PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — On Free Comic Book Day, there is rarely a minute of calm at Brave New Worlds in Old City.
People flocked there Saturday to scour one of the shop’s back walls full of free comics, where they were limited to three each.
“Free Comic Book Day is awesome because it’s the day every year we give out free comics to get people psyched on comics they wouldn’t normally read or check out,” said Brian Johnson, one of the managers at Brave New Worlds.
“Hopefully when they come in and get comics, they kind of get that itch, get that bug, and they come back for more.”
University of the Arts student James Valentine got the bug reading “Bitter Root,” a comic about a family of monster hunters during the Harlem Renaissance.
He says comic illustrations are often inspirations for his own work, in which he devises designs for advertising.
“Definitely like bold outlines and dynamic line work … I take those whole comic book elements outside of their contexts and put them in new contexts,” he said.
Customer John Stillwaggon echoed a similar sentiment, saying the comics motivate him as a filmmaker.
“It’s really inspiring to see all these other works and it really inspires you to make great stuff," he said.
For him, Free Comic Book Day was all about people feeling included and like they’re a part of something.
“Everybody’s here, and everybody’s talking about comics. I’ve just talked to a bunch of people about like, ‘Did you read the new Ultimate Spider-Man?’… You really bond with people and form these connections over these characters and these stories,” he said.
The first Free Comic Book Day was on May 4, 2002. More than 2 million books were given away from over 2,200 retailers worldwide.