The all age comics that are part of Free Comic Book Day

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The other day I was the guest reader at our son’s elementary school. As usual, I brought in a couple of comic books for those kids that wanted to read on their own. Before I left the room I told the kids that this Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and that it was a chance to pick up free comic books at their local store. I blew their minds. The kids lit up like the fourth of July and I was backed up by the fact that the teacher knew where our closest comic book store was located.

Free Comic Book Day is when publishers put out free comics for you to take home. Get titles that you love, perhaps a character that you’ve always been curious about or something you think you might not like-just to see if that’s correct. There are 50 titles in the free comic book mix this year and many of them are great for the all age audience.

To some degree, all of the all age comics are awesome-because they’re free! However, we’re going to start things off with the nine comics that we like best and put the rest of them (which are still awesome-because they’re free!) in no particular order. Your local comic book store will most likely limit you to 5 comic books, so plan accordingly. To find your closest comic book store just put your zip code in Comic Shop Locator.

Bongo

The Bongo Comics Free-For-All is in our must-pull pile every year because it’s essentially a full sized issue of Simpsons Comics for free. Simpsons Comics is published monthly and each issue we pick up is hilarious. It’s great for all ages, even though they won’t get some of the jokes, with bright art that can take parents to a happy place.

Underdog

Underdog from American Mythology is a new series and this is a full sized comic that wets your appetite for the first one. It has a new Underdog story, as well as some classic reprints from the 70’s. The classic story sticks out a little bit and won’t entice young readers as much, but the new story is great, fast paced fun for ages 5 and up.

Fresh Off the Boat

This was the second best surprise in the FCBD haul. With a story by Gene Luen Yang, this has the characters from the ABC show doing what they can’t do on television. That sounds weird, but it’s all about the budget. In this issue the Huang family becomes superheroes, with each member having their own power, as they form The Legion of Dope-Itude. This is funny stuff that makes me want to watch the television show, even though the plot points have nothing in common.

Kid Savage

Kid Savage is one of the best original graphic novels of the year. This full size FCBD offering gives readers the first chapter of this all ages book for free. It’s the story of a Neanderthal on a planet who has a small family of space explorer’s crash land. This has action, laughs and characters that any reader 6 and up will identify with.

Time Shifters

Time Shifter is the best graphic novel I never heard of. It’s from Graphix and they did this last year with Dream Jumper. They release a wildly imaginative and fun chapter from an upcoming graphic novel. Vampire Napoleon, a robot Abraham Lincoln, dinosaurs, time travel and an unknown relic that Luke, a 9 year old boy has control over gets all of this started. They’ll read this one so quick that kids will be counting down the number of days until this book is released, which May 30, 2017.

Hilda’s Back!

Hilda! The last time we saw you your mother had just put you to bed after a wild adventure in the stone forest. Now, you wake up as a stone girl-how are you going to explain this one? This Free Comic Book Day offering picks up where the most recent Hilda book ended. It’s from Nobrow and is one of our favorite new characters that we discovered last year. This full size comic also has Garbage Night, a preview that introduces us to a fox, raccoon and deer who are looking for food when all humans seem to have disappeared.

Spongebob

At least every other month we sing the praises of Spongebob Comics. This issue is different because it’s mainly one story, that of bob, Krabs and everyone else going to the comic book store for No-Charge Funnybook Day. Of course, nothing goes as planned and ages 7 and up will be able to read this without assistance. Ages 5 and up will look at the comic and laugh, with a little parental help in reading it.

Drawn & Quarterly: Colorful Monsters

Drawn & Quarterly is another issue that we pick up each year. For starters it’s huge, this one has 68 pages. Because of that it introduces readers to so many characters that they might otherwise not have the chance to love like Kitaro, Moomin, Anna & Frog and more. Colorful Monsters has lots of funny art and is utterly different, a breath of fresh air if your young reader is looking for something cools, unique and fun to read.

The Loudhouse

The Loudhouse is a sneak preview of the new comic book that’s derived from the hit show on Nickelodeon. It’s a comic book that ages 5 and up are already familiar with due to the show and it will not disappoint them. If anything, the comic book is more entertaining because of benefits of a comic book format.

Below are the covers of all the comic books available on Free Comic Book Day that are OK for all ages.