The big story this year is the debut of The Umbrella Academy, created and written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. If you know anything about gerard then you knew that eventually he would return to his first love of comics (he previously did a 6 page story in DC/Paradox Press' The Big Book of the Weird Wild West). Published by Dark Horse Comics, The Umbrella Academy preview revolves around a quirky group of superheroes who attempt to defeat The Magician, who might have murdered a member of the team. The characters are from the mind of Mr. Way, so you know they will be offbeat with a bizarre sense of the absurd. The book is reminiscent, but not a copy of, Doom Patrol, one of Way's favorite comics of all time. Artist Gabriel Ba' compliments the script perfectly and the preview (which is already going for big money on Ebay) serves to whet the appetite for the Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite 6 issue mini-series which debuts in September.

Some of the smartest releases took advantage of the influx of new readers that this day brings. Comic Shop News, which is always free, published a special edition informing casual fans of comics based on popular movies and tv shows, groundbreaking graphic novels, and the best from the superhero realm. Bongo Comics released a comic featuring brand new stories from The Simpsons and Futerama, while DDP gave away a double feaure of Family Guy and Hack And Slash (which is slated to be turned into a major motion picture). Dynamite's Lone Ranger/Battlestar Galactica comic was a hit with fans of those properties and Owly (from Top Shelf) and Wildcard Ink's issue of Gumby (written by Too Much Coffee Man scribe Shannon Wheeler) were surely scooped up by young kids. IDW offered a prequel to the Transformers movie, while industry giant Marvel showed that they care more about their movies than comics by releasing an iron man/Hulk comic. both characters have movies being made, so it's not a huge leap to assume that the company was priming kids for the films as opposed to delivering a story that will get them coming back for more comics. marvel's far superior rival DC Comics released a book for fans of the Legion Of Superhoes cartoon, but stumbled on the fre reprint of the first issue of the new Justice League Of America comic. The latter book is too rlaint of previous stories to not be completely confusing to new readers. hell, I'm a huge fan of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman (the issues stars) and even i was lost at times. Our friends at Fantagraphics pull the most impressive coup of all, as they publish the first Peanuts comic book in decades, and The Unseen Peanuts is made up of lost strips that no one has seen since they were originally published in newspapers so many years ago!

Anthlogies were a big part of FCBD as well. This is a smart tactic as it enables companies to showcase a wider variety of genres in one book.Viper Comics had a sampling of their titles, none of which impressed me. They apparently have a huge book full of different stories on sasquatches coming out. I'll pass. The other stories were so brief that they didn't have time to hook the reader. Aspen did a better job of introducing you to their superheroic fantasy world. Unfortunately, I am able to score dates with actual females, so a book packed with drawings of "hot" fictional women does nothing for me.Arcana was more diverse, though the most intriguing part of their book was the ad for a forthcoming dragon's layer comic. that's pretty rad! Digital Webbing published some stories that vaguely reminded me of better books I'd read from other companies. The most prominent of their titles is Bloodrayne, but it's just not my cup of tea. Teddy Scares was pretty cute, and I could see a line of dolls showing up in Hot Topic at some point. Comics Festival spotlighted some of the best cartoonists from Canada. The Scott Pilgrim story reminded me that I want to feature the title in a bigger way here on the site. The actual Scott Pilgrim title is a real hoot. The best of the anthologies was from Keenspot, which was a collection of some of the best webcomics. My favorite was Wicked Powered. This is an intentionally silly, and at times downright stupid sci-fi comic that kept me smiling the entire time. I wanted to hate it, but I ended up enjoying it more than most of the other comics that came out. Comic Genesis had a similiar concept to Keenspot, but wasn't nearly as good.

Horror comics have seen a creative and sales resurgence over the past few years. While there are some great books out there, Last Blood (a vampire vs zombie comic from Blatant) and Jack The Lantern (a crappy Ghost Rider with a pumpkin head looking guy Castle Rain) and The Amazing Wolf-Man (Image) all fail to deliver the goods. Wolf-Man is also highly innapropriate for children, so do don't let the kids read it!

Let's see what else is in the stack...Boom! Studios gave us a Harvest Moon/Salvadore flip-book, which tells us precious little about either series. Heroic's Liberty Comicsis 4 tales of some chick named Liberty Girl. Man, this book sucks. She goes from ripping apart an airplane in one story to being knock uncoscious when she hits her head on a rock in the next. That's only the tip of the iceberg of this embarrassingly bad comic. Nexus, on the other hand, is a classic indie superhero. I'm not sure that his "greatest hits" issue was a very good introduction for new readers of his advantures, but I'm glad that a new nexus series is on the horizon. Eddie Campbell (of From Hell fame) brings us the first chapter of a case of the Black Diamond Detective Agency. The story revolves around the sabotage of a train, and the Agency's investigation of the suspect. If more people knew that comics contained this sort of storytelling then I have a feeling that there would be a lot more comic fans out there. Love And capes is a cute little superhero spoof. Issue 4 features a character named Arachnerd, which comes just in time as we all digest that horrible mess called Spider-Man 3. Whiteout is another gem. There's a killer loose in Antarctica and a female marshal is determined to bring him to justice. Buzzboy and Roboy Red is a book that I have no business enjoying, but do. It's an all=ages adventure title that deserves to be a hit saturday morning cartoon.

However, my absolute FAVORITE BOOK OF THE WEEK is undoubtedly Amelia Rules! This is another all-ages title about a young girl and her friends hanging out and working on a school project. This hilarious and adorable comic reminded me a lot of Patty Cake, but even more kid-friendly and it has the charm of early issues of Bone. As much as I love deep, thought provoking books like Our Cancer Year, Maus, Blankets and many others, sometimes even i like to sit back with a book that takes me away from the stresses of everyday life. Amelia Rules fits the bill to perfection and is my favorite non-superhero discovery in many, many years..I'm immediately adding this to my pull list at Apocalypse Comics so I will be sure to never miss an issue. Check this book out at AmeliaRules.com

That's the list of what was on display at Apocalypse. Stores selection varied depending on what level they optioned to take part in. If you missed out this year, there will surely be another event the first Saturday in May of 2008!

I'd like to thank Chad and Erika from Apocalypse Comics. Those of you in South Carolina should check them out at 2126 Highway 9, Little River, SC. For the rest of you, call 1-800-comic-book to find the comic shop nearest you!