Thursday, May 7, 2015

Weekend Review: Free Comic Book Day 2015 // Star Wars Day 2015

Along with the new Avengers movie opening on Friday night, this past weekend was a pretty big one for nerds and fanboys as it began with Free Comic Book Day on Saturday and concluded with Star Wars Day on Monday.   Now, I know that these have been back to back before and that Star Wars Day has also fallen on FCBD as well, but having them with that buffer day in between seems like the best way to spend your weekend and so that is what we did.

Mistakenly I thought that this would be my first Free Comic Book Day in Connecticut, but then I remembered that I used to go to FCBD here before moving to Houston and back.  Of course that was back when there was a comic book shop in Meriden (Well, technically two even) but since moving back to CT I've found that the comic book shops are few and far between here now.    Never did I long more for Houston and Bedrock City than I did on Saturday during FCBD.    Last year, we tried to make it to FCBD at Heroes and Hitters, a comic book shop we found because it was within walking distance of a hotel we lived in for a month (long story), but we ended up there too late for a variety of reasons and that left us empty handed.

This year we vowed to make it there on time and try to bring back some of that former glory of years past in Houston at Bedrock City.   But it was simply not meant to be.   Heroes and Hitters, for all of their greatness, is simply a small space and not capable of handling FCBD the way that Bedrock City did.    There were groups of people simply "hanging out", which tended to get in the way, and though they had a cake to celebrate the table for the cake was directly across from the register, creating a sort of drift between those actually in line waiting to pay for something and those who simply wanted to feed their morning sugar craving.

There exists some steps in Heroes and Hitters though, and when you go up them you find a table full of comic books which are neither the free ones for the day.   So why not simply put the free comic books for the day on said table and even maybe have the cake up there?  Or keep the free comic books at the register and then have the cake at least up on the second story, so as to create the illusion there is more space than there actually is.    It seriously felt like for all of their space, we were simply all crammed into a corner of it which made very little sense to me.

If you were trying to browse their selection- as everything in the store was 25% off for the day- you had to push through people who were seemingly just standing around or looking at shelves themselves.   More than once though I did have to excuse myself through someone who was only there to seemingly hang out and, no, I'm not talking about the "helpers" they had working there either.     So amidst all of this chaos that would make even the least claustrophobic person feel uncomfortable, we get to the part of the comic books themselves.

I haven't been to a comic book shop since last year for FCBD, as I like to order things online, but everything I know about the current state of comic books- that is to say most anything I was interested in checking out/buying- was simply not to be found.   Though I did want to take part in the sale and help a small business, so we did end up buying four $9.99 books which came out to really buying three and getting the fourth for free.   I bought the first three volumes of "Chew" because I've only been able to read the first one thus far and we bought a Super Hero Squad book for our three year old.

Now, when my wife was trying to find something for our three year old to look at she was in the section where the Super Hero Squad book came from and was looking for something similar but perhaps in DC form.   I told her to ask an employee but apparently I was wrong to do so because the employee simply pointed to where we had already been and offered no new information.   Just for the record, an employee at Bedrock City would have walked to the section with us, told us about various titles available for kids (As I remember the store, they had a larger section of "for kids" comic books) and then if we still were unable to find something we wanted they would have offered to order something for us at the very least.

At the registers, we found the comic books currently available for free.   I had looked online and had a few in mind I wanted, but Heroes and Hitters said online they were staggering the books throughout the day to avoid all of the good titles being gone so quickly like years past I suppose (or simply to avoid the rush of everyone coming right when they opened)    I picked up the Teen Titans Go book as well as the Scooby Doo-DC team up only to realize when we got in the car that they were the same issue just different sides of the covers.    Why would you have these laid out like this or at least not saying something to the person as they were checking out about them being the same (A simple "Hey, you got two of the same here you know") is beyond me but it just goes to show what kind of experience this was.  

