I've been keeping busy going to events and I've generated a bunch of photographs of them. Click through the links under each picture for more shots.


Here's more shots of Awesome Con. Starro the Conqueror!


Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, receiving the Herblock Award for his strip, This Modern World, at the Library of Congress. See the strip here.


Way too many shots of Charles Vess at Politics and Prose bookstore.


Free Comic Book Day at Big Planet Comics in Bethesda and Vienna, as well as Victory Comics. That's Art Hondros, the cover artist for Magic Bullet #6.


Political cartoonist Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher's book launch for Daggers Drawn, his Kickstarter-funded retrospective, held at Boordy Vineyard near Baltimore. Buy the book here.


Glen Echo Park in Maryland with cartoonist Lincoln "Big Nate" Peirce. Get tickets to the Big Nate musical here. (I'm working on writing up an interview with Peirce, but I saw the show on opening day, and can recommend it).

From Louis the Magician and Game On! Comics Wolverine wants you to come to Free Comic Book Day!   awesome.

Our friend, Hugh Jackman, wants you to come to our store tomorrow!

OK, maybe we don't actually know Mr. Jackman but he does want you to come to our store anyway!

Accross the nation all comic book stores are celebrating Free Comic Book Day, tomorrow, May 4th.

Our store will have over 60 comic titles for FREE!  From comics for kids to comics for adults, we have everything you need.  

We open our doors at 11am and close at 8pm.  BUT COME EARLY!  Last year we gave away all of our titles.

Game On! Comics

310 Dominion RD NE

Vienna, VA 22180

www.GameOnComics.com 

We love Free Comic Book Day!

310 Dominion RD NE, Vienna, VA 22180 - 703-242-3838

Come visit us at Fantom Comics on Saturday... May the 4th be with you. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Costume Contests Featuring cosplay chameleon Pastel Moon as a guest judge! DC Conspiracy Creators Troy-Jeffrey Allen & Matt Rawson: Members of local comics collective DC Conspiracy will talk with fans and hand out free copies of Magic Bullet #6. Glen Weldon Author of Superman The Unathorized Biography will be on hand to celebrate Free Comic Book Day with Fantom What? Did you say "Free Comics"???? That's right. Check out the schedule of events throughout the day to celebrate the greatest comic book holiday ever invented. Come visit Fantom Comics, walk away with a bunch of free comics, and take advantage of our fantastic sale!!! Save 10% on all Graphic Novels! (except Volume 1's of GN series - on those you save 20%!!!)  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2013 Fantom Comics, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have supported Fantom Comics in the past by purchasing digital comics through our website. Our mailing address is: Fantom Comics 50 Massachusetts Ave NE Union Station - Mezzanine Level Washington, DC 20002

After the success of Awesome Con, we've still got a lot of comic-related events going on this weekend too. Iron Man 3 opens on Friday, and it's already been bigger than The Avengers in Europe.

Free Comic Book Day is on Saturday, and local comic book stores will have a selection of the 52 comics that were published this year. Big Planet Comics, our largest local chain, will have eight cartoonists spread between its four locations including Steve Artley, Michael Cowgill, Matt Dembicki, Andrew Cohen, Evan Keeling, Art Hondros, John Gallagher, and John Staton. Most of the cartoonists are in the DC Conspiracy co-op or have work in the book District Comics and the new free comics newspaper, Magic Bullet #6. Other cartoonists from the two publications include Troy-Jeffery Allen and Matt Rawson (along with Superman historian Glen Weldon) at Fantom Comics in Union Station and Rafer Roberts and John Shine at Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg. According to editor Carolyn Belefski, the issue is almost 'sold-out' so pick one up this weekend and get it signed as well.  Carolyn and her co-author Joe Carabeo will be at Laughing Ogre comics in Fairfax. Local comic critic Glen Weldon has suggestions about the comics for you on NPR.

