Free Comic Book Day 2012

On Saturday, May 5th, comic stores will offer free comics to every man, woman, and child who couldn’t get tickets to a Saturday matinee of The Avengers and decided to go to a comic book store instead.

All kidding aside, Free Comic Book Day, now in its eleventh year, is a day dedicated to celebrating the joy of reading comics. Retailers, publishers, artists, and writers join together to introduce new readers to comics, to bring back former readers, and to show current readers their continued support by offering dozens of comics for FREE!

This year, Bongo Comics and United Plankton Pictures have teamed up to bring you a double-dipped flipbook of four-color comic free-ness with the 2012 Bongo Comics Free-For-All!/SpongeBob Comics Freestyle Funnies. This year’s issue starts off with a proud tale from the boasting barflies of Moe’s Tavern, as they recount their close encounter with marauding beasts as members of the Springfield Bear Patrol. Sergio Aragonés joins the fun with a story from his past of how he made his first peso as an underground and underage artist. Then, flip the book over for two of the swimmingest SpongeBob sagas from the series' hard-to-find earliest issues. In "Squidward and the Golden Clarinet," SpongeBob reads an issue of Mermaid Man to a less-than-welcoming Squidward. But this story has a musical hook even Squidward can’t resist. Plus: a page of gags that goes off the deep end by indie artiste James Kochalka.

Several of Bongo’s artists and writers will be appearing around the continent on Saturday, including:

Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer (Comic Book Jones in Staten Island, NY)

Nina Matsumoto (Metropolis Comics and Toys, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada)

Andrew Pepoy (Third Coast Comics in Chicago, IL from 12-3 PM)

Scott Shaw! (Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood, CA starting at 10 AM)

Ty Templeton (The Comic Book Lounge in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from Noon- 7 PM; Ty will also host a live talk show “On the Couch” that evening at the same location from 7:30-11 PM ) Chris Yambar (Chautauqua Comics in Jamestown, NY)

To find a comic retailer near you that is participating in this year’s event, click here to check out the Free Comic Book Day locator site.