I hope everyone enjoyed Free Comic Book Day yesterday!  My brother and I hit three different spots, each getting +/- eight comics by the end.  My haul included:

Avatar: The Last Airbender (plus Plants vs. Zombies and Bandette), by Dark Horse Comics:  Three short one-shots in which Toph and Ty Lee visit the circus, a mad scientist alien creature builds a devious new invention, and a plucky young bandit plans an epic movie theater heist.

Boom! Studios’ Ten Year Celebration – 2015 Free Comic Book Day Special:  A collection of ten stories, including such titles as Labyrinth, Adventure Time, Peanuts, and Lumberjanes.  Of course I loved the Labyrinth story, “Wisdom & Idioms,” which features the classic comedy stylings of the Wiseman and his snarky bird hat thing.  I also really liked Mouse Guard: “Service to Seyan,” a sort of fairy tale about a grand afterlife city “where warriors of renown go to rest.”

Steampunk Goldilocks, by Rod Espinosa and Antarctic Press:  a really goofy adaptation in which sisters Goldi and Muffi (Miss Muffett) are called by their employer, the Dark Queen, to complete a heist at a bear-guarded bunker.  Here’s a brief interview of Espinosa by the FCBD crew.  I’m definitely curious about his other Steampunk Fables, like The Snow Queen and Red Riding Hood.

Excerpts from Super Mutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki, printed by Drawn & Quarterly.  Just last week, I read Etelka Lehoczky’s NPR review, which describes SMMA as a kind of parody of Harry Potter.  There are students with cat ears, lizard heads, invisibility powers, and of course Instagram accounts, engaging in such adventures as dueling bake sales, prom dress criticism, and gym class sexism recognition.

Sharing the same book as SMMA are excerpts from Step Aside, Pops, Kate Beaton’s forthcoming Hark! A Vagrant! collection (to be released Sept. 2015).  Behold! The Mulder family plans to attend an Austen-esque X-Files ball…Julius Caesar plans his March wardrobe…the brutal “Black Prince” Edward is oddly remembered as “the Flower of English Chivalry”…and more historical/artistic/pop-culture shenanigans!

Cleopatra in Space, by Mike Maihack.  Graphix and Scholastic Press.  Excerpt from Book One: Target Practice.  Teenage Cleopatra VII accidentally sets off a time machine that sends her into the distant future, where she’s met by a group of talking cats that run a research and military defense pyramid during an interplanetary war.  It’s cute and intriguing, though the whole “You’re our prophesied teen savior!” thing has gotten old.

BBC’s Doctor Who:  Three one-shot adventures featuring Doctors 12, 11, and 10, respectively.  Here be electrically charged quartz planets, evil comic book viruses, and giant mud monsters in the laundry room!

Image Comics’ Flight Primer: An intro to the Flight collections (which I’ve reviewed more in-depth here), featuring two stories by Kazu Kibuishi and Jake Parker, respectively.  A guy and his faithful dog build their first airplane and hope for a non-disastrous maiden voyage.  A bird and a robot become best friends and have adorable adventures until winter arrives.

Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales Halloween Special: Containing a very grim adaptation of W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw.”  Three unsuspecting trick-or-treaters enter the haunted house of a scantily clad witch (apparently the friend of one kid’s mom), who tells them the further-twisted story of “The Monkey’s Paw.”  Yeah, this one was a bit too grim and twisted for me.

There was also a free mini-comic preview of the upcoming TNT show, The Last Ship.  You know, one of those killer-virus-pandemic stories.  Ooh, and one of the shops was selling Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs!

What were some of your favorite FCBD finds this year?