The Pinecrest Chapters Location Is Getting In On Free Comic Book Day With Their First Graphic Novel Event
The first Saturday in May has taken on a new pop culture significance over the last fifteen years. Free Comic Book Day started out as a promotional event in 2002 aimed to take advantage of the rising popularity of comic book movies and lure new customers to their local comic book stores. But it has since become a cultural phenomenon that not only includes pretty well every comic book publisher in the Western world, but also comic book retailers across North America ad the U.K., Diamond Distributing (the industry’s top distributer) and even Hollywood’s biggest players.
Sony has used Free Comic Book Day to launch all three of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, 20th Century Fox used it as an opportunity to premier some of the X-Men movies and Marvel has all but owned the day in recent years, debuting a legion of blockbusters including both Avengers films, all three Iron Man flicks and last year’s worldwide hit Captain America: Civil War. Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 gets the Free Comic Book Day treatment this year.
FCBD has been an unmitigated success and it’s estimated that over 12 million free comic books were given away between 2002 and 2006 (after that everyone pretty much stop counting). Industry insiders have credited it with helping the comic book market become healthier and it’s successfully attracted mainstream media attention.
And now some other stores are getting in on the action.
This Saturday the Chapters Pinecrest location will be hosting a Graphic novel event between 1 and 3 PM. While they won’t have any free comics to five away, some of the will be dressed up as their favourite comic or pop culture characters and customers will be encouraged to do the same. There will be contests including Thor’s Hammer Throw, trivia, character guessing and even a video game showdown. And no event would be complete without a photo booth and a few giveaways.
If all goes well this year, who knows what the future holds for an event that’s already going full steam ahead.
