This Year, my five year old son and I hit three comic book store to celebrate the wonderful Free Comic Book Day. It was a fantastic experience for both of us.
The first comic store was the largest store and is a chain store. In the past, they have had free comics but not done a lot else. The staff used to seem more interested in getting you to buy used movies and games rather than helping with your comic book experience. That was not true today. In fact, they have changed the store and are focusing more on comics and seem to care about their customers. Good for them because they have needed that to change for a long time.
I found their store packed with people in costume and having a good time. There were several comic creators at this store and all of them were friendly with the kids and adults alike. They were running out of free comics and they had only been open for an hour or so.
The second store is my regular comic store. They had a line outside so they opened their store early so we arrived about 30 minutes after they opened. There was still plenty of free comics to pick up. There were no limits on how many one could take, unlike the first store.
There was a comic creator, Nicholas Ivan Ladendorf-Atreides in the store talking to people, giving out free scetches, and selling his comics.I have talked to Nicholas on Facebook previously but this was our first chance to meet in person and I wasn’t disappointed. This was a wonderful total experience.
The last comic store is a fairly new to our town. The store is owned and ran by familiar face from days past at another store. It was a small store but also packed with people. This store was either completely out of free comics or was running out quickly. We had already scored well so we just enjoyed the fun.
Batman and Ms Marvel was waiting for us outside the third store. Since my son was wearing a New 52 Superman with Jeans outfit, it was a ton of fun. Batman talked to him and called him Superman.
Every store we went to was friendly and excited to see people of all ages, genders, and geeky/nerdiness. There were families checking out free comics for the kids and adults. I saw adults that were either new to comics or coming back after being out of it for a while. Of course, there were the veteran comic addicts like myself.
If the comic book store experience could be this friendly and nice every day, then we might be able to get more new readers without giving away comics. It is a matter of focusing on bringing in people and treating like you are glad they are there. Brick and mortar comic stores have a bad reputation for not being friendly and I have seen it first hand. Just think how fun it would be to go to a store that is always friendly and wants to help you explore your unique geekiness. I know that I get this experience but I am a veteran comic reader. I am not sure the stores are doing this kind of service with new and young readers. But maybe Free Comic Book Day will teach the stores this lesson before it is too late.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
