Free Comic Book Day (aka Wait in Line Day)

As an official comic book geek, Jesse pre-registered for Free Comic Book Day at one of the local comic book stores last week. He originally thought about taking his Comic Book Club students from school. After looking at the events, he thought it would be more appropriate for Jackson. The website publicized:

Free Comic Book Day hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• FREE Comic Books!
• Scavenger Hunt
• Door prizes (plus “second-chance” drawings)
• Imperial Stormtroopers (arrest a friend)
• Bounce Boot Camp “Basic Training” (wear socks)
• Sketch Artists – get a custom comic cover by artist Tony Scott!

We decided to go as a family. It began as a lot of fun. The first thing that caught Jackson's eye was the Storm Troopers. He was so excited. Maddie was terrified.

We checked out the obstacle course. Since there were very few children at that time, Jackson was able to climb and slide as many times as he wanted. It was too steep for the trio to climb, so we let them run around in the field.

The level of fun began to dwindle at the ice cream shop. In order to receive the four free comic books, you had to go on a scavenger hunt and find the secret codes for the Avengers. The Captain America code was in the ice cream shop across the street. Of course, we decided to order ice cream.

There weren't really any directions so we weren't sure what we were looking for exactly. The ice cream shop was packed, so I pushed the double stroller through a back room to try and get out of the way. Lo and behold, there was a small picture of Captain America with a three digit number displayed among local students' artwork.

Jesse and Jackson played arcade games while I chased after the trio. I became irrationally impatient the longer we waited. Finally, after TWENTY-EIGHT minutes, our name was called for ice cream. Unfortunately, we had to rush to eat it because we were already late for our timed-entry into the comic book store.

The store was heavily secured and only a limited number of people were allowed in at one time. After we found the other codes and selected the comic book requests, we had to wait until our name was called. It was after 1 at this point. None of the kids had napped or eaten lunch. Jackson was getting whiny. I decided to take the girls outside in the double stroller.

The thing I was most excited about was getting the custom comic book cover. You could purchase a comic book with a blank cover available for $5, then have a sketch artist draw you as a superhero on the cover. The girls and I waited in the sketch artist's line for 30 minutes while the boys waited in the store. Jesse and I had hoped the sketch artist would draw all four kids on an Avengers cover that we could frame. The artists' work was great, but he averaged fifteen minutes per cover and there were still six people in front of us. There was no way the six of us could wait another hour or more. 

When we asked Jackson if he had fun at the comic book store he said, "No! Too much waiting!" I agree. Jesse thought it was worth it to get the limited edition "free comic book day" books.