Free Comic Book Day 2019.

Free Comic Book Day 2019. Alternate Worlds

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) had a double impact this year falling on Star Wars Day –May the Fourth (be with you). The worldwide day of celebrating the local home of all things comics and pop culture has now been going strong for 17 years and usually coincides with the release of a comic based blockbuster movie. This year, of course, is the massively popular Avengers Endgame, which at the time of writing is headed to being one of the biggest grossing pictures of all time.

It would be nice to say these blockbuster movies worked their release days around Free Comic Book Day but in fact, FCBD was actually started around the release of the first Spider-Man movie back in 2002. Despite this FCBD is still a popular date on the calendar and has turned out to be a great family-friendly event.

Some comic stores in the city centre have lines reaching over two hundred metres long before opening but out here in the outer suburbs, it’s a bit more laid back. My local comic book store Alternate Worlds in Malvern Street Bayswater. The day tends to be far busier than normal but without the crazy crowds that seem to descend on their big city counterparts.

Peter Hughes reaction to the big crowd

However, this year was a little different. Alternate Worlds were a lot more inclusive this year, with special prizes for kids under 12, in the way of costumes and trivia contests but for us more mature fans, owner Peter Hughes and Joe Italiano displayed some of their more collectible comics in a million dollar plus exhibit of rare and historical comic books, many from Joe’s private collection.

Joe Italiano and the Million Dollar Wall

It was wonderful to see parents strolling around on a Saturday morning with children as young as three and four dressed as Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman among others flipping through comics seeing which one they want to take home. The Dad’s as excited a the kids in some cases.

Every year the many comic book publishers issue special comics as samplers, stand-alone issues for those new to comics featuring old and new characters. Surprisingly not the more popular movie based characters, which I like, as it feels less exploitive.

The Million Dollar Wall

But this year I was excited to catch a glimpse of these rare comics on display. I have a love of comic book history predominantly Australian but it’s always nice to see something so rare that they have the same price as a small house. Because believe it or not, old and rare comics are commodities much like wines, coins and books these days and can command huge prices at some of the most prestigious auction houses. As an example, the original comic in which Superman first appeared – Action Comics No.1 was last sold in 2014  at over 3 million US dollars.

Whilst that particular comic wasn’t on the board, there was in no particular order. Amazing Fantasy No.15 1963 (the first appearance of Spider-Man) Action Comic No. 252  1959 (the first appearance of Supergirl)  Tales of Suspense 1963 (The first appearance of Iron Man) Superman No.8 1941 and Batman No.9 1942 (Both 1940s editions of the world-famous heroes when they were first starting out) and Captain America No.15 1942 (with the slightly racist war-time  title Nazi’s & Nips) A quick search on Google in the price guide sites and you soon realise why they called it the Million Dollar Wall.

Though a more subdued celebration of Free Comic Book day, Alternate Worlds still made an occasion of it but I have no doubt local comic book shops the world over had a big boost in sales this weekend.