Business & Tech
Black Cat Joins National Free Comic Book Day
Little kids (and adults too) paid homage to comic book heroes at Black Cat Comics' free giveaway.
Comic book stores, including Milpitas' , participated in a national giveaway on Saturday enticing fans young and old with freebies.
"We have 600 pre-packaged bags to hand out with seven comic books already in them," said co-owner Francie Soito. "Then the customer gets to pick two more comic books from the ones we have here on the table."
National Free Comic Book Day has been held since 2001 and has a wide participation from independent comic book stores. According to the online locator, stores in Fremont, Newark, Mountain View, San Jose and Santa Clara participated.
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On the peninsula, Pacifica's Coastside Comics owner Rony Suguitan said, "We're trying to get more people out here to read comics. They used to be very cheap. Now, the price of a comic book is the price of a gallon of gas. So, comic book publishers put out inexpensive comic books for us to distribute on this day to the general public. There is no obligation to buy. You can come in and get yours for free."
"It always ties in with a new movie," he said. "This year, the Thor movie opens. Thor is based on a comic book character."
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Despite the higher prices, comic book sales remain good.
"Publications in general are struggling," said Ryan Brent, manager of in San Mateo. "What's kind of interesting about comic books is that people have been collecting since they were 10-years-old, so even with the economy being in a downslump, we still see pretty strong support here, just because people want to keep collecting comic books. I've been collecting since 1991–20 years –and I'm not going to stop now."
For a long time, the store was totally vacant of kids, said Brent, who said his generation seemed like they were the last of the comic book collectors.
"But I'm starting to see more and more parents bring their kids in, either wanting them to start reading, since it's a great tool for kids to get interested in reading, or parents looking back, saying 'I had a great time with these, let me bring my kid in to enjoy them like I did.'"
–The article by appeared on San Mateo and Pacifica Patch.