My wife made me grab an issue for Avatar (the show, not the Disney movie with blue aliens) and the only others they had out at the time were all for the typical Marvel nonsense.   No Bob's Burgers.  No Fight Club.   Not even The Tick.  Nothing I was looking forward to, just a handful of issues with one of them being disguised as two.    Wow.   This might have been more disappointing than last year when we showed up and everything was already gone.

Granted, the books we paid for were a good deal though if I was to search eBay or Amazon/Barnes and Noble sales I probably could have pulled off something similar.   So this just raises the question of what to do for Free Comic Book Day next year.   This year we were trying to avoid the mistakes of last year by being late.   Next year I'm going to just be looking for a new comic book shop to visit.    I'm actually seriously considering planning a week long vacation to Houston around it just so I can spend it in Bedrock City once again.

Now if you go into Heroes and Hitters on a week day I'm sure they are nothing but the best, as was our experience when we were briefly living in Rocky Hill.   That's why were wanted to spend FCBD there last year and this year-- they are, simply put, the best comic book shop we have found thus far in CT.   Don't take this as a rant against them but rather a sense of longing by me, a time when my feelings of missing Houston have intensified because I am not quite fully ready to accept this change (and I very well might never be)



On Sunday, we made our way to The Lego Store in the Westfarms Mall to participate in their Star Wars themed Lego sale which took place all weekend.   We had originally planned on going there on Saturday as well, but it felt like too much at once and on Sunday we would be in the general area of The Lego Store anyway as we were planning on spending the afternoon at the Rock Cats game so it just kind of worked out.

The Lego Store was giving out paper helmets for kids to wear in honor of Star Wars Day and there was a sort of search and find puzzle you could complete and get stickers to decorate said helmet.   This seemed like a lot of fun, very kid friendly, and in addition to the normal Legos on display to play with there were also additional Star Wars bricks about.   We actually lucked out a few months back and got a bunch of Star Wars Legos from Savers in a grab bag for a ridiculous price, so were really just looking to build upon that.

I actually really wanted a set with Ewoks in it, but the only one available was $249.99.  I was talking with an employee about it and he said that they did have a smaller set with Ewoks some years back and it will most likely come back again in upcoming years as well.   I ended buying a Lego Ewok keychain- which doesn't break apart- but my son plays with it as if it was a normal mini-figure.    The same employee also said he went to the back to see if they had any loose Ewoks and even though they didn't he still gave us a free Jawa mini-fig which pretty much made my son's day.

There was a mini-figure you could get for free by purchasing $50 or more worth of Star Wars Legos, but we weren't about to do that.   We did however pick up a small set and as such got a free poster for "A New Hope" with the Star Wars characters on it and, yes, even if you had to spend $20 or $30 to get the free poster it was most definitely worth it.  (We're also Lego V.I.P. members, so when you spend you get points which turn into money you can spend there, so it all works out in that way as well)

I must also mention that we visited The Disney Store in the Westfarms Mall on Sunday and they didn't really have any sales going on for Star Wars (Probably just on Monday, the actual 4th), so it was kind of a wasted venture.   It seems like the more we go to The Lego Store the more we end up buying and the more we go to The Disney Store the less we end up buying.    Yet we continue to go to The Disney Store simply because it is there.

        So next year will definitely be interesting.   As our son gets older, he will be into more comic books and things than he was even this year (And he *LOVES* flipping through the pages of the Super Hero Squad book he got) and so FCBD will seem like a bigger deal to him.    What we will do for FCBD exactly remains up in the air at this point as we have a little under a year now to figure it out, but we might even just go back to Heroes and Hitters should that be our fate.   We shall see, but it does make for an exciting time next year, though it will be some time before we see this set up of FCBD and then Star Wars Day two days later again.






































