Since 2002, the first Saturday in May has been declared Free Comic Book Day at comic book retailers across America in an effort to promote business. In 2018, Free Comic Book Day fell on Saturday, May 5. Independent comic stores in Atlanta, including Oxford Comics, My Parent’s Basement and Criminal Records, held special events to support the event.
At Criminal Records in Little Five Points, SCAD sequential arts fourth-year students Julia Hagerty, Logan Hendry, Ahmara Smith and Alyxandra White set up their convention tables. “It’s really fun! I’m doing better than at SCAD Day,” said Smith, referring to the Micro-Mini-Convention the sequential arts department holds on SCAD Days.
Criminal Records is a shop that sells comics, music records and CDs. When the doors opened for the event, the line of people waiting was around the block. Sequential arts fourth-year student Amanda Semler was volunteering to help with the crowd of customers. At Criminal Records, the sequential arts students sold mini-comics, prints and other goods for the duration of the event. In addition to their prints, buttons and mini-comics, Smith also offered free sketches to children and friends.
Criminal Records offered customers 10 free comic books — though by the time my friends and I arrived two hours after the event began, they had run out of two of the 10 free comics completely. From the eight single issues I acquired, my personal favorites were “Silver #1″ by Stephen Franck (Dark Planet) and “Street Angel’s Dog” by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca. Along with the stack of free comics, I also took the opportunity to purchase the first volumes of several series I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t gotten around to.
When we arrived at Criminal Records, we ran into more SCAD students browsing through the store and chatted with our classmates. “The experience of Free Comic Book Day was a new one for me but was totally worth getting outside the house! I could also support other artists selling at their tables which is always a nice find,” said first-year illustration student Dominique Ramsey.
Free Comic Book Day is an excellent opportunity to support not only comic book retailers, but local cartoonists as well. Next year, I hope to participate as a seller. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity next year to find new comics to read and new artists to support.
