FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2013

Me, my art and comics

My ad for Free Comic Book Day

 FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2013, SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013, BSI COMICS, 3030 Severn Ave., Metairie, LA 70002

Saturday was a great day . . . FREE COMIC BOOK DAY is basically geek Christmas. If you don't know what happens you just show show up at a comic book store  on the first Saturday in May and they give you some free comic books.

The last few years I have been one of the guest artist at different shops in my area and this year was really good for sales, it seemed like the customers were a lot more interested in the artist and writers than in the past and I think everyone did well.

So what did I get for free comic book day this year. Well as a guest artist I was able to get more books than the regular customers because I was there before the store opened and the folks handing out the comics said I could take whatever I wanted . . . I call that a perk and I like to have as many as I can get to check out the many different art styles from kids comics to adult comics. A lot of the comic books that I got this year were leftovers from last year that I missed out on . . . that's a win/win situation for me.

Free Comic Books

Here's my list (all 2013 unless noted):
World of Archie Digest #1
Ernest & Rebecca: The Haunted House Mini-Comic (2011)
Johnny Boo & Harold in Tricky Treaters Mini-Comic (2012)
Ghostbusters: Times Square Mini-Comic (2012)
Scouts! Prepare For Adversity: Drafted!/Strawberry Shortcake Mini-Comic (2012)
Cow Boy: Hallow's Mini-Comic (2012)
New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes Mini-Comic (2012)

Free Comic Books

Zombie Kid Diaries: Grossery Games Mini-Comic (2012)
Spacehawk Mini-Comic (2012)
Snarked Mini-Comic (2012)
Bongo Comics Free-For-All! 2013
Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H./Avengers Assemble
Infinity #1
Judge Dredd Classics
Grimm #0
Top Shelf kids Club 2013
Molly Danger

Free Comic Books

World's of Aspen 2013
NFL Rush Zone
Atomic Robo/Brodie Troll
DC Nation Super Sampler
Bleeding Cool
Bluff & Tales from a Forgotten Planet
Mass Effect/R.I.P.D./ The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys
Valiant 2013
Valiant Masters
Ugly Doll Comics
The Walking Dead
Impact University Volume 2 (2006)
DC Nation Super Sampler (2012)
Superman Last Son of Krypton #1
Kaboom Summer Blast
Drink N Draw Society New Orleans FCBD 2013
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell
Overstreet's Comic Book Marketplace
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: New Animated Adventures
The Strangers
The Steam Engines of Oz #1 (2012)
Spongebob Freestyle Funnies
Mega Man/Sonic The Hedgehog Worlds Collide: Prelude #0
The Smurfs
Star Wars/Avatar The Last Airbender
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Halloween Edition #1 (2012)
Sesame Street/Strawberry Shortcake

That's a pretty big haul . . . I plan on doing reviews of as many of them as I can.

Below are some sketch covers that I had for sale (didn't sell them) and a few pictures and sketches that I did for people at the event.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Hellcat Sketch Cover by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

The Thing Sketch Cover by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Superman Sketch Cover by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Venom Sketch Cover by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Dazzler Sketch Cover by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Young Comic Book Fans

Girl with Poison Ivy sketch

Lewis Aleman and Comic Book Fans

Me Sketch Cover by Tim Fletcher

Poison Ivy sketch by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Outback sketch by Kevin P. Johnson 2013

Tattoo Kid

Red Hood

Meet Me on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2013 at BSI Comics, Metairie, LA

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY AD Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Hey everyone come on out to BSI Comics in Metairie, Louisiana on Saturday May 4, 2013 and meet me and some of the other local artist from the New Orleans area. We will be selling our comics, prints, art, sketches and whatever else we can think of.

BSI Comics is located at 3030 Severn Ave., Metairie, LA 70002 and you can find them on Facebook at BSI Comics or on the BSI Website.


Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Meet Dan Slott on Free Comic Book Day at Zapp Comics in Wayne, New Jersey

If you are in the Wayne, New Jersey area on Saturday May 4, 2013 get out to ZAPP Comics and meet Amazing/Superior Spider-Man writer Dan Slott. Check out the event page on Facebook.

ZAPP COMICS
574 Valley Rd.
Wayne, NJ 07470
Phone: (973) 727-6171
Phone: (973) 628-4500

"We will be OPEN from 8:00am - 8:00pm. Amazing and Superior Spider-Man writer DAN SLOTT will be a very special guest this FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at Zapp Comics in Wayne, NJ. He will be signing from 12 NOON until 5:00pm!! Autographs will be FREE and will be limited to 2 per person. Come on by and meet one of the most popular writers out there! Good Times!!!"

Thanks For Reading,
Kevin P. Johnson






Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Image is copyright ©2013 Marvel Comics and are used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon the request of  Marvel Comics. 

