How To Spend A Lot Of Money On Free Comic Book Day

Me and Kris wandered on down to the greatest comic book store on the planet (Now that Dave's is gone, the title passes on) for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!
How can this be, you might be asking. Well, in order to draw folks to the word and picture books, comic publishers have artists or collections of artists assemble a FREE COMIC to be given on the happiest day of the year - MAY 6th.

See www.freecomicbookday.com for more details. Though, it's a bit late now.
Vault limited me to only four of the over one dozen free comics available, but given my interests four was enough. The others really didn't do much for me at all. I picked up the Fanatgraphics Funny Book, The preposterous Voyages of IronHide Tom by Joel Priddy, Owly : Breakin' The Ice by Andy Runton, and Free Scott Pilgrim by Ryan Lee O'Malley. In a surprising turn, IronHide Tom and the Fantagraphics collection of short pieces beat out the other two, which is odd because I already like Scott Pilgrim. Whatever the reason, that's my feeling on it. And Owly was, of course, adorable.
Of course, after getting my freebies, I had to root around for something to spend my money on. I had, after all, just completed my first week of work. Spending money was a prerequisite. Inspired by Sarah's loan, I picked up the first two trade paperbacks of Fables. I've read the first one, and I'm really looking forward to the second.
While checking for new Shuck comics (no dice, not yet) I happened across Super Bad James Dynomite, from 5-D comics. It features the jive talkin', alligator shoe wearin' blackploitation superhero of the hood Super Bad James Dynomite, who's got an afro the size of a Hippo calf, and his adventures on the block. While the concept or a blackploitation satire is not really all that original (see the film Im Gonna Get You Sucka), I figured that this would at least prove amusing. It's alright, I suppose. I might actually get the second issue to see where it goes, but so far I am pretty cold towards it. The art is really bothering me because of it's heavy use of photographs and CG images. The final affect makes it look like something off of a Wendy's Kid's Meal bag, and that's not really a good thing. It's also $4 for a single issue, which is a little more that obnoxious.
Being that they didn't have the issues of Usagi Yojimbo that I wanted, I decided to close off my trip to Vault by ambling over to where the smaller scale indie publications are. I've found some real gems here, and Free Comic Book Day was no exception. I grabbed Mouse Guard : Belly Of The Beast by David Peterson. I've seen it around a few times, and for $3.50 its a steal. It's a short fantasy story, probably geared toward younger readers, laid out in story book form (it's square, not a rectangular). It tells the story of the the warrior mice that guard the roads from predators so that regular mice might go about their business. It's silly, I know, but quite good. With a medieval feel, it's really quite a charming story and I'll probably have grab the second issue. Mouse Guard Link
The real winner of this trip also came from the indy racks. The short Tell Me Something by Jason is nothing short of brilliant. In just 217 panels (PANELS not PAGES) Jason uses his stock anthropomorphic characters to tell the funny and tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. I don't want to give away too much, but the books arranged wonderfully making it one of the most literary comics I've ever read, even though "Jason" has kept the dialogue to an absolute minimum (about six, silent-film styled title cards). This short work surpasses his other book that I have, the more humorous Meow, Baby!, simply by its story telling. Meow, Baby! is great - hilarious - and a good introduction to Jason's style. But Tell Me Something looks like his masterwork.
That was all for Vault, but Free Comic Book Day was still young! I had to stop by Borders and ended up grabbing Catcher in the Rye (which I have been meaning to buy for ages), the last of the full-size Nausicaä reprints and new collection I have never seen before. The Push Man and other stories (1969) is a collection of Japanese counter-culture comics from artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. While nearly 40 years old, it looks and reads as fresh and new as anything off the indy racks. The soft cartooned characters, the minimalist dialogue, and single color styling have all become trademarks of the independent comics and it's simply shocking to see them all here years before the emergence of alternative comics in America. The stories are gritty and dirty, exposing some of the very worst of humanity. To think that this book was released alongside light-hearted manga or Tezuka's work is a real shock. It's a great collection, with the promise of more to come.