Ranging a bit further afield Jacob Warrenfeltz will be at Third Eye Comics in Annapolis. Jacob had planned to have a special new publication, but now tells us "'Bella & Bunny Man Bridge' is a short 8-page mini comic that Zarmina Sulaiman and I  came up with.  It's a cute, kid friendly story about a fluffy white dog and her cool cat sidekick as they brave the adventure of investigating Clifton VA's "Bunny Man Bridge".  Our plan was to have this ready for Free Comic Book Day.  Unfortunately we aren't going to have the book back from the printer in time, so the next opportunity to get your hands on this new mini comic will be the DC Zine Fest, which is happening on July 20." Rounding out our list of local cartoonists, Steve Conley and Frank Cho will be appearing at Cards, Comics & Collectibles in Riestertown, Md along with Adam Kubert.

On Sunday, you can attend the world premiere of the musical Big Nate at Adventure Theater in Glen Echo, MD. Lincoln Peirce, the comic strip creator (and a close personal friend of Wimpy Kid's Jeff Kinney) will be at the play and signing books.

Also on Sunday, Marc Tyler Nobleman will be speaking about Batman co-creator Bill Finger at the Washington Hebrew Congregation (3935 Macomb St, NW) from 10:30-12:00 and signing copies of his book Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

Again, further afield, Kevin 'Kal' Kallaugher will be speaking at the Walters Museum in Baltimore at 2 pm to launch his new book, Daggers Drawn. The Express has an interview.

And I've interviewed most of the cartoonists mentioned here (and many others) if you want to study up before meeting them.

May 4 – Free Comic Book Day – With EIGHT creators!

Saturday, May 4 is the 11th annual Free Comic Book Day! There are around 50 comics being given away this year, and we are proud to have EIGHT comics creators as guests this year!
All four stores! All day! (College Park is open til 7)
Bring your friends!
A list of the comics this year:
http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/981

Vienna store –
S. G. Artley (Exiles of Nod)
Michael Cowgill (Lil' P.I.)
Matt Dembicki (XOC)

U Street store –
Andrew Cohen (A Mutual Feeling)
Evan Keeling (Codename: Fifinella)

Bethesda store -
Art Hondros (Notes from the Cave Walls)
John Gallagher (Buzzboy)

College Park store -
John Staton (Empowered)

(Due to a family conflict, Ben Hatke will not be appearing)
For more information and a list of what comics we will be giving away for free, please check out the Free Comic Book Day webpage!

Ghostbusters at Big Planet Comics Vienna for Free Comic Book Day

In their recent podcast (#44), Jared Smith, one of the chain's owners said, "Of the four Big Planet stores, almost all of us ran out of almost every book we had. We certainly got more people than we expected, based on our ordering numbers, and College Park and Vienna both had their best sales days ever. So it wasn't just like we gave away a lot of free stuff - we sold a huge amount of stuff to people."

According to Joel Pollack, Big Planet Bethesda had a line of people waiting when the store opened at 11 am, and the line wrapped through the store for over an hour. By mid-afternoon, he was out of free comics.

From Big Planet Comics:

Free Comic Book Day Approacheth!

Next Saturday, May 5, is the annual Free Comic Book Day! As always, all of our stores are participating, so stop by and get some free comics! It's also a great time to bring your friends or children in too! We have been receiving our free comic books over the last few weeks, and there are a LOT this year. Avengers, DC New 52, Simpsons, Mega Man, a HARDCOVER from Archaia, Serenity, Star Wars, Yo Gabba Gabba, Adventure Time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spider-Man, and more! You can see the full list of free comics at freecomicbookday.com

We are also having signings at two of our stores in conjunction with Free Comic Book Day. Jeremy Whitley and Jorge Aguirre, who both write great all ages comics (Princeless and Giants Beware!) will be at our Vienna store from 11-1 and our College Park store from 3-5. They will be signing copies of their comics, and happy to talk to young fans and readers too! More information is below.

We might also have a few special guests (like the Ghostbusters!)

- the Big Planet Comics kids

UPCOMING May 5 - Free Comic Book Day & Jeremy Whitley & Jorge Aguirre Signing

Free Comic Book Day is just a few weeks away! Bring your friends, we have a lot of great comics to give away this year! To see the complete list, go to freecomicbookday.com!

In addition, we are proud to present 2 great comic book writers, who have just published some great all-ages fantasy adventure comics! Jeremy Whitley writes Princeless, and Jorge Aguirre writes Giants Beware! They will be appearing at our Vienna and College Park stores.