Info Copyright © 2013 ZAPP Comics

Free Comic Book Day at Magic Comics and Hobbies

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event happening the first Saturday in May for comic book fans and newcomers to gather in comic book stores around the country to get samples of mainstream and independent comic books and plenty of kids comics as well. As a fan of almost every style of comics and art I try to get as many of the offered books as I can and most years I visit multiple stores to see if they may have something different or have a store special and as a rule I will buy something at each store that I get free comic books from because I know that what is Free for me is not free for the comic shop.

This year I spent the day at Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell, LA as a guest artist along with Transformers artist Robby Musso and upcoming artist Mark Rhodes who plans to produce comic books in the near future. I only did two sketches but I had fun seeing old friends, talking about comics, video games of yesteryear, and just about everything else under the Geek Sun.

Here's what I drew:

There are a lot of free comics to be found on Free Comic Book Day at Magic Comics and Hobbies and they let you take whichever ones you want. Owner David Strecker does a great job of having a large supply of the comics available and most customers get the comics they were looking for in the program. For me I as I said before I want to get as many as I can (my collector brain loves free stuff) below is a list of comic books that I got this year (A major haul).

What I got :

Sideshow Collectibles Catalog

The Tick: FCBD 2011

Green Lantern Flashpoint Special

Locke & Key FCBD 2011

World's Of Aspen 2011

Young Justice Batman Super Sampler

The Mis-adventures of Adam West/Things To Come . . .

Jake The Dreaming

The Amazing Spider-Man

Elric: The Balance Lost FCBD

Path of the Plainswalker

Mouse Guard/The Dark Crystal

Super Dinosaur: Origin Special!

2000 AD

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Predators/Top 10 Deadliest Sharks

Inspector Gadget/Johnny Test

Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers/Darkwing Duck

Geronimo Stilton and The Smurfs

Atomic Robo/Foster Broussard/Moon Girl

John Stanley's Summer Fun!

Pep Comics featuring Betty & Veronica

Rated Free For Everyone!

Witch & Wizard

The Stuff of Legend/The Intrepid Escape Goat

Bongo Free-For-All 2011

Baltimore/Criminal Macabre

Top Shelf Kid's Club

Spontaneous

Captain America and Thor The Mighty Fighting Avengers

Sonic The Hedgehog

Richie Rich in Eruption Disruption!/Kung Fu Panda

Silver Scorpion

Loose Ends/I.C.E. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The Darkness: Confession

Star Wars: The Clone Wars/Avatar: The Last Airbender

Civil War Adventure

White Lantern Ring

Black lantern Ring

IDW Star Trek Infestation Patch

Sideshow Collectibles Keychain

Green Lantern Hero Clix figure

Ultimate Flame-O (Strange City Heroes) Sketch

I love that there are so many comics and that there is a such a great variety of art styles that makes every comic stand out as a star. I have only read one so far but I keep looking at the pile and am ready to jump in and read things I may never have been exposed to if not for Free Comic Book Day and Magic Comic and Hobbies.

I hope that the tradition of free comic book day continues for years to come because it seems to get bigger and better each and every year.

Another big tradition at comic book events is that the Louisiana Chapter of the 501st Legion Bast Alpha Garrison show up and help bring in the crowds who want to take pictures with official looking replicas of the characters from the Star Wars movies and these guys take it very seriously when it comes to making their costumes look authentic. The 501st Legion has branches all over the world and make appearances at events and raise money for charities of all sorts. Along with the Star Wars characters a beautiful pirate lady showed up and posed for pictures as well.

Free Comic Book Day 2011 was great fun. I'd like to thank David Strecker and the Magic Comics and Hobbies staff Trey and Mikey for allowing me to be a guest in their store and for being such a great place that helps spread the love of comic books. The customers there are also great and there is always a great conversation to be had. If you're in Slidell check them out its an awesome place with an awesome supply of comic books, toys, models, games, statues and action figures (and probably a heck of a lot more.)

Magic Comics & Hobbies LLC
727 Robert Blvd.
Slidell, LA 70458
(985)649-4171

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2010 Kevin P. Johnson

Blackest Night #0 FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

This image is copyright © 2009 DC Comics and are used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon request of DC Comics.

Blackest Night #0 . . . Boy look what have I been missing!

DC Comics are often a bit confusing to me I know a lot of the characters but I don't know a lot of the stories. I've only been reading DC comic books regularly for about three or four years and have long wanted to read Green Lantern but have never been able to fit it into the old budget and for months I have heard how great the title is and all the different color lanterns that are out there and how it just sounds like great fun. I've listened to plenty of podcast's and they seem to drool over the Sinestro Corps and Green Lantern titles and I've missd it all.

Well on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2009 I knew DC was giving away a the Blackest Night #0 and I figured I'd get it and flip through it and see what it was all about. Geoff Johns' writing was awesome as usual and the art by Ivan Reis blew me away.

Page 4 and 5 stand as my favorite comic book images in quite a while (at least this month) and I absolutely love the colors.

