Free Comic Book Day Recap at CNJComics

We just got our wrap up videos, so it’s time to do our yearly round of thank you’s for this year’s Free Comic Book Day!

This isn’t our usual email, but if you’d like a little look at what goes into FCBD than this is for you!

This is the year the everything came together for us. We were all waiting for the usual crisis that never happened, mostly because everyone knew their roles, we had lots of support, and a little luck played into it too.

It was also the year of Steranko. What a great idea that turned out to be. I know I got everything I wanted out of it, and I hope you did too. I can honestly say I’ve never met anyone like him before in any of my walks in life.

Someday I’m going to write a summary of the event that revolves around my interactions with him, but for now, let’s just keep going.

Here’s the aforementioned videos for both the day and night events. Enjoy!

First up I’d like to thank the volunteers this year. Having them around seriously lightens the workload on the staff and helps it become an enjoyable event for us as well, which is a really great gift.

So thanks to Todd Machuca, Jenn Clifford, Craig Chojnicki, Jason and Justin Fitch, Misty Klinger, Alex Karfault, Josh Fekete, Mark Biszantz, Sarah Kunz and Kelly Gleine. (who likely got the MVP for being everywhere at once and volunteering for every minute of the event.)

Thanks for letting us enjoy the event through your support.

I’d like to thank all the artists for donating their time and putting so much new artwork into our community in the form of free sketches. Another really great gift, only this time it’s to you. Do your due diligence and look up any artist you had an encounter with and follow them on social media. We’d also like to thank Dee Piotrowski for the Winston Cover, and Sean and Kristen Burns of the Breakneck Gallery for putting together the art show and helping to wrangle the artists. The show really covered the wide scope of Steranko’s career and I know he was moved by it.

Thanks to the Rust Belt Monsters for providing us with another great mural. I really dug the area outside of the shop during the day event this year and they added to the tremendously.

I’d like to thank Laura Wimbels and Joe Carroll for being Steranko’s handlers for the weekend, getting him where he needed to be and helping him out at his booth. Laura also pulled double duty and took photographs of the event during the day, which you can check out here!

Thanks to Macklin for bartending and keeping the positive vibe in that space. Always tip your bartenders! Thanks to Working Class Brewery and Wild Ohio Brewing for donating beer to the event.

Thanks to the Rubber City Cosplay kids for showing up and lending us their energy with the photo booth on Friday Night. Thanks to Heather Linn for giving us a great photo set from the night event. Thanks to Drones2You for giving us the first drone coverage of our event. Thanks to the Star Wars Groups for showing up and being awesome as always.

Rubber City Cosplay Photo Booth!

Heather Linn Night Event Photos!

Drones2You Video:

Thanks to Lisa and the crew at the Kamms Corner Ice Cream Co for the Infinity Gauntlet Ice Cream, which sold out! Thanks to Andrea from the Burning River Baking Company for the great Walking Dead cookies!

Thanks to the Panel Scanners for being our official Podcast crew. They’ve got three episodes up dedicated to this years FCBD!

Thanks goes out to John Woods for keeping the web site and emails up and running all year long, but especially during the info dump that the event always becomes.

A special thank goes out to Jameson for doing so much work on this event as always. From the lithograph to the beer labels to the graphic design of the Pop Fun Photo Booth, as well as the above recap videos. Every year he outdoes himself and his influence can be seen in every event.

That Pop Fun Box turned out to be a great idea. Expect a 2.0 version in the future.

Of course thank to the staff for being amazing and working long hours during every stage of the event. We are not a very big crew, but I like to equate it to Mal’s team on Serenity. Running a small business is a lot like flying a ship I reckon…


Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: But it ain’t all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say.
River Tam: I do. But I like to hear you say it.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘Verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don’t love, she’ll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she’s hurtin’ ‘fore she keens. Makes her a home.
River Tam: Storm’s getting worse.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: We’ll pass through it soon enough.


So thanks to Ben and Jim and Jason and Josh and Kevin and John Shearer. We’ve kept this boat afloat for years in a changing world of retail because we love it.

Oh yeah, and thanks to my mom, Carol, for opening up a shop with me over 27 years ago. Carol was an all star this year, renting a scooter and cruising up and down the lines to talk to people. When she told me she was going to do that I initially thought it was a bad idea, but then every time I saw here jetting around it was just a very comforting feeling for some reason. Here’s to 27 more little lady.

I’d thank Winston but he seriously does nothing. Nothing.

You can tell by the above images that my family’s a big part of the event. My eldest daughter looks forward to it now, which is pretty incredible to me. Images like this make me feel like we’re still headed down the right path. Thanks Apryl, Zoe and Luna too. You’re the best.

Thank You Cleveland. I’ve learned that we only set the stage, It only works when it’s filled with awesome people and that’s you. It’s sort of cliche to put the world ‘Community’ around a small business but I’m going to throw it out there anyway. I really like seeing everyone at the event and everyone contributes in their own way, so let’s just call it what it is. You’re a Community.