11 am-1 pm
Big Planet Comics of Vienna
426 Maple Ave. East
Vienna, VA 22180
703-242-9412
vienna@bigplanetcomics.com

3 pm-5 pm
Big Planet Comics of College Park
7315 Baltimore Ave.
College Park, MD 20740
301-699-0498
bigplanetcollegepark@yahoo.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Beyond Comics:

This year’s Free Comic Book Day will be Saturday, May 5th.


We will be giving away tons of comic books and other freebies. Meet comic book artists including Dean Haspiel, Mark Whealty, Carla Speed McNeil, Rafer Roberts, Terry Flippo, Megan Steckler and Nathan Richardson.

Also meet an abundance of costumed heroes! Fun for kids of all ages!

Gaithersburg Artists:  Dean Haspiel, Carla Speed McNeil, Casey Jones and Nathan Richardson from 11am to 4pm.

Frederick Artists:  Mark Wheatley, Rafer Roberts, Megan Steckler, and Terry Flippo.

Gaithersburg Store

18794 B North Frederick Rd
Gaithersburg, MD
(301) 216-0007
Hours: M,Tu 11-8; W-Sat 10-9; Sun 12-6

Frederick Store
5632 Route 85
Frederick, MD
(301) 668-8202

Hours: M,Tu 10-8; W-Sat 10-9; Sun 12-6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Game On! Comics

Saturday, May 5th from 11am to 6pm

Come out to Game On! Comics for Free Comic Book Day! Once per year, comic shops around the country give out comics for free.

We will have a great selection of comic books for you and your friends, for FREE. LOTS of children's comics!

Over 40 titles! One Free Thor Heroclix! Widest variety of comics available in our area!

Super-Hero appearances throughout the day!! Starting around 12 noon till 3ish

Batgirl
Sabretooth
A G.I. Joe
Flash
Phoenix

Artist Appearance: 11am to 6pm

Tim Dzon!
Tim has worked on many comics over the years including these:
Avengers West Coast
Avengers Spotlight
What If..
Marvel Comics Presents
Fantastic Four Unplugged
Spiderman Unlimited
Hawkeye Mini-Series
Northstar Mini-Series
WarMachine
Ironman

Tim will be here to sign autographs and even draw commisioned pieces just for you, for an extra cost.

Louis the Magician

11:30am to 12:30pm
Louis the Magician will be performing close up magic in the lobby for the kids!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

BAMN Comics - free downloadable comic from local creators Jay Payne, Troy Jeffrey Allen and David Dean on May 5th at http://www.bamncan.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Third Eye Comics in Annapolis:
THIS SATURDAY IS ALSO FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2012 and THIRD EYE'S 4th ANNIVERSARY!


Yes, it's our favorite day of the year, in fact, this is why we chose it as the day of our big grand opening celebration. FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Every year, we work hard to bring you guys the best Free Comic Book Day on the East Coast, and this year, we've pulled out all the stops. A huge sale, loads of special guest creators, Stormtroopers!, and so much more!

Click here to get the full rundown of what we have shaking at BOTH Third Eye locations this Saturday for FCBD 2012!

On FCBD, a neighbor and I loaded up his minivan with kids - my 9-year-old daughter, a friend of hers, and his 7 and 4-year old daughters. We cruised into the city on 14th St, and drove right past Big Monkey Comics' new home. They had formerly been in Georgetown, but moved in March to 1722-B 14th St, NW (202-333-8650). The store has a couple of signs, and a monkey on the 2nd floor window. After going up a narrow stairway, we got into the store which was fairly crowded with a twenty-something average customer. The free comics were set up in the back room where the new comics racks are - the kids (and adults) each got to pick 3 comics and they also were giving away sets of bagged back issues. The kids all went out into the small hallway and started reading their comics while I took a quick look around. I'd say the store has less stock than it did on Wisconsin Avenue, but it has a little more space, some of which was being used for a table for a Heroclix game. The staff was friendly, and all wore FCBD shirts that made them easily identifiable.

The kids continued reading in the van and we cruised over to Georgetown to visit Big Planet's Dumbarton Street store. Store owner Peter's known me for years, and let the kids pick up some more comics while not holding me to the store's limit of 10 freebies. However I dropped a hundred on sale books and toys, so I think he came out ahead. The store continues to have a good range of collections and indy material - perhaps the best selection of the three stores. There was a good crowd here too and Peter was happy with the turnout.

The girls continued reading in the car. My daughter's friend was most taken with Fantagraphics' Peanuts - she reads the comics in the newspaper when she can. My daughter gets comics regularly so was a bit more jaded, and I'm not sure what the neighbors daughters were reading, although the 4-year-old passed out on the ride anyway. Both stores carried the DC Conspiracy's mini-comic as well and I picked up one for Michigan State University's Comic Art Collection which I'd encourage all 17 of my readers to donate to.

Reports from the field are coming in:

FCBD '07 was a rousing success. We saw over 400 people, and no one got fewer than 10 comics apiece. In previous years, we always had plenty of comics left over for the Taste of Bethesda, but this year, we were out by 4 PM. The 501st Battalion volunteered to chaperon us, and attracted the attentions of shoppers at the nearby farmer's market. We made a lot of folks happy sharing the joy of comics, and our sales increased by 15% for the best non-sale day in our history.

--Joel
--

Joel Pollack
-=--=-=--=--
BIG PLANET COMICS
4908 Fairmont Ave. Bethesda, MD 20814
301-654-6856

Also affiliated with:
BIG PLANET COMICS
3145 Dumbarton St. NW
Washington, DC 20007

BIG PLANET COMICS
426 Maple Ave. East
Vienna, VA 22180

Richard Thompson has a hilarious sendup of Free Comic Book Day that about 37 readers of the Post will get and appreciate. In their continuing effort to combat e-piracy, the Post hasn't put it online yet, although you can see last week's panel.

Meanwhile a few other strips in the Post are worth noting today (that's the May 5th strips).

Bud Grace goes for a dose of reality in the Piranha Club.

Bill Griffith's History of the washing machine in Zippy was just lovely.

Pearls before Swine breaks the 4th wall in a graphically-amusing way.

Speaking of graphic, what's the deal with yesterday's Baldo? First his aunt walks in on him naked in the bathroom and seems to suggest a Red Hot Chili Peppers fashion, and then we get this strip. Am I reading too much into this or is there a "size of his dick" joke here? For Better or For Worse had a PMS joke today, and Brewster Rockit had a fart joke with spiderwebs coming out of a character's ass (a Spider-Man 3 tip of the hat).

Finally on Monday, two diametrically-opposed cartoonists ran similar strips on the Virginia Tech murders right next to each other: Prickly City vs Candorville.

Ok, there's 28 comics in all - see http://www.freecomicbookday.com and good luck.

Things to look out for in my opinion - Gumby, the new Eddie Campbell from 01:02, Image's Wolfman, the Unseen Peanuts from Fantagraphics, Lynda Barry from D&Q; Oni's Whiteout and especially Top Shelf's Owly and Korgi.

Big Planet, at least in Bethesda, is giving out a nice prepared package of kid's comics.

Big Planet in Vienna is rumored to be visited by storm troopers.

TwoMorrows is not local, but they are uploading some of their excellent magazines for free:

Who says you can't get something for nothing? On Free Comic Book Day (this Saturday, May 5), stop in your local comic book shop and ask for a free copy of Comics 101, our new primer created just for the event. If they don't have any, then order yours at our webstore (http://www.twomorrows.com) by Sunday, and it'll only cost you enough to cover our printing and postage costs. After Sunday, we're going to start charging more for it, to help recoup our expenses (but it'll still be a bargain!).Also, this weekend only, you can download FREE PDF COMPLETE ISSUES of the following mags, just by logging in and putting them in your shopping cart:
Alter Ego #65
Back Issue #21
Jack Kirby Collector #47
Write Now #14
Draw #12
Rough Stuff #3
Because of contractual obligations, we can only give these away this Saturday and Sunday, and then we've got to take them down. So if you're never sampled all of our mags, here's your chance to try an ENTIRE ISSUE, absolutely FREE! Go get 'em, and
enjoy!

Best regards,
John Morrow
TwoMorrows
10407 Bedfordtown Dr.
Raleigh, NC
27614919-449-0344
fax 919-449-0327

Next Saturday, the day after Spider-Man 3 opens, will be the 6th annual Free Comic Book Day. Simply present yourself at a comic book store and pick up the freebies. I know Big Planet is participating. Anyone else in the area?