Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday

There was a time when nerds were shunned, relegated to the chess club, the inside of their high school lockers and the more cat-filled portions of used-book stores, because cats are inexplicably drawn to the scent of old Del Rey paperback science-fiction novels.

Today, the geeks have inherited the earth, with three big comic-book based summer blockbusters coming out this year, including this weekend’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” There are several comic-book series on the small screen as well. And, the highly anticipated Free Comic Book Day, which takes place Saturday this year.

“This is the big event for the year and it just keeps getting bigger,” said Ralph Mathieu, owner of Alternate Reality Comics, 4110 S. Maryland Parkway. “There are a lot of great books this year.”

Comic shops across the nation are set to participate in the event, which has taken place annually since 2002. Special comics are produced for the event, and shops give them away to reward loyal customers and attract new ones. Some are reprints of classic material; others are sample stories from a publisher’s most popular books or new works created solely for the event. Locally, 17 stores are participating in the event, including all 15 comic shops and a few that sell comics as part of a wider inventory of collectibles.

Many of the stores are also set to have sales, special guests, drawings, food trucks and costumed characters and cosplay participants, fans who attend events dressed as their favorite comic book characters.

“We really like to make it a big party,” said Roland Wellington, manager of Cosmic Comics, 3830 E. Flamingo Road. “Come into the shop and enjoy everything you can.”

Every shop in town goes big on Free Comic Book Day, but Cosmic Comics pulls out all the stops. The action begins before the doors open at 9 a.m. with customers lining up, many of them in costume. Last year there were more than 150 people waiting in line when the doors opened. Wellington went down the line right before 9 and gave everyone waiting an extra raffle ticket, and he plans to continue that tradition this year.

Another tradition the store plans to continue is its raffle prizes of the source material of a comic-book movie. The event often coincides with the release of a major film based on a comic book. This year it’s “The Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Cosmic Comics’ grand prize raffle will be drawn at 6 p.m. and the prize is four silver age Avengers comics that include the first stories featuring two characters that will be introduced in the film: Avengers 44 and 45 features the first appearance of Ultron and 57 and 58 introduces The Vision.

The store plans to hold hourly raffles from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with prizes of other silver age books and a children’s grand prize of a Lego prize pack at 6 p.m.

The shop also plans to include a photo booth for anyone who shows up in a costume and face painting for kids.

More than 50 titles were created for Free Comic Book Day, including popular characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants, the Teen Titans and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with some less well-known characters, such as Cleopatra in Space, Bodie Troll and Captain Canuck.

One of the surprising titles this year is a preview of “Fight Club 2,” continuing the story from the novel and the 1999 movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. The comic is written by the novel’s author, Chuck Palahniuk.

“Originally, I thought that was going to be a book with a limited audience, but I’ve heard a lot of people talking about it,” said Kelli Brown, co-owner of Action Comics and Games, 210 N. Boulder Highway, Henderson. “There’s a lot more excitement about that book than I thought there would be.”

Action Comics is set to continue its practice of having a food drive for Three Square food bank in conjunction with the event, along with big sales, with much of the items in the store 25 percent off and boxes of 25-cent comics on hand.

Two books that hint at major shake-ups in the comic world are DC’s “Divergence” and Marvel’s “Secret Wars.” Both books are part of plans to change storylines, restructure the two largest comic companies’ individual universes, and kill some characters. “Kill” is probably too strong a word for death in the big two companies. Death is rarely permanent there.

There have been a few major changes in the Las Vegas Valley comic store scene. Forsaken Toys and Collectibles is on hiatus seeking a new location and won’t have a presence for the event. The store had been in one of the valley’s odder locations, occupying several rooms in a storage facility near Buffalo Drive and Flamingo Road.

Oasis Comics, one of the biggest stores in the valley with one of the biggest Free Comic Book Day celebrations closed its doors for good in September. Owner Derek Taylor has decided to refocus his attention on his latest venture, Shall We Play, a game store at 7120 N. Durango Drive.

The line between games and comics has been thinning every year, with both Marvel and DC having popular deck building card games.

Avatar Comics and Games, 881 S. Rainbow Blvd., straddles the line completely and the store’s manager, Kevin Mergen, said that the store will celebrate Free Comic Book Day with free comics and free game play in the store, with demonstrations of comic-book related games.

One other change was the move of Jesse James Celestial Comics from its downtown location in Neonopolis to a Summerlin location at 9440 W. Sahara Ave., Suite 170. As part of its celebration, the store will have special guests comics writer Scott Lobdell and comic artist Bob Layton.

The move to the more suburban part of town may prove to be good for the store. Battlezone Comics moved to its current location at 4444 W. Craig Road nearly three years ago and its sales have continued to grow in that time.

“The move has worked out,” owner Kanon Bene said. “We’re doing much better here.”

Battlezone Comics plans to have pizza, comic creators and sales, including the return of its short box sale.

“We’ll have a bunch of long boxes people can pick books from to load up a short box of comics,” Bene said. “That’s about 150 comics we’re letting go for $30.”

The shops are all open regular, or in some cases, extended hours, but the smart visitors will be there in the morning.

“I always tell people to come as early as they can,” Bene said. “We order more books every year and every year we run out of books.”

For information about Free Comic Book Day, visit freecomicbookday.com.

Contact F. Andrew Taylor at 702-380-4532 or ataylor@reviewjournal.com.