Free Comic Book Day 2017 at Excalibur Comics! (ZAK Comic Week)

Welcome back to ZAK Entertainment everyone! Did you enjoy your weekend? This past weekend for me has been action packed, not unlike your favorite action comic which is what Saturday was all about.

Free Comic Book Day was an absolute crazy blast for me and now I’m bringing the action to you guys! As this is the first year of doing this for ZAK Entertainment, coupled with the fact that my video making has been severely lacking, I decided to record my FCBD trip for you guys! This was a pretty big trip so this blog and my Vlog will be cut into two parts; one part being today’s blog and part 2 will be going up on Wednesday. To make this even more awesome I’m officially dubbing this the ZAK Entertainment Comic Book Week so expect comic book discussions every day this week, the part 1 today of my FCBD trip today, part 2 Wednesday and a special blog Friday talking about some old comics I’ve owned for years. Don’t worry folks I’ll resume normal transmission next week but dubbing this Comic Book week seems appropriate.

My first stop was a local comic book store called Excalibur Comics. They have two locations here in the Ark-La-Tex area one in Texarkana Arkansas (Or is it on the Texas side? I’m not sure.) and one here in Shreveport Louisiana. Well I’ll be heading to the Shreveport location with my Dad, who’s just as much of a comic lover as me in this vlog. So without further ado let’s dive into some comic book goodness!

Pretty awesome huh? Excalibur Comics is a comic book lover and collector’s paradise.

As soon as you walk in that feeling of excitement hits you like a pow. With Comic Book related action figures such as Batman: The Animated Series figures hanging on the shelves near the entrance to the mass amount of Pop Funko figures lined on top of cupboards holding classic and retro comics safely filed in their drawers.

A nostalgic shock instantly shot through my system and I have to admit I felt like a kid again. This definitely isn’t just a walk in and buy store, I could of stayed there all day. I think I may of missed some things so a return trip is a must but one part of this store you can’t miss is the amazing almost museum like display of Comic Book figures in the front right corner of the store near the entrance.

From DC to Marvel to even Disney figures this display is chock full of goodies.

This is probably my favorite part of the store to be honest. I was also surprised to see so many retro figures such as these large Spider-Man figures from the 1994 cartoon.

That was probably one of my favorite super hero shows when I was young so it was cool to see these figures here, really added to that nostalgic feeling.

Of course this trip was all about Free Comic Book Day and oh boy did they have a lot. While I wasn’t able to grab one of every comic this place was offering for free I grabbed the ones that caught my eye the most, I’ll be showing that off in a minute. If you weren’t able to make it to Free Comic Book Day then you were missing out. Excalibur was offering every comic that was listed on the official FCBD website. Lot’s of people were here to get their free comics, like a lot of people. Everyone was chatting away about their favorite comics and while I felt they knew way much more then I it was fun to be around all these fellow comic book lovers.

After Dad and I grabbed our free comics we did some more exploring. On the back end of the store they had more hard back books but also quite a lot of Manga, which is appropriate because they’re just Japanese comics without coloring and more shading… I’ll probably get yelled at for saying that. Anyway I didn’t really see any I recognized but perhaps I can go back and have a look, I’m definitely going back in general anyway. Of course you can’t have a comic book store without having new comics and Excalibur Comics absolutely delivers, I believe I found copies of all the recent releases, like every recent release from DC, Marvel, Boom, Dark Horse, you name it they had the lot. They seem nicely organized too so it was easy to find everything. I even saw comics I didn’t know existed that caught my interest so perhaps I can check them out and discuss them here on ZAK Entertainment for you guys!

One last part of this store I found was cool was the card game section of this store. It wasn’t a huge part of the store but they had quite a lot of Magic the Gathering. (I have no idea how to play this game, someone teach me.) Of course Pokemon Cards were present but I didn’t see much, just this one strip but it has all the up to date booster packs so that’s good enough for me.

Speaking of cards they had some sweet baseball cards here, which was unexpected.

Overall this place is absolutely kick-ass and awesome and I absolutely recommend you come check this place out if you’re in the area. If not maybe you could check your own local comic book store out? They’re probably just as awesome and jam-packed with comic goodness and the prices are pretty good. (Though some of the more collectable stuff wasn’t priced… Those would probably empty your pockets.) You can check out Excalibur Comics on their website http://www.excaliburccg.com/.

This isn’t the end of my FCBD trip but you guys will have to wait until Wednesday for part 2. I know, I tried to squeeze everything into one Video but you would have had to sit through 35 minutes of video… So I figured it was best to split it up. While my complete Free Comic Book Day haul won’t be shown off on until Wednesday I figured I’ll show you guys my Excalibur Comics haul here. (I got some more from 2^nd and Charles)

Going into this I’ve not read all of these so sorry if some of the descriptions are a bit vague.

First off I got myself a copy of Buffy The High School Years. As you might notice this also has a Plants VS Zombie story in it. While these act as previews its almost like I got two comics in one and quite a few of these have multiple stories in them, so basically I got more then 9 in a way. I haven’t watched Buffy in quite a few years but this reboot which launched back in 2016 with it’s first issue “Freaks & Geeks”. This series takes place during Season 1 and 2 of the original television series and Buffy is back in all her vampire slayer glory. This FCBD issue proves that as Buffy takes on a vampire at a comic book store. (It’s fitting.) Gotta say I really love the art style of this and Buffy’s drawn to look just like Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The Plants VS Zombie story is quite funny actually; I didn’t know a Plants VS Zombie comic series existed but this was a fun time traveling story. (Time Traveling Zombies, who knew?)

Next up I got Secret Empire from Marvel.

