Patrick O’Connor, Psy.D. developed Comicspedia, an online tool that assists therapists and educators in finding comic books to bring into therapy and the classroom. Free Comic Book Day lands on the first Saturday of May every year (this year, May 5th). On this day, comic book shops all across the United States offer a special selection of free comic books featuring very popular characters – it’s the perfect time to get into comics! This five-part blog series will cover how comics like these can improve our lives, from fostering creative thinking, to enhancing literacy, and more.
Today is the big day, Free Comic Book Day! This is one of the most exciting times of the year in the world of comic books (arguably just behind the San Diego Comic Con) as many shops across the country are offering dozens of free comics, as well as additional deals. For the past four weeks, I have covered many of the ways that comic books are awesome – they can help strengthen parent-child relationships, enhance your interests, improve literacy, and foster creative thinking.
Out of all the days this year, today is the best day to take advantage of these qualities. With this being the opening weekend of The Avengers, parents can follow up with the excitement of this movie by bringing their kids to a comic book store to pick up their very own free Avengers comic! Mom and Dad can pick up their own as well, and have something to talk about in addition to the movie’s events, thus strengthening the parent-child bond. Once at the store, the child will see all the various stories available to read. This can enhance their interests – whether it’s Star Wars, The Simpsons, dinosaurs and aliens, or others, kids can likely find anything they like in the form of a comic book. With summer coming up, most kids will be out of school and won’t have anything to read. By picking up a few subscriptions to comic books, these kids will have something fascinating and exciting to read all summer long! And with all the various ways Batman, Spider-Man, or the X-Men must solve their problems, kids can flex their creative thinking and learn about solving problems from different perspectives.
For readers in Charlotte, there are comic book shops all throughout our beautiful city. Enter your zip code at http://www.comicshoplocator.com/ and see how close one is to you. I will be hitting up Rebel Base Comics & Toys for my free comics today as they’re just around the corner from Southeast Psych’s SouthPark office. Have fun with those comics, and happy reading!
