The Spirit of Convention

Normally, the comics of Penny Arcade range from "meh" to "chuckle-worthy". They serve more as an entertaining footnote to the far more interesting news posts.

But today's comic is hilarious. It truly captures the fun of con cosplay and the awesomeness of geek parents.

I can easily imagine the same scenario featuring a mom and a Green Lantern costume.

They'll Leave the Light on for Ya

Last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, an industry-wide event to bring new people into comic shops and hopefully turn them into regular customers. My LCS participated, and I made sure to show up.


I had work in the morning, so I didn't get to the store until ten minutes before they closed. (Needless to say, I missed out on the Iron Man heroclix.) Even so, there was more people inside than I had ever seen before. Apparently they had a really busy day, which they were half-griping about. Mostly they were talking about how much of a success it was and how many people showed up, which was encouraging.

I tried to do my part by letting all my friends and co-worker know about Free Comic Book Day. I didn't see any of them there, but... Well, you have to try, don't you?

There was an employee I'd never seen before (a manager from another store, I think) who was really nice and helpful. Just the sort of attitude you need for FCBD (or any day, really).

He helped me pick out some trades (I didn't want to just grab some free comics and take off. As a regular, I feel like FCBD isn't for me, so I wanted to spend some money to support FCBD as an endeavor). I got Avengers: Initiative and Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

Now, I don't usually stand around and talk comics in the store. I've got this weird hangup where I feel like I'm loitering, even if I am paying for my comics and even if "standing around talking comics" is an important part of the LCS community. So it was pleasantly unusual that he and I spent about 45 minutes discussing what makes a good comic and what needs to be done to really bring in the customers.

For those of you keeping track: yes, I said 45 minutes, and yes, I showed up 10 minutes before they closed.

I didn't know that they closed much earlier than usual on Saturdays, so I ignorantly blathered on about Wonder Woman for thirty-five minutes after the store officially closed. The gentleman (I never did get his name) never said boo about it, though. I was really embarrassed when I saw the posted hours after getting back into my car.

All in all, I had a great time. Even if I didn't get that Heroclix figure.

Update 5/7/2008: Okay, this settles it.

As I was picking up my comics today, Jim presented me with an Ironman Heroclix figure he had thoughtfully set aside for me.

I thought I was gonna cry.

You guys rock.