Free Comic Book Day 2013.

Free Comic Book Day was the biggest so far at my LCS. Chaos City Comics in St Albans (www.chaoscitycomics.com) had a line almost out to the main road by 9.30am this morning.  It seems that the UK is really getting hold of this event.

The shop was like the first day of the Harrod's New Year Sale. The staff (Derek, Luke and James) did some sterling work throughout the day (and especially at the start when it was like a rugby scrum). Great to see a lot of families who were there. Over the last year there hae been a lot of younger readers picking up books and the future looks promising.

There were some great titles for all ages and I limited myself to the books I wanted and the books I was getting for some friends and their kids. (If only some other people thought the same way.) I actually saw someone with so many books he was complaining that he wouldn't be able to carry them home (two of each - at least - bad form. You know who you are.) I managed to get the books I was after and pretty chuffed with them.

After about an hour the crowd begn to fade (as had most of the free books) and I realised that there was a comics artist who had popped in.  Sheldon Goh (www.sheldongoh.com ) is a comics artist from Malaysia visiting the great St Albans with his family. A great guy who rolled his sleeves up and just cracked on with some sketching. Luckily I was the first and got to spend some time chatting to him and his family. Sheldon is currently working on Wonderland for Zenescope Comics. He also has worked on Grimm Fairy Tales and a great project he was telling me about called 'Medi Kidz' that is a comics series that helps children deal with illnesses (superb idea). I urge you to check out his page, his commissions are awesome.

Saturday is Comics Club as you all surely know and I met with three of my favourite artists. Matt Harrower, Marc Laming and Luke Ridge. Marc has his most recent issue of The Activity out this week from Image Comics and it's a fucking amazing book. The art is some of the best out there by a country mile and it zips along with pace and energy. If your LCS doesn't sell it you need to nag them until they place an order. Mine is signed - so suck it!

Once again. Free Comic Book Day proves that the LCS is at it's best when part of the wider comics community. Getting comics into new hands is always important if our hobby is to survive. Today shows that the future can be pretty bright.

Oh. And I got a free T-shirt. Nice one Chaos City.

NIA.