Free Comic Book Day 2018

Another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone. It's the biggest event we do all year, and this year it was bigger and better than ever! There is always so much to see and do, we couldn't blame you if you missed something. With that in mind, we've made this comprehensive account of the event!

---

The Event

Believe it or not, there's a lot more to Free Comic Book Day than getting free comics! We fill the mall with vendors, special guests, competitions, live music, panels, and more!

The Early Bird Gets The Comic

The line for free books always starts out long, but moves deceptively quickly. That said, it pays to line up early, to get your pick of the available comics!

Decisions, Decisions

We order a wide selection of comics to give away for free. Everything from beginner comics, to stuff that’s adult oriented, and everything in-between!

I'm The Captain Now!

It’s always nice when you can match your free comic! Thanks to Let’s Party for providing face-painting at the show!

Playing With Fire

Runaway Parade Games had a blast playing their new board game, Fire Tower! They said they played the game for over five hours straight! Check out their Kickstarter campaign!

Games Come To Life

Geek Mythology Crafts has awesome crafts, the coolest of which is their 3D recreations of video game characters made from perler beads!

This Ink Dosen't Run

The artists from Permanent Marker Tattoo and Piercing had a great time selling prints and giving away prizes!

Minimalist Style, Maximum Awesome

Angela McKendrick covers an insanely wide variety of fandoms with her unique minimalist, art deco style!

Enter A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Galaxy Events always has the coolest Star Wars props you can pose with!

Put Your Best Side Forward

The Other Side Accessories have a selection of fun accessories for any occasion!

Over The Moon!

LunaCrafts always has a great selection of crocheted items!

Local Artists Unite!

FCBD veteran Jen Tracy shares a table with FCBD newbies Star Sailor Bunny!

He's A Pinball Jedi, There Has To Be A Mind Trick!

We ran a tournament on our Star Wars pinball machine! If you missed your chance to play, the game is available to play in our store all year!

Games Played Poorly

Those scamps at Poorly Played Games had a NES on site for people to play games with them, regardless of skill level!

The Finest Crew In The Fleet

We had all our employees on hand for the event!

Not Pictured: All the amazing people who volunteered to give up their Saturday to help us run this colossal undertaking. You guys are the best!

---

on the main stage

There's a lot going on during the day at our main stage! We had music, live episodes, and the finals to our first ever Retro Challenge! 

Surging Nerds

Mikey from Nerd Surge belting one out!

Rockin' Nerds

Nerd Surge performing.

Toy Quest 101 Live Episode

The folks from Toy Quest 101 recorded a live episode, complete with special guests and giveaways!

You can watch the recording here!

WMQ&A Live!

We also had a live recording of Wednesday Morning Quarterback’s WMQ&A with special guests Roye Okupe and Mark Poulton!

You can listen to the episode here!

Retro Challenge Finals

Here we have the Punch-Out!! winner from the Retro Challenge 2018 playing Nintendo World Championships in the finals!

And that’s Dan and Kris from the Stone Age Gamer Podcast doing commentary!

Retro Challenge Finalists

Here are the finalists along with our commentators!

Congratulations to everyone who participated!

It's Time To Thrash

Super Thrash Bros. takes the stage!

You've Met With an Awesome Show, Haven't You?

Super Trash Bros. version of Majora isn’t such a bad guy.

Mega Rock!

Super Thrash Bros. always have amazing costumes to compliment their music!

Wheel Of Fortune

The participants to our first ever trivia contest answer questions in the hopes to spin our prize wheel!

---

Model Competition

This year we held out inaugural model building competition! Attendees to Free Comic Book Day got to vote on their favorite builds from a wide selection of participants. Thanks again to everyone who submitted! Keep an eye out for more model competitions in the future!

First Place Winner - Adult Category

Gundam Heavy Arms Custom

Second Place Winner - Adult Category

RX121-1 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel Custom]

First Place Winner - Youth Category

3 Petit-Beargguy 1/144

Second Place Winner - Youth Category

Vual 1/144

Figurerise Vegeta Blue & Figurerise Teen Gohan

Shenlong Ew ka version

World of Warcraft Lich King Raid

Sei Lori's Mobile Suit

1/100 Full Mechanics Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex

Gundam Griepe

Petit-Beargguy 1/144

Gundam Crossbone

---

The Costumes

Every year we're blown away buy all the effort people put into their costumes.

And this year our costume contest was a blast! Seriously, the energy and enthusiasm on display was impressive!

Just In Time!

This Chrono Trigger family’s costumes were truly a sight to behold!

Every Rose Has It's Thorns

The details on this Ruby Rose costume were impressive and the scythe was amazing!

Captain Cinnabon

Scott from Cinnabon get in on the costumed festivities!

Faeglin Forever!

You’d expect LARPers to have great costumes and the folks at Table25 Games didn’t disappoint!

Get Me Pictures Of Spider-Man!

RStewie, as the Spider-Man from the upcoming PS4 game, posing for photos at the Sony booth. This one’s for J.J.!

Bad Never Looked So Good

Femme fatales frequent FCBD!

Partying With Batman And Wonder Woman

The folks from Let’s Party had some great cosplayers you could get your photo taken with!

They've Got IT

Only on Free Comic Book Day the monsters aren’t bad guys!

Spidey Saves The Day

Cosplay isn’t just fun to do, it’s also fun for all the kids and fans to see!

Quoth The Raven

Special Cosplay guest Moaglin meeting a fan!

Joining The Dark Side

This little guy got to live his dream thanks to Galaxy Events!

Ten Points To Gryffindor!

A Harry Potter was able to get their appropriate house print from Angela McKendrick.

You've Been Terminated

Rstewie sporting her brand new Deathstroke, The Terminator costume!

There Are other Stores Than Level Up!?

One of the benefits of being in a mall is that you can visit a wide array of stores while still getting in on the fCBD fun!

Everyone Comes Together

You and your friends can be any character from any piece of media!

The Family That Cosplays Together...

Emly’s Makeup Madness and her family always go big with their wonderful costimes!

Costume Contest Begins

All the participants of our costume contest are lined up and getting ready to strut their stuff!

Meet Your Judges

Emily’s Make Up Madness, Moaglin, Rstewie served as judges for the costume contest.

The Kids Are Alright

All of the kids who entered the contest on stage!

Kids Costume Winner!

Poison Ivy beats the competition!

Fantastic Females

All our women contestants are on stage!

Female Costume Winner!

Skyrim Nightingale steps out of the dark to win!

Monumental Men

All the male contestants on the stage!

Male Costume Winner!

Skyrim Nord brings his ebony armor and snows the competition!

A Group Of Groups

All of our group contestants on stage!

Group Costume Winner!

The Chrono Trigger family wins the battle!

That's it folks!

Thanks again to all our contestants, our announcers Pete and Chelsea, and our judges Rstewie, Moaglin, Emily’s Makeup Madness!

---

See you next may!

And that's it for Free Comic Book Day this year! If you want to see more photos, please check out our Facebook page! See you next Free Comic Book Day on May 4th, 2019!