Sunday, May 13, 2012

Freedom! Yeah!


Some lessons learned from this year's Free Comic Book Day:

1.  Anyone who complains about a lack of comics for kids is full of it.  Donald Duck, The Simpsons, Sponge Bob, Adventure Time, Yo Gabba Gabba, Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley, Zombie Kid, Superman Family, Tinkerbell and the Disney Fairies, The Smurfs, and Moomin all had FCBD offerings this year.  Factor in all-ages material like Atomic Robo and Spider-Man, and that's a ton of comic books for young readers.

2.  I don't understand licensing.  Disney owns Marvel Comics, yet the Donald Duck book was put out by Fantagraphics,
Labrynth through Archaia Comics, and Tinkerbell by a company called Papercutz.  Is there any reason why Disney doesn't just put out all their comics material through Marvel?


3.  Marvel is kicking DC's ass.  Marvel offered two new Avengers comics that were accessible to new readers, with great art by John Romita Jr and Bryan Hitch and snappy Brian Bendis dialogue.  DC offered some muddled, ugly sampler that had something to do with parallel universes, or something?  If I were a twelve-year-old today DC wouldn't even register on my radar (although I'd probably be really into that Young Justice cartoon).

4.  Free comics are the best comics.  Free Comic Book Day is awesome.  If you missed out this year definitely hit up your local comic shop next May. 

 

3 comments:

  1. 1. Fantagraphics has the linscense to Carl Barks' and Floyd Gotterson's Disney work. Hence those great collection books that came and are coming out.

    2. Disney only owns the core Muppet Show group. They do not owe Labrtynth which is still own by Henson.

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  2. And yet I still complain. Where I live, there's apparently people far more geekier than I am, and they pretty cleared out all the comics on that day, all I was stuck getting at 2 in the afternoon was the "Ultimate Spider-Man" issues they had left. The guy who worked at this show told me there were about 20 of these people who simply go all over town rounding up these issues right at opening. They never leave anything for me. :-(

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  3. Nic- I get the different licenses, I just don't understand why they don't have Marvel do it all in-house now that Disney owns its own major comic book company. Fantagraphics does tremendous work, but Marvel is no slouch either when it comes to collected editions.

    Christopher- That sucks, man. I got to read the entire haul the past couple years because I'm friends with a shop owner.. I only got to keep a couple of them for my collection. You would think that shops in your area would have set some sort of books-per-person limits if this sort of thing happens every year.

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