Free Comic Book Day 2009: Cape Town

Last year I was off in KwaZulu-Natal having adventures and missed Free Comic Book Day. This year my two local comic shops (Reader's Den in Claremont and Outer Limits in the city centre) both participated (as did, I believe, a store in the northern suburbs but I don't know its name). I went to Reader's Den again this year as it is closer to my home and has become a (semi) annual event as I usually meet some friends there and we hang out for a couple of hours and enjoy the festivities.

Every year Reader's Den makes quite an event out of Free Comic Book Day and, once again, it had lots of specials for shoppers and gave out great lucky-draw prizes to some of the people that had made purchases on the day. Spider-man and Superman made special appearances, posed for photos, and gave out chips to the kids.

This year Reader's Den also gave out prizes to those who dared to appear in costume. A few people wore costumes from notable comics and science-fiction universes including Watchmen, Batman, and Harry Potter. The quality and selection was very good and the participants put a lot of effort into bringing their characters to life.

For my free comic I chose the Star Wars: the Clone Wars comic [preview: 666 KB PDF] from Dark Horse Comics, which included pages for Emily The Strange, Usagi Yojimbo, and Indiana Jones. It was a tough decision as I was also keen to get Bongo Comics Free-For-All! from Bongo Comics [preview: 1.7 MB PDF].

Free Comic Book Day is held on the first Saturday in May, and the comics are specially produced by the publishing companies for the day so, no matter what city or country you're in, you'll be able to choose from the same titles as your friends all over the world. Diarise the date - I hope to see you at one of the events in Cape Town next year!

Previously on Cape Town > South Africa > Africa > Earth:
* Free Comic Book Day 2007: Cape Town