17 comments:

  1. Sounds like you made out well on FCBD at Heroes & Hitters. Not sure why a small store being super crowded would prompt a negative review. For a mom-and-pop shop that's been alive and well for 26 years, I would think you would be happy for them and not critical that they were so jam packed with people. Sorry CT stores aren't as magnificent as your Houston shops, and sorry you didn't get your mitts on ALL the Free Comic Books offered by the industry. You do know the shop owners have to actually PAY for these books. It costs them hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to satisfy as many customers as you saw on that one day. Having said that, the shop owners had a larger selection of comics, including Bongo, Bob's Burgars and Tick, but had to dole them out throughout the day so they wouldn't all be gone in the first hour. You see, what this store does that others don't is allow people to take more than one or two books, and what happens is many people come in right when the doors open and take one of each, leaving none of many of the smaller stacks for anyone else. If your goal was to sweep in, grab and go, then, yes, you missed out on some books. But if your goal was to hang out and enjoy the party, as many people did, then you would have found more to satisfy you. You could have also asked the person behind the counter, and I'm sure if it was one of the owners, they would have been happy to find you more. As far as being upset that one book was disguised as two, who cares. The shop owners didn't do that, the industry did. So you picked up two copies of the same book. Big deal. It was free and there was no limit to the amount you could take, so it's not like you missed out on anything. There was cake and balloons and comic book fans and free books and a great sale. You may have been able to get Chew trades for a better price on Amazon, but you couldn't get silver-age Hawkman #1 for a better price. And isn't it about supporting the small brick and mortar shops and not the juggernaut virtual stores with which small shops can't compete! I would think you would be glad that there are still small, independently owned niche shops like Heroes & Hitters around where people of like minds can congregate and enjoy themselves. No, they're not perfect, but no one and nothing is. It's a small shop working on a shoestring. It's opened seven days a week. The owners (husband and wife) run it full time and they both have other jobs (more than one each, actually) so they can pay the mortgage and utilities. I find it appalling how you could see so much negativity in such a positive day. The weather was perfect. Both doors were open keeping the place nice and cool. The cake, soda and balloons were free and plentiful. Whoever you talked to wasn't an owner. It was probably a volunteer. You know the owners. You know how generous they are with their time and energy. They are super nice souls with nothing but positive attitudes. So complaining about some kid pointing to a corner instead of holding your hand and leading you to where you wanted to go is really trivial. I am truly disappointed that you chose to go this way. Free Comic Book Day isn't a day where you can come in and grab free comics and get a "steal" on sales. It's a day to come in and congregate with like minds and enjoy the world of comic books. All you had to do was go to the upper level and hang out, or even go outside, where tons of people were hanging and talking and laughing and enjoying the day. Heroes & Hitters is a fabulous store and the owners deserve a great deal of accolades for the job they do. I think the goal here is for you to change your attitude about what to expect on FCBD and just enjoy the day for what it is.

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  2. Ditto what Sue said. Josh, dude, whine much? I was at Heroes & Hitters and it was fantastic! Yeah, it was crowded, but DUH! That's what you want on FCBD. If you wanted and exclusive "We're open just for Josh to get his free shit" day, then you should have placed an order in advance and flushed the whole spirit of FCBD down the toilet. I think you should go back to Heroes & Hitters and return the free books you got, seeing as though you don't appreciate them at all! I mean, it's not like YOU paid for them! I bet you even ate the cake. You can keep that.

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  3. Good to see you can still have a bad experience in life without people on the internet trying to invalidate it. Oh, wait.

    And for the record the employee in question (as referenced by the first comment) was in fact one of the two owners not just some kid and, no, I did not eat the cake.

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  4. First, if you are going to post something like this on the Internet, then expect a response. If you want everyone to just nod and agree with you, then you are in the wrong club. But that seems exactly what you want, as is evident in your rant against what you got on FCBD. You didn't get what you wanted the way you wanted it, so you rail against an upstanding and extremely awesome business. AND I know for a fact that the person you claim you talked with wasn't one of the owners or the conversation wasn't as curt as you claim. Those guys are so friendly it's like they're out of a Disney film.

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  5. I know who the two owners are (not personally, but because I've been in there and spoken with them before) and I can most assuredly tell you it was one of them.

