You don’t have to purchase anything at all in order to take advantage of this deal. This year, Free Comic Book Day will be Saturday, May 7, 2011.
However, considering the fact that you will be in a comic book store, you are likely to want to purchase a few things, anyway. I happen to be someone who enjoys comics, graphic novels, and manga. I recently purchased the entire World Of Warcraft: Curse of the Worgen comic book series, and have just started getting into The Walking Dead graphic novel series. At some point, I am intending to pick up the rest of the Tsubasa manga series that I started long ago, and then lost track of. I really want to see how it ends.
Other people might be looking for the comic books that were the inspiration for several movies. Batman, Superman, and Spiderman all started out as comic book superheroes. So did Ironman, The Green Lantern, and The X Men. Most of the time, a movie only tells part of the story. There is a lot more to discover if you start reading the comic books that the superheros came from.
Another great thing about comics is that they can be used to encourage children to read. The combination of language and pictures tells a story in a way that books that only use text simply cannot do. There are a whole lot of comics that are designed for children to read. Some that come to my mind are The Captain Underpants series, BabyMouse, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
If you love comic books, or if your children do, then it is very important that you support your local comic book stores. Many of them are independently owned, and are struggling to stay in business at a time when big chain bookstores are all over the place, and eBooks have become very accessible and popular. So, go support your local comic book store this Saturday. Stick around for the events they are doing, pick up a free comic book, and make sure you purchase whatever else catches your eye.
Image by Dave Mathis on Flickr