Free Comic Book Day (follow-up photos!)

Every first Saturday of the month of May... it's...

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

Considering this is my birth-month, a good reason to go out and mingle with the cosplayers...

Pictures forthwith, so stay alert on Twitter and Facebook.  And here at the end of the day.

Update: as warned, I have returned with PICTURES!

First stop was the Coliseum of Comics store in downtown Lakeland.  Reasonably packed, with their gaming room in the back set up for their display of free comics and guest artists.

With thanks to the staffer who took this picture of me, holding up my grab of free titles.  I snagged Rocket Raccoon considering the Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out this year...

While here I also realized Gaiman came out with a new Sandman title and thankfully they had one last copy of the first issue on hand. Whew. Now just gotta remember to get him to sign it if I ever run into him...

Next stop: Heroes Haven all the way over in Tampa (Carrollwood area).

I went by their event last year, and it was packed then and this one was packed as well...  I was told at the door they had 100 people in line at the 8 AM opening... and this was in rainy weather...!

Just taking pictures of DC Comics figurines.  If I had the shelf spaces handy, I'd be tempted to buy one...

This year they had the tents set up in the back alley.  Last year they had the parking lot, but I guess this year they couldn't get their neighboring stores to open up the front lot again, so...

And this is a guy I know from BucsNation!  JC De La Torre is a regular commentator on the threads there, but he's also a published author and got his way in with a decent publisher IDW to start a new series Star Mage.  I asked him to sign a #1 copy with a #FireSchiano tag for old times' sake.  Heheheheh...

It turns out they ran out of the free comics titles an hour or so before I got there, but that was okay.  I was there mostly for the ambiance (kinda like going to a comic-con, only less walking involved).  As I headed out I got one more shot in to give you an idea how packed it was at Haven.  That's artist Bart Sears in the background.

So, how's your (rainy) weekend going?