Free Comic Book Day 2006

There's a terrific event called Free Comic Book Day, where fans can go into their local comic book shops and procure a free comic from a batch of titles specifically printed for the event. For the past two years, my publishing partner John Gallagher and I have put out a comic book featuring John's Buzzboy, and our character, Roboy Red. This year John and I, along with some other friends/colleagues spent the day at our friend Joe Murray's Captain Blue Hen Comics, a fantastic store located in Newark Delaware. There was an incredible stream of people, mostly families. It was great to see so many kids enjoying their first comic books! All told, over 1000 people came through the doors of the store, a new record for Blue Hen!

Here are some pictures from the event:

This is Joe Murray, the owner of Captain Blue Hen, with his beautiful daughter, Erin. It would seem she is the youngest reader of our Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule comic! Joe and his wife Danielle run one of the best comic book stores I've ever visited. It's family friendly, always well lit, and the staff could not be nicer. If you're anywhere near Newark, Delaware, drop by and say hi to Joe and the gang!

Here's John Gallagher, doing one of the many, many sketches that were created throughout the day. Between John and me, we probably drew around 20-30 sketches of Buzzboy and 'Becca, as well as a few Roboy Red sketches. 'Becca was clearly the most popular request with us! Joe told us that the Buzzboy book was the most requested of the FCBD offerings in the store.

This is my pal, Mike Manley, editor of DRAW! Magazine, and Cartoonist Extraordinaire, pleasing yet another happy young fan. Mike did so many drawings on Saturday. Nobody walked away disappointed. Here's a link to Mike's report on the day:

http://drawman.blogspot.com/2006/05/free-comic-book-day-happy-free-friends.html

This is my close friend, Jamar Nicholas. He's looking a bit shell-shocked here, no doubt from all the hours of drawing he put in. Jamar is one of the most generous and talented artists I know.

He goes all out for this sort of event, as you can see here. I can't even imagine how he packs so much into these FREE sketches he does...

... and my lousy photo doesn't do the gorgeous colors he did justice, but trust me, it's a terrific job!

Above are a few examples of some of the sketches I did. As I said, it was a lot of fun!

I'll leave you with this final shot of Joe looking tired, and John looking, well, I'll let you draw your own conclusions...