The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day, as in the day when all participating comics shops offer a ton of free samplers to entice people into reading more comics. How many you get depends on your local shop’s personal policies — some will only let you take five, some limit it to three, while others have no limit. Keep in mind these “free” comics actually cost them money — they’re counting on you actually buying something while you’re there, so open that wallet if you want to support them properly.
This coming Saturday there will be over 30 separate Free Comic Book Day offerings to pick from. Since we can’t see their innards, we can’t make any true recommendations, but judging these books by their covers, here’s what we found most interesting:
The Netflix anime adaption of Trese is actually already out, and not only that, it’s been out for over a year. Netflix offered zero promotion for the show (shocking, right?) and given the state of the place these days, don’t bet on a Season Two. But you can sort of get more — in the form of the Filipino comic that inspired it. Trese is a supernatural investigator.
We’ll take any comic with the brushy Avatar logo on it, good or bad — it’s still going to be a long time before Paramount+ can grace us with any new animated content. The official description doesn’t reveal what happens in either the Aang or Korra side of the comic, but mentions both the writing and art are by Meredith McClaren.
Oh – Bloodborne’s got its own comic now! You know what would REALLY spike sales, though? An Elden Ring comic….which we expect in about two years, after everybody’s moved on from it. That’s the peril with video game licensing — it’s hard to hit a trend square-on.
The best Archie comic EVER? That’s a bold proclamation to make, guys. As the logo in the corner implies, you’re weighing that statement against 80 years of back stories — one of those is bound to be better, isn’t it? The cover offers glimpses from Archie’s many careers: rock singer (The Archies), secret agent (The Man From RIVERDALE), superhero (Pureheart the Powerful), caveman (Archie 1), and so forth.
It’s kind of sad, the rut Big Corporate Comics are in — having to goose sales by desperately rebooting everything every six months and making every issue #1. You are no doubt very familiar with the “kill off a hero, except not really” bit. DC’s Dark Crisis takes this to its logical extreme by killing EVERYONE. The entire Justice League is now dead and their proteges and offspring are left to defend Earth. It actually sounds like an interesting plot, but you just know it won’t matter in the end, no matter how it changes everything.
Why is there no title on this cover? I actually have no idea what this comic is called, but it sounds interesting:
“It’s Sleepy Hollow meets queer romance from the co-creator of Lumberjanes! Izzy Crane is new to Sleepy Hollow, and already sick of the town’s hokey obsession with Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She has no time for superstition with a new school, a new home, and a new crush on Vicky Van Tassel, a.k.a. the town’s teen royalty, descended from one of the families featured in the famous old story. When it turns out that the Headless Horseman might be more than just a story though, it’s up to Izzy, Vicky, and class clown Oscar to uncover a sinister, centuries-old plot… and they’ve only got ‘til Halloween to put a stop to it!”
You may not believe me, but that is the very first Stranger Things comic by Dark Horse to have Eleven on its cover. And they’ve had this license for over five years. In fact, it’s one of an extremely small number to have the series star involved in the story in any way. It baffles me as much as you. My assumption has always been that Millie Bobby Brown’s agent demanded ten million dollars a page for her likeness, but….apparently not, if they can give this one out for free. What is the deal then, DH?
There’s never been a more uncool time to be a Buffy fan! Reminisce, in yearbook format, over 20 years of fan favorite moments from the series, the spinoffs, the many different comics and more, and try not to think about Whedon treating the cast and crew like disposable diapers. Every popular IP you love will eventually be dragged into the ground by scandals — enjoy them while you can.