SPOILER WARNING

If the cover confused you then let me explain… Apparently Captain America was secretly working for Hydra the entire time and now the Avengers are pitted against their once comrade and friend. Yeah I haven’t been able to read much into it but this comic is a good build up for what looks like a conflict of fists and friendship. Oh yeah! A cool Spider-Man story is included.

Free Comic Book Day also included some manga as well, though it looks more like a comic book you still read it in the manga direction, which is opposite of comics. I picked up three manga from this and the first one, funny enough is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

So I’ve not watched JoJo (Yet) so going into this I really had no idea what to expect, I’ve seen the constant JoJokes (Yeah I went there) online but never really looked into it. Though I’ve always been interested in giving it a go so I figure why not start here? Immediately as I jump into this… I’m greeted by super muscle guys fighting each other. By Super muscle I mean damn they really over exaggerated the muscles in this manga, which for some reason made it funny and cool to read. I don’t quite know what was happening but it made me want to read or watch more into JoJo. A Classic Yugioh battle is also included in this. I watched Yugioh on and off as a kid and while I prefer the original series and don’t watch the new stuff I’m still interested in it. This was my first encounter with the Yugioh manga and I can safely say… It’s so much darker then the anime.

The second manga I grabbed was a preview of the new Dragonball Super manga. Been looking forward to DragonBall Super as a proper sequel to Dragonball Z (Does GT actually count? Oh god that theme song is stuck in my head now.) and this manga definitely doesn’t disappoint… Though Goku gets his butt handed to him. Boruto is also included. I fell behind on Naruto years ago so I only know what happened from what I’ve read online but apparently Naruto FINALLY became Hokage and has a son now named Boruto. It was a good read but I really have to catch back up.

The last manga I grabbed is quite awesome… It’s a preview of The Legend of Zelda Twlight Princess manga. I wasn’t aware of the Twilight Princess Manga was being translated yet but it released over here on March 14^th, 2017. I haven’t been able to read it yet but I’m excited to give this preview a go and hopefully get hold of the main series as well. Twilight Princess is by far my favorite Zelda in the franchise. Oh yeah! Another story from the Ocarina of Time Manga is included too, which is pretty cool.

Back to the comics I got ahold of a special DC Rebirth Wonder Woman issue. I haven’t read this yet but I believe it’s a prequel of sorts to the DC Rebirth main issues, which I’ve talked about in a previousblog. I actually already planned on reading Wonder Woman so this is an added bonus. Keep an eye out for a future discussion on that!

I didn’t expect this comic to be available there but I eagerly grabbed it regardless, this is issue number 1 of the Street Fighter 5 comic! I’ve been a big fan of Street Fighter for a while now though I’ve always sucked when it comes to actually playing it. I’ve not ventured outside of Street Fighter 4 though so maybe I’ll be better when I get ahold of SF5. (Capcom please put it on the Nintendo Switch.) Anyway I really love the art style of this comic, I’m not sure what you would call it, 2D cell shaded? It’s awesome regardless and makes the characters look like they’re from the actual game without it being 3D models. I kind of want to try this coloring method myself… Somehow.

I’ve been watching this show on Netflix for a while now but I was surprised to find a comic based on it… Coming from the land of Fashion and Romance comes Miraculous starring Ladybug and Cat Nior. I’ve grown quite attached to this series and it’s awesome to see a comic based on it. Apparently they’ve been around since July 2016 (Man 2016 was the year of Comic Book launches, has anyone else noticed that?) but as I didn’t know about the show until a month ago I’m excused for not knowing about this.

Here comes the final comic I grabbed…

Last Friday I talked a little about how I’ve been getting into Archie comics after years of knowing about it but never diving in… Well I figured with this recent interest I’d grab this Betty and Veronica Issue 1. Everyone knows who Betty & Veronica is but with the recent reboot and new more realistic art style it was time to take the Archie spin off that started back in the 1950s and give it a fresh coat of paint. While I do miss the art style that was present from 1987-2015 this looks pretty good. Looks like some drama is happening but I’ve yet to dive into this comic yet.

Well that’s it for my Excalibur Comics haul! I grabbed more then this for my little brother and sister but Roo has already grabbed them (Quite carefully too.) and hidden them in his room for his viewing pleasure.

Dad has also let me take some photos of his haul too but I’m actually running a bit thin on this blog, it’s getting pretty long. I can say though he got quite a few different comics then I did such as Underdog, which is pretty cool it has some new stories as well as a classic story.

Be sure to come back to ZAK Entertainment on Wednesday for the 2^nd and Charles trip!

Now before I go, a lot of you probably came home with plastic sleeves for your comic books but what if I told you I have an awesome knitting pattern that’ll make you forgo your plastic sleeve? Today’s featured pattern is the “iPad/Tablet/Comic Book Cozy” by HoleyHoot Designs!

Photo Provided by HoleyHoot Designs!

This is so cool I never would of thought of knitting a cozy for my comics and the fact that it’s a cable knit design makes this an even cooler pattern. This pattern is designed to fit a standard comic book (I don’t see any comic books that forgo this standard size unless it’s a volume or collection so you’re good.) and uses Worsted yarn and US 8 / 5.0 MM needles. Though this pattern is worked by holding the yarn from the outside of the skein and the strand from the inside of the skein I’m wondering how thick this cozy really is… Doubling worsted yarn? That sounds kind of hard to knit but I guess a tight knit means better protection. Other then that the pattern seems easy enough to follow so I might give it a go (Though perhaps with a slightly lighter yarn, not convinced on doubling an already thick yarn.) and you can check the pattern out for yourself on Ravelry and at HoleyHoot’s blog: http://holeyhoot.blogspot.com/2012/11/pattern-comic-book-cozy.html.

Check out Part 2 of my Free Comic Book Day trip and ZAK Comic Week here: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/05/free-comic-book-day-2017-at-2nd-charles.html

That’s a wrap folks!