THIS SATURDAY GET A FREE MELVIN MONSTER COMIC BOOK!

This Saturday (May 1st, 2010), the ninth annual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) event will be held in comic shops across the country. In the past eight years, scores of free comic books were given away by participating retailers to not only thank comic book aficionados, but to introduce the wonderful world of comics to new readers and fans as well! You can learn more about the event at the official FCBD site by clicking here.

Among the comics being given out this year is “YOW!” from Drawn & Quarterly. It is a compilation of all-ages comic stories from one of the all-time masters of the genre, John Stanley (not to be confused with the horror movie historian-author and TV host of the same name). Included in this free edition is a story featuring Melvin Monster. Here’s what the cover looks like should you decide to pick it up:



You may recall that I recently posted about comic books featuring humorous monster characters (if you missed it, just click here to read it). One of the characters I highlighted was Melvin Monster. You can learn more about Melvin at Don Markstein’s Toonpedia by clicking here, and you can read Newsarama’s review about the hardcover book collection of classic Melvin Monster comics (released last summer) by clicking here. And while I previously linked to Doug Gray’s Melvin piece on his Greatest Ape blog (which includes a scan of a classic Melvin tale) I’ll link to it again for your convenience – just click here.

In addition to Melvin Monster there will be several other great FCBD offerings featuring the likes of Superman, Shrek, Iron Man, Mouseguard, Archie, Fraggle Rock, The Green Hornet, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Tick, Toy Story, G.I. Joe, Atomic Robo and many more.



The other great attraction of FCBD is that it offers fans a chance to meet and get autographs from professional comics writers and artists. Several of my buds will be appearing at comic shops across the country.

Thomas Hall, writer and co-creator of Robot 13, KING! and Mecha Manga Bible Heroes will be at Forbidden Planet in New York City at 840 Broadway from 11:30 to 1:00. You can check out their site here.

Joey Endres, writer and co-creator of Colossians and Megazeen and co-writer of Mecha Manga Bible Heroes will be at New Moon Comics in Little Falls, NJ from 10 to 7. The store is on 463 Main Street. Click here for New Moon’s website.

A bunch of my peeps from Archie Comics will be at various shops across the country. Just click here for the full details.

Last but not least, here’s a promo for this year’s FCBD by my pal Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics of Concorde, CA – Joe was the guy who came up with FCBD in the first place. He’s one of the sharpest comics retailers out there, a champion for great comics and literacy and a heck of a nice guy: