For the fifth year now, the MWG has attended Free Comic Book Day at G-Mart in Champaign. This event was much like the last four, but no police showed up!
We got to G-Mart around 11:00 and started suiting up. Once again we were able to dress in the gamer's room with plenty of space. We got ready and headed out around noon. The first reaction from the public is always the best and the store customers were surprised and happy to see us. The comic shop is a little small, so we usually troop outside for this event. We get out on the sidewalk, wave at cars and take a bunch of pictures. We always troop down to the corner of Main and Walnut and wave to traffic. There's a light there and we usually get a good amount of attention. Only one near car wreck in five years! We also carry a Free Comic Book Day sign as well.
I got a FCBD poster from the store manager ahead of time and I mounted it to a piece of foamcore. This made it much easier to carry. In the past, I would make a sign at the store on the fly. The only thing the shop had for me to use was a flattened cardboard box and it never worked very well. This year, the sign was much better.
We took a break after about 1 1/2 hours and had some free pizza compliments of G-Mart. After that we trooped about another hour and called it a day. By then, most of the customers were gone and we had to make our way to a birthday party in Gibson City.
Overall, everyone had a good time and I hope to organize this event again next year.
