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Comics Are Dope

Free Comic Book Day was Worth Every Penny (and then some)

Published 12 months ago • 1 min read

What's up family?

I trust you had a great Free Comic Book Day weekend. Or at least, I hope you did. I spent the morning at my LCS, Ultimate Comics Raleigh, where after a brief snafu (I'll let you watch the recap video for the full story), we got dozens of people served with Free Comics just in the first hour. There were cosplayers, nerds, kids dressed as cosplayers... it was truly a sight to behold and made me feel proud of my place in this wonderful fandom.

Free Comic Book Day is always a fun event, but how were the books? As you know, most Free Comic Book Day titles are just teasers for things to come. After reading a few, here's what I'm excited about:

  • Titan Comics is launching a new Conan The Barbarian title, written by Jim Zub with art by Rob De La Torre. The FCBD preview was really good, so I'm really looking forward to the full series hitting stands in July.
  • Gerry Duggan is penning an Uncanny Avengers series for Marvel starting in August, that smartly picks up on one of my favorite threads from his current X-Men run. It's a shame the Kieron Gillen led events have overshadowed what has been a really solid X-Men title, but maybe this will get Duggan his just due.
  • Just when I thought I was ready to drop The Amazing Spider-Man, they tease a really interesting storyline featuring Kraven The Hunter and Doc Ock. I'm not committing unless Patrick Gleason is continuing on artwork. (Please, hold me to this lol)
  • While I'm not quite sold on Carnage Reigns, Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch might have the MUST-READ event of the summer in Ultimate Invasion. If you're a Miles Morales fan, you'll need front row tickets for this one.

As you can see, Marvel is really playing up the House of Ideas moniker with a little something for every type of comic fan. (I didn't even mention the teaser for Hickman and Schiti's GODS Miniseries.)

Meanwhile, DC Comics is really hoping you like Horror enough to grab one of 50(!) tie-ins to the Knight Terrors event this summer. I'll probably grab the Batman and Detective Comics tie-ins, but I'm not particularly happy about it.

No matter what your tastes are, it's safe to say that Summer 2023 will be a great time to be a comic fan. See any potential new favorites on this list? Let me know in a reply to this e-mail so we can chat it up.

Peace & Love,

BJ KICKS

Comics Are Dope

BJ KICKS

Celebrating everything Dope about comics. Curated by BJ KICKS.

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