Free Comics Day!

 It was Marc and his son Kieran who told us about Free Comic Book Day at Forbidden Planet in Birmingham. After making some hasty arrangements the night before, I threw Maisie, Martha, Vicky, Matthew and Harry the Dwarf into the car and met Marc and Kieran in Birmingham City Centre. It was a fresh and sunny day, the kind of morning when you're glad to be spending time with your friends doing something new. The kids laughed and joked in the short queue until Forbidden Planet opened its doors and starting dishing out bags of free comics!



The free comics in my bag

The comic books were all promotional items, so not really free comics, more free comic book adverts. These were gratefully received just the same, with the Future's End book being very interesting and well drawn.

The shop was busy but not crowded. As usual, comic book fans were polite and respectful to each other, just as they were at Comic Con. The girls had birthday/Christmas money burning holes in their pockets so we eventually left the shop with three Doctor Who DVDs, a Doctor Who box set, a Flash graphic novel and at least 4 manga books!

After this, Kieran led us next door to Games Workshop where he purchased a Imperial tank for his Warhammer 40,000 gaming. It's a game I really miss playing and have fond memories of (I lost every single game against my brother, but it was still a great time!)

Next, Harry led a charge for sugar and we all ended up at Poundland for more sweets and pop than was good for us!



The gang (minus Kieran) in Waterstones.

The last port of call was Waterstones where I tried to interest Matthew in The Belgariad by David Eddings. Matthew remained unimpressed, however, due to the fact that he considered the storyline borrowed too heavily from the work of Chistopher Paolini. Even when Marc and I explained that the first book of the Belgariad was in print before Paolini was born, Matthew remained unconvinced! He ended up buying a large trade paperback of Avengers vs X-Men stories. It did look pretty good!
After this, Marc and Kieran headed home and the rest of the gang ended up enjoying the sunshine while playing in the stream at the bottom of Harry's garden.

What a good day to be a kid.