Free Comic Book Day

I hit four stores on Free Comic Book Day and picked up 3 freebies and some dollar-bin comics. One of the stores we went to was so crowded that we just turned around and walked out without picking anything up. There seemed to be good traffic at all the stores, which is nice. Not as many kids as I would have expected, and nothing too crazy as far as festivities go. No balloons. No costumes. No cake. Oh well.

Doctor Solar/Magnus (Dark Horse)

This was the only free super-hero comic book I was interested in, since DC was offering some War of the Supermen issue and I still can't bring myself to really care about anything Marvel does. But in retrospect, I wish I'd picked up the Iron Man/Thor issue from Marvel instead. There's no way it could've been as bland and pointless as this was. Apparently Jim Shooter is some comic book legend who started selling stories to DC when he was only 14. That's impressive, but both of these stories were terrible.

Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock (Archaia)

I don't really know anything about Mouse Guard, written and drawn by David Petersen, but I got it because the art was so beautiful. Apparently there are a couple of mini-series before this, and two more are launching in May and September. I might be curious enough to check some of these out. This short one-shot was pretty low on story, but the drawings really are amazing and make me want to read more. There's no dialogue, only narration, which makes this almost more of a storybook than a comic. I wonder if this is a technique that is used in all the Mouse Guard books, or if the other ones include speech bubbles.

I didn't read the Fraggle Rock side of the book. I skimmed through it and it seems like an alright book for kids, but it's a strange pairing, as Mouse Guard seems to be aimed at a completely different age group.

The Sixth Gun (Oni Press)

This is a complete first issue of a new series written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Brian Hurtt. It's definitely the more substantial of the free comics I got. It's a kind of supernatural western about a gun with mystical powers. It's a pretty good first issue and I enjoyed it. If I was more interested in the genre (or if I had unlimited funds) I would probably buy the next few issues to see where the story goes. I recommend you check it out if you're a fan of the genre, but for me, unfortunately, there's just too many other books I plan to spend my money on.

Hawk and Dove mini-series (DC Comics)

This wasn't free. I got this 5-part mini-series from the discounted dollar bin, meaning they were only about 75 cents per issue. I have no idea if it's going to be any good, but it wasn't much of an investment so I figured it was worth the risk. I'm interested in these characters because they're going to be featured in the new Birds of Prey series that Gail Simone is writing. I haven't read this yet, so I'll report back later.