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Friday 3 May 2013

Free Comic Book Day and cheap Iron Man comics

We have two exciting things to share with you today.

The first is Free Comic Book Day, a day when you get free comics!  Happening tomorrow, Saturday May 4th!! Sounds great doesn't it?  And there is no catch!  The first Saturday of May is Free Comic Book Day.  Go to any participating comic shop and get your pick of free comics, from a wide range of genres and publishers.  There are loads and loads available, but not all shops stock everything.

From this year's selection I recommend Top Shelf Kids Club,  Princeless/Molly Danger and Mouse Guard.  The rest I either don't know or do not care for.  Having said that I tend to pick up whatever is going just to try it out.

Now, the thing to remember about Free Comic Book Day is that the shops do not get the comics for free.  They have to pay for them, then they pass them on to the customer for free.  So please consider buying other comics while you are there, or, if you get a free book that you like, going back to pick up other issues.

The second thing to share with you is Comixology's 3 day Iron Man sale, in honour of the latest film.  Each comic is 99 cents (American currency) which is about 60 pence in English money.  The sale ends on Sunday.
As I am not too familiar with Iron Man myself I asked twitter friends to provide some recommendations, so thank you @problem_chimp, @lizbatty, and @ZomDa.  They came up with two suggestions:

Iron Man 1 - 6 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Adi Granov (pencils).  Here's a link to the first issue.  Issues 1 to 6 form an arc called Extremis, which ZomDa says is ideal for new readers - it's a standalone story, updates Tony Stark's origin (this happens regularly with characters which have been around for a few decades) and the plot has been adapted into the Iron Man 3 film.  That sounds pretty ideal to me.

Invincible Iron Man issues 1 - 6 by Matt Fraction (writer) and Salvador Larocca (pencils).  Here's a link to the first issue.
Both lizbatty and ZomDa agree this series is good, but Liz commented that it quickly descends into crossover hell, which could either put off new readers or excite you. It depends on how keen you are on continuity, guest stars and series being forced into big events within the shared universe.  Issues 1 to 6 are a self contained arc, The Five Nightmares, so a good place to start.

Also in the sale are Iron Man/Thor 1-4, Marvel's The Avengers The Black Widow Strikes, a three issue movie tie in that is set between Iron Man 2 and another comic, Marvel's The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative #1, which is a prequel to the Avengers film.  Most comics aren't set in movie continuity, so expect what you read in here to be movie correct not regular Marvel comic correct.

So there you go. I know that Matt Fraction is a very good writer and we've reviewed other Warren Ellis titles before, so I reckon that those recommendations are good ones.  I find movie tie-ins good fun too. 

Enjoy your comics!

2 comments:

  1. This is the 10th anniversary, so many good FCBD memories :)

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  2. I would add now I have >140 characters that Extremis is not only the basis for IM3, it's an origin story which is pretty close to the one used in the films, probably because it's the most up-to-date, but it will be familiar if you've seen the films. Adi Granov's art is really nice too.

    Invincible Iron Man I like but not as much. The first arc stands alone, the second one has some heavy involvment from Norman Osborn director of HAMMER, and if you don't know what that is or why it's a bit confusing. So try the first arc and see, I think.

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