I don't have a clue as to what all these other lanters are about besides the brief review in the back but by the end of it I have put Blackest Night on my DCBS pull list and have began to seek out Green Lantern trades. There are sometimes that you hear about stuff for so long and ignore it for one reason or another but as soon as you get a taste you get hooked . . . I am hooked on the Blackest Night series already and I will somehow have to figure out how to get Green Lantern into my pull list.

-Kevin P. Johnson
Copyright © 2009 Kevin P. Johnson

Marvel Mini-Comics free Comic Book Day 2009

These images are copyright © 2009 Marvel Comics and are used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon request of Marvel Comics.


Last Saturday was FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2009 and there were some good things being given away this year. Among the most interesting were Marvel Comics two titles Wolverine and The Avengers. I read both of the issues this week and was happy they were both new comics the Wolverine was a retelling of his origin and seemed geared to a younger audience while the Avengers was a completely new story featuring the Avengers vs. the Dark Avengers vs. the Frost Giant Ymir. That was a fun story and I hope that it makes its way into future Avengers books and they left the ending open for such a story to happen.

The main thing about these comics are that they are smaller than normal comics by about 1/2 inch wide and about 3/4 of an inch in height. Now the thing is this doesn't bother me at all mostly we all want bigger comics to view the artwork but in the world we live in where everything is so expensive I think this format could make comics cheaper. I hope that Marvel and DC Comics try to experiment more with this maybe put out a few titles in the smaller format and see if it catches on. There would be less paper cost on the printing end and they still look great. I know some fans will rebel because the comics wont match their collections but if you put them in the same bags an boards you wouldn't even know the difference. I know that Marvel did this because they had to sell these comics to the stores cheaper than normal and that they had to cut their cost so that they wouldn't lose money in doing so. I personally think that they have stumbled upon something that can save everyone some money and make comics a little more afforable for everyone.


-Kevin P. Johnson
Copyright © 2009 Kevin P. Johnson

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2008 - The Holdays are among us

So Free Comic Book Day was good this year again. We don't have conventions around here but we sure do have generous comic book stores. I went to three comic shops on Free Comic Book Day and got a boat load of stuff. In Metairie, Louisiana BSI Comics offered 10 free comics, & Media Underground Comics offered anything you wanted (they had a lot and some leftovers from previous years) both also had guest and heroclix and posters and stuff. Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell, Louisiana had all the big name books and some of the indie stuff, hero clix, Star Wars minatures figures and they were also giving away some Planet Hulk issues that they had overstock of. In years past I'd have gone to more stores but this year I was kina sick and had gotten most of the books so I called it a day and it was a good day.

Free Comic Book Days is my favorite holiday because to be honest I'm the only one in my family that is into comics and I don't have to worry about pleasing anyone or being at anyones house or whatever the other holidays bring.

So what did I get:

Lets start with the extras: I got three Iron Man Heroclix figures (not sure what series these are for) and one Iron Man (Supernova Series) Heroclix figure, one Wonder Woman (DC Heroclix Origin) Heroclix figure, three Batman (DC Heroclix Origin) Heroclix figures and 1 each of the Star Wars miniature figures Quarren and a clone trooper.

I got an autographed poster from the creators of Welcome To Border City the webcomic located at www.welcometobordercity.com and got to see some of the original artwork. NICE STUFF guys!!!

Now for the comis I got:
2 copies of the EC Sampler
1 copy of Nascar Heroes
1 copy of Comics Go Hollywood
3 copies of Owly and Friends
1 copy of Ignatz
1 copy of Maintenance
1 copy of Wizard's How To Draw
1 copy of Kid Houdini and The Silver Dollar Misfits
1 copy of Shin Chan (Ashcan sized comic)
1 copy of The Moth
1 copy of Hero By Night/Gunplay
1 copy of Gumby
1 copy of Hellboy: The Golden Army
2 copies of Hellboy: The Mole
2 copies of Cartoona Palooza (1 autographed by Tim Lattie artist of White Picket Fences)
2 copies of Broken Trinity
1 copy of Impact University Volume 4
1 copy of Shonen Jump Special
1 copy Transformers Animated
1 copy of Sonic The Hedgehog
1 copy of Archies Pal Jughead
1 copy Walt Disney's Gyro Gearloose
1 copy od The Incredible Hulk/Iron Man
2 copies of Marvel Adventures Iron Man & Hulk & Spider-Man
3 copies of All Star Superman
2 copies of Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2008
1 copy of Graphic Classics
2 copies of Tiny Titans
1 copy of Worlds Of Aspen #3
1 copy of Love And Capes #7
1 copy of Del Rey & Dabel Brothers 2008 Preview
2 copies of Avengers/Invaders Sketchbook
1 copy of Owly: Helping Hands
3 copies of X-Men
2 copies of Project Superpowers: The Death-Defying Devil
1 copy of Arcana Presents
2 copies of Dan Dare/TheStranded
1 copy of Atomic Robo/Neozoic
1 copy of Neotopia: The Enlightened Age Book 1 (full manga book in color)

yes it was a good day!

- Kevin P. Johnson
Copyright © 2008 Kevin P. Johnson