."
With art by Eddy Barrows and a cover from J.G. Jones, War of the Supermen is a much headier release than all-ages sampler DC Kids, which is packed with more-approachable heroes and action for the younger demographic.
"Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and all of their kid-sized sidekicks, the Tiny Titans, can be found in one comic book," Tiny Titans writer Franco Aureliani told Wired.com. "And it's free!"
"Free Comic Book Day is where a kid can read DC superheroes for the first time, and spark an imagination that will last a lifetime," added Tiny Titans writer and artist Art Balthazar. "All in the same day."
Dark Horse Comics
Created in the early '60s by Gold Key Comics, sci-fi heroes Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom and Magnus, Robot Fighter have been rebooted for the iGeneration by Dark Horse Comics.
Free Comic Book Day marks their post-millennial resuscitation with a healthy dose of suspense and action. Everything old is new again.
For proof, just check out that galvanizing cover art from Raymond Swanland above. It's a searing upgrade of the original comic art (pictured at right and below) from the Gold Key Comics vault.
Written by excellent veteran scribe Jim Shooter and featuring artwork from X-Men Noir's well-traveled Dennis Calero, Dark Horse's Free Comic Book Day sneak-peek sets the table for summer series from both heroes.
Keep an eye out especially for Magnus, which features some hilarious but psychotic robots on the hunt for our hero's head. It's not going to be easy to reboot the hero for the 21st century. But having smartass androids clamoring for violence can take readers a long way. Boot it up!
Top Shelf Productions
Top Shelf's sweet but surreal Owly has been a favorite of our pals over at GeekDad for a while now, but we, too, are cheerleaders for its accessible yet appealing narratives.
For Owly's Free Comic Book Day release, Andy Runton's feathery friend is joined by another Underwire favorite, James Kochalka, whose Johnny Boo shares space with Christian Slade's Korgi under the comic's tree.
Also included in Top Shelf's freebie is a page detailing five new graphic novels for younger readers launching in 2011, as part of the publisher's Kids Club line.
Fantagraphics
Looking for something a bit more bizarro? Then you're looking for Jim Woodring's noiseless nightmares in the free Weathercraft and Other Unusual Tales.
Published by Fantagraphics, Woodring's Free Comic Book Day offering excerpts panels from his forthcoming graphic novel, Weathercraft, as well as out-of-print and other ephemeral work from his hallucinatory Frank series. Also included is a centerfold of Woodring's charcoal drawings.
Judging by the strange panels below, Woodring's gratis comic might not be for your kids. That is, unless your kids are fans of man-hogs, generic anthropomorphs, violent slapstick, wiseguy chickens and other morally ambiguous caricatures. You've been warned.
