The kids and I took our annual trek to Mishawaka, IN for Free Comic Book Day today. Our “local” comic shop, BuyMeToys.com does an awesome job of hosting the event.

They’ve been doing it regularly since the first year it was introduced, where I got my still prized “I’ve Got Issues” t-shirt (or maybe that was year two?). Regardless, they run a great shop and are very supportive of the local comic creators, holding regular workshops. The owner Casey Heying, is the artist and co-writer of a really cool cross-over comic series (with Ben Avery) between Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz based in a current reality where the girls have both grown up and live together. I won’t even attempt to do the series justice by explaining it. It’s called Oz/Wonderland and you really should check it out of you haven’t.

Anyway, as they have in past years, they were giving out five issues to each person that came in to the store today. They had a huge selection to choose from including this year’s FCBD offerings as well as many left over from previous years. Also up for grabs were pins, bookmarks and other comic related items.

We had a good time and left with new treasures to read. My only gripe about this year wasn’t with our local shop at all. It just seemed like there was less variety (especially from the independent publishers) to choose from in this year’s offering of FCBD exclusive books. Regardless, we enjoyed the day and look forward to next year. Thanks Casey and Kelly!

I’ve heard of other comic shops having really limited selections and only giving one or two copies away to each person, but BMT has consistently had a huge selection of FCBD comics and they give out five issues to each visitor. It’s definitely worth the trip if you live anywhere even close to Mishawaka, IN.

I personally picked up Arcana Presents (Arcana sampler), Gekiga! (Drawn Quarterly sampler), Cartoona Palooza (Ape Entertainment sampler), Free Scott Pilgrim (Oni Press FCBD comic from 2006) and The Preposterous Voyages of IronHide Tom (2006 FCBD comic from AdHouse Books)…

I haven’t read them yet except for the IronHide Tom book which my daughter picked up at a previous FCBD and I loved. I had to have my own copy when I saw they still had one.

So here you are, the couple pictures I snapped while we were there…

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I’m not sure if these official FCBD pens or just something my local shop had made, but either way it’s a nice geek find for me…