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  6. What did this person look like?

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  7. Slow down now, fella. This isn't a 900 number here.

    But considering I wrote *this* on the post you allegedly read (You can read, right?):

    "Don't take this as a rant against them but rather a sense of longing by me"

    And you said this:

    "as is evident in your rant"

    I can only assume that you're using the SAME word as me in an opposite way because you're a troll. And sorry, but I don't feed the trolls. Perhaps you should re-read what I wrote again later when you're not butt-hurt. Maybe then all of those fans who love that comic book shop that I never really offended can rally up against me. Yeah, both of you.

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  8. I'm defending a store I love and I asked a simple question--what did the person look like? I ask because your readers need to know that the owners of Heroes & Hitters are not dismissive at all, but extremely friendly and helpful. I am convinced it wasn't the owner with whom you spoke or that the conversation didn't go the way you claim. Even in your defensive reply, you trash the store, and it doesn't make sense. You revert to name calling, offensive terminology, and personal attacks on me. It's hard to read your posts and take it seriously when you respond with such venom against people who don't agree with you. If it was just me, I'd drop it here. But whether you acknowledge it or not, you really are attacking the store and its owners and it's wrong. So, what did the person look like?

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  9. Nah brah, see, you just answered your own question. Even if I tell you what the person looked like and it matches the description of the store owner in your mind-- if it is enough to satisfy you-- then you already admitted that "the conversation didn't go the way" I claim. So what then? Did I need to make a video of it or something for further proof? Why would I be making this up? I have nothing to gain by (as you put it) attacking the store and its owners. I simply wrote about how I spent a particular weekend in my life. And you have to argue, nitpick and complain about what I wrote. Here's an idea for you. If you love this comic book store so much, start your own website and write about how much you love it. Commenting in an attempt to get answers you will never truly be satisfied with is a sign that you need to quite possibly re-evaluate your life choices. Go outside.

    I think the only thing we can agree about is that the store was busy on FCBD. Could this person giving me such a short answer be a result of that? Why not just tell me that it was in fact one of the store owners but there simply wasn't time to get in a long conversation with me when the store was people-to-people with other customers outside? That would be my best guess. If I went in there on some random day of the week and asked about comic books for kids I'm sure I'd get a much more detailed response.

    But again, you think this entire post is me attacking the store when in reality I was giving an honest account of how I spent my first real FCBD since moving from Houston back to Connecticut. But I feel like with what I wrote you're just picking out the pieces you want to see so you can go on the defensive and fight for the store you love when really there is no war. I have no hard feelings towards H&H and wish them nothing but the best. I had even mentioned potentially going back there next year, but instead of taking constructive criticism it became an onslaught "You can't feel that way! Screw you for feeling that way about an experience! It was fun for me so it should have been fun for you too!"

    People see things through their own eyes and trying to convince me to see it through your eyes is not going to work when you're jumping to unnecessary conclusions.

    Go back and read the first comment (not by you) and see how it says that I should have asked the owners or someone else working there if I was looking for one of the free books that wasn't out? See, that's helpful for next year. But you just come on, telling me to return my comics (When for the umpteenth time I did SPEND MONEY THERE, money which I could have just spent on Amazon if I was really so upset and offended) and not believing what I'm saying. You know what? You don't have to believe me because I have nothing to prove to you. You nerds bully Joss Whedon into deleting his Twitter but I'm not going to budge so easily for some guy who isn't even the real Mike Jones.

    How can I describe a person to you? She was some mix of Bernadette Peters and Wendy Malick.

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  10. I'm not bullying you nor am I asking you to delete anything. I'm posting a reply to a post I don't agree with. There's no war here. Just an exchange of ideas. It's you who are getting defensive and abrasive and, again, reverting to attacking language and name calling.

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  11. I heard you popped by Heroes & Hitters Monday afternoon, right around when we were having our virtual tête-à-tête :)

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  12. You were misinformed. I was home all day on Monday.

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