This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day - Support your local store!

Following on swiftly form Record Store Day - that is to say the 1st Saturday in May, we have Free Comic Book Day - where you can pick up a bag of free swag at your local comics emporium. I will be making the usual trip to one of my favourite London stores - Forbidden Planet on Shaftersbury Avenue.

My two current favourite comics / graphic novel series are both from Image Comics, which has kind of overtaken Vertigo as my current favourite Imprint. The latest collected volumes for each series were out earlier this year, so I will be purchasing at least those:

• Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples - ’Saga’ - a Star-Wars like space epic now in volume 3
• John Layman & Rob Guillory - ’Chew’ - tongue-in-cheek zany ’cibopathic’ superhero odyssey now in volume 8

If you are making your way into Central London, these are your options:

• Forbidden Planet - 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, Covent Garden, WC2H 8JR
• Gosh London - 1 Berwick Street, Soho, W1F 0DR
• Mega City Comics - 18 Inverness Street, Camden, NW1 7HJ
• Orbital Comics - 8 Great Newport Street, Coven Garden, WC2H 7JA

For older issues, second-hand / trades, you can head to the Book & Comic Exchange - 14 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, W11 3HL

As usual I will be trying to pick up on a couple of new series, I will make my findings known in the comments below, once I complete my mission ...