WATERVILLE  — Loki had a miniature Thor in her pocket Saturday at the Waterville Public Library, and one local girl just knew it.

Perfect — Loki, the Marvel Comics character, brother of Thor, and known as the God of Mischief, was there is full costume.

Rebecca Bradstreet fixes her Loki costume Saturday at the Waterville Public Library during Free Comic Book Day in Waterville. Morning Sentinel photo by Michael G. Seamans

Leila Turner, 14, of Waterville, saw it coming Saturday, which was national Free Comic Book Day.

“Really, a geek is the only person who can really normally ask, ‘Do you have Thor in your pocket’ and not feel like slightly insane,” Turner said. “I come to this every year. It’s the ability to just converge with other geeks and discuss stuff like that.”

The Bartlett Room for Teens at the public library, teaming up with the recently relocated Black Cape Comics on Main Street, made for a two-location event that featured not just geeks, but moms and dads, little kids and big kids, all grabbing a chance for free comic books — 53 new titles in all.

Sarah Taylor, 29, a library employee, was busy making pins with some of the younger children from comic book images she cut out Saturday. She said Free Comic Book Day is relatively new to Waterville but has been going on since 2002 nationally — even globally.

“It’s a national event where comic book shops and libraries and stores across the U.S. participate to hand out free comics,” Taylor said. “We ordered them a few months in advance and the company sends them to us. Black Cape Comics down the street also is doing an event. He helped us order our comics this year.”

The library ordered 300 comic books, with titles running the gamut from Casper the Friendly Ghost and Spongebob to The Avengers, Spider-Man, Deadly Class, Catalyst Prime, Mindcraft and Future’s End.

Wolverine roamed the streets of the Elm City on Saturday, and one dad wore a T-shirt that read “Vader was Framed.”

Saturday also was national Star Wars Day, or May 4 — as in, “May the 4th be with you.”

Rebecca Bradstreet, 44, of Albion, was Loki on Saturday, a cosplay theme she has used before. She wore the costume for Cirque du Geek in 2016.

“Loki’s a god in Norse mythology and his brother Thor is a superhero that fights with a bunch of other superheroes in Marvel comic books as The Avengers,” Bradstreet said, all decked out in a hooded Loki costume. “These days The Avengers are really popular because of the Avengers movies. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ opened just a week ago.”

Over at Black Cape Comics on Saturday morning, Brian and Dawn Gigure were browsing among comics with son Aaron, 3, and Coraline, 4.

Little Aaron had a copy of “Ghost Hog.” Coraline had a comic book titled “Hope.” She picked that one because there was girl on the front, her mother said.

Hope is a new female superhero in the comic book realm. So why did Coraline like that particular book, she was asked?

“Because it’s so pretty,” she said.

Benjamin Main, owner of Black Cape Comics, said he first opened last summer in space above the Proper Pig on Common Street. He moved just recently to the new location on Main Street.

“I’ve been working on this for a couple of years. I went to business school with this in mind,” he said. “I knew that there was a good market for this stuff. Over the years, it’s definitely been up and down, and now I think it’s making a big comeback. There’s a lot of new artists that are putting out some really good product, and there hasn’t been anything like this in this area for quite a while — comic books, board games, anything that’s pop culture.”

He said the free comic books on Saturday were a good way to showcase his shop and bring people into the world of comics and superheroes.

“As you can see, we’re pretty busy,” he said.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories