Free Comic Book Day delayed, but comics still worth celebrating
For the first time in many years, the first Saturday in May won't mark Free Comic Book Day, as the worldwide comic celebration at comic-book stores has been postponed amid coronavirus concerns.
While a new date for the holiday hasn't been set, here are a few ways to celebrate despite the challenges:
• Support your local comic shop. Some stores in Oklahoma are trying to reopen in limited ways this weekend. Others may still be closed but offer gift cards or other online shopping options.
• Read a local assortment of “free comics.” Publisher Jeff Provine offers a variety of free comic-book stories
created by Oklahomans at the okiecomics.com web site. The latest, written by Provine and drawn by Tanner Feuerborn, is “The Boomers” #8, “Holding out for a Hero,” in which the Oklahoma superhero team known as the Boomers seeks new recruits.
• Check out another free comic with Oklahoma connections. Arigon Starr is a musician, actor, writer and the creator/artist of the “Super Indian” comics from the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and Muscogee Creek Nation. Issues 2 and 3
of her “Super Indian” comics can be read at superindiancomics.com.
• Follow the adventures of Dick Tracy. Hard-nosed police detective Dick Tracy is almost certainly the most famous comics character created by an Oklahoman.
Pawnee native Chester Gould created the character, who debuted in 1931. You can read the current and past adventures of Tracy in the comic strips online at www.gocomics.com/dicktracy. Interested in more comic strips? Links to many popular strips can be found at oklahoman.com/comics.
• Writer/artist John Eric Osborn has sample comic strips and a video reading of his “Hiro Doggie: Space Corgi” comic strip on his website at www. jeocreations.com/hirodoggie.
In the comic strip, Hiro the Corgi goes on his first space adventure and journeys to catch an interplanetary thief. Other Oklahoma cartoonists with free webcomic updates online include Charles Work, with “Principles of Programming Languages” at harlesworkppl.blogspot. com and Mind Over Splatter Studios' adaptation of “MacBeth” at the studio's Facebook page.
Free Comic Book Day is all about getting out of your comfort zone and sampling new material, as well as providing links to literacy for younger readers. While comic shops aren't able to host the huge crowds this day usually draws, comic retailers and creators still have avenues for readers to achieve those goals. Try something new this weekend and celebrate the spirit of Free Comic Book Day, as comics fans await the return of the full-scale celebration sometime in the future.