Adventure day!

[sorcyress]

(I told him I was taking the photo for my mom, and he replied with "Tell her Happy Mother's Day!" When I did, mom replied with this text: "BEST Mother's Day greeting EVAHR!!!". I think I am the best child this year, even if I am a week early.)

Last year on Free Comic Book Day, I was in California. There's nothing wrong with this in and of itself, but it did mean I couldn't go to ALL THE COMIC SHOPS. This year I was happily home in Somerville, and I traveled only about five miles round trip which meant I got to hit up four separate comic shops (and I forgot about Newbury Comics completely, though I heard they were out by the time I was adventuring).

Furthermore, this was the first year I've ever been even remotely employed for Free Comic Book Day. I wisely set myself a spending limit of NO MORE than ten dollars per store, packed a sandwich and a folder to put comics in and my bike stuff, and went on my merry way.

It proved to be a very satisfying haul indeed.



These are the things I paid money for. All of them were gotten for half off or better, through various sales. Comicazi (in Davis Square) had a whole huge table of 5$ trades, which very near killed me, but I settled for just getting a giant volume of SheHulk (it's got a whopping 25 issues in it!!) and that volume of Dreamer. Dreamer's one of those webcomics I keep meaning to read and then getting distracted, so hopefully my having a physical copy will help me out.

I didn't wind up buying anything at Million Year Picnic, since I'm currently pretty full up on comics I need (and trying to resist heavily fullprice comics I merely *want* because a person can go broke awfully fast like that). But then at New England Comics, I found that little Gary the Pirate book in the dinged-and-cheap kids book pile. It looks cute, and despite the title, flipping through it implies that the main character is female. Yes, this is good.

Then off to Hub, which is the best around here (although that's a hard title to earn), where they very cleverly had a special where the first book of various good graphic novel series was 50% off. So I picked up Morning Glories, another one that I keep seeing around and I've been meaning to get into. I also grabbed the first issues of The Losers from the 1$ rack, even though mom owns the collected trade.

Full cost, for four trades and one single? 21$. Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price? 61$. I fully feel like I came out ahead in this adventure.



Especially because, oh yeah, Free Comic Book Day means FREE COMIC BOOKS! I wound up with three or four from each place (exception: Comicazi because they had nothing but superhero comics available, boooo!). There's a nice mix of kids comics and not in there, and hopefully some of them will prove enjoyable.

Those art prints in the back came from Million Year Picnic and a guy named Jay Kennedy who's part of the Boston Comics Roundtable. I slipped him a couple bucks in exchange for a dinosaur sketch, for my boss collection. Glee!

Complete list:
Wizard School, which Jay recommended I pick up. Yet another webcomic I've been meaning to read.
The Stuff of Legend From a previous year, as Hub had run out of this year's supply by the time I got there. The man putting out comics thrust it into my hands with a "here, I think you'll enjoy this". Who am I to argue?
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell I will probably not enjoy this more than I would Archie, but I will enjoy it damnit!
Legendary Talespinners New England Comics always does "take two of the traditional free comics and then two random real comics from our box of stuff to get rid of". This is from the latter box, and appears to have flying monkeys and a pirate on the cover. I'm okay with investigating further.
Madam Mirage The other one from that box. Noir-ish woman with a gun and a barely-there dress. Sometimes, I'm only in it for the cheesecake on the cover.
Molly Danger And sometimes I'm in it because the cover has a pigtailed (young?) female protagonist on it wearing what seems to be sensible clothing. And crucially, having just skimmed it, there's also a short in there from some comic called "PrinceLess" which is about princesses rescuing themselves and getting into fights with knights and oh my god, my feminist heart just exploded in sparkly glee gimmie gimmie gimmie GIMMIE!
UglyDoll Comics because how can I resist these babies?
Rasl Oh hello, you are by Jeff Smith, he wrote Bone, yes, I will get a copy of this, oh yes.
Mind MGMT The cover said something about Dolphin Assassins and that was everything I needed to grab it. Even when the shop is limiting you to only two or three of their twelve offerings, Dolphin Assassins rank.
Robots! which appears to be a zine about robots. Yes, good!

And best of all?



Jeff Mcclelland, who apparently does art for The Tick comics, was on hand at the Harvard Square New England Comics. He signed my free Tick comic, and gave the titular hero a rather cunning disguise. I can hardly recognize him anymore!

After I was done terrorizing the local comic book shops, I headed over to Artisan's Asylum, to sample a small taste of Somerville Open Studios. I spent some time chatting with Sparr, and lots of time wandering around and looking at beautiful art that I could never in a million years afford (and okay, some really gorgeous stuff that maybe someday I can afford too).

There was a dude with duct tape sculpture (a Serenity and an @-@), there were some spectacular jewelrymakers (including ridiculously fine (as in tiny) chainmail and 3D printed earrings), there was origami remade out of steel, a gentleman who had put up a comic called Schrodinger's Pussy ("an adult comic with adult math" --oh gods please yes), El-wire and leather and metal steampunk wings, and lots of other things that I forgot to get cards for.

Oh yes, and a new project in the vein of magnetic poetry called Magnet Comic. It consists of dry erase panels you put on your fridge, and an assortment of little faces and expressions and props you can use to fill in the comic. I want a set quite badly, and will probably plop down the thirty bucks required relatively soon.

Also, a friend of Sparr's was selling off her jewelry stock, as she no longer does jewelry shows, and she had these gorgeous little bright orange earrings in the five dollar bin. I just had to get them. Hopefully, I will be able to wear them to school on Monday, they're wicked comfortable.




Anyways, it was an awesome day, and tomorrow I will likely engage in Skype-cleaning adventures with tricia868 hopefully interspersed with further Open Studios Adventures.

It's looking to be a pretty great weekend.

~Sor
MOOP!

Original Tags: comics, swag, photos

Comments

[squirrelitude]

When I visited Artisan's Asylum, I definitely spent a little time looking at Cat Tweedie Ball's copper cicadas and dividing my disposable income by the cost of one cicada...

[sorcyress]

You and me both. Those things were just *gorgeous!* I want giant copper bugs to adorn my household!

[bluecannery.livejournal.com]

The Federal Government helped fund my adventures, and the state of Vermont took my chauffeur and me out to lunch. Yay taxes!
Went to one place that was having massive clearance (75% off on tons of stuff? Like a Star Wars Saga Edition source book and Miniatures Space Battle Game? Hells to the yeah!), one place with a two-hour line, one place that wasn't celebrating, one place with Iron Man chillin', one place that was incredibly packed, and one place that was no longer enforcing limits because it was late in the day and they had tons of leftover freebies. And then, when I got home, I was officially hired for Barn Director this summer. Excellent day.
Also, Stuff of Legend? I enjoy that series immensely. And Princeless is fantastic, having started out on the webz.
And also, if you ever get the chance to meet Spike, creator of Templar, Arizona, and she's fantastic and I bought one of her collections on a whim and she drew a picture of an apatasaurus with a party hat in the front cover and she's really nice.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I have met Spike! She once drew me a triceratops on the way to her first ballet recital! Great stuff.

My favourite comic she's done is actually this one: Playing With Dolls. It is dramatic and silly and excellent and hasn't been updated in like ten years. Sigh!

~Sor