For he's a Jolly Good... Snail.

It's Free Comic Book Day this Saturday May 7th. It's also the 35th anniversary of the Silver Snail comic shop, a landmark of Toronto comics culture, and I'll be spending it there.

Each year they commission an original poster to commemorate the event, usually featuring store mascot Bobo (the big robot guy,) in some fashion. This year, they asked me. (See image above,) If you want one come down to the store, they're gratis.

Past posters have been drawn by the like of Charles Vess, Dave McKean, Stuart Immonen, Adam Hughes and Simon Bisley, among others.  Clearly, someone screwed up this year, but I'm pretty chuffed about the whole thing, regardless.

The Silver Snail and I have had a long association, and it's inseparable from my secret origin. It was the first comic shop I ever set foot in as a kid with my Dad. I didn't buy my first comic there, but pretty damn close. It was a wellspring of inspiration for me growing up, for years I couldn't just walk in to the store, as soon as I saw it at the end of the block, I had to break into a run. It was the fire in which my love for comics was tempered. It was a place where amazing, undiscovered things lurked on every shelf. 

And I had plenty of time to discover them all, as in later years, my mom would often drop me off there while doing purchasing in the neighborhood, leaving me to wander the store for hours. I'm sure the staff loved that, and later still, in my twenties, when I worked there for a year or so (with some of those same staff, I might add,) I came to understand just how god-damned annoying I must have been.

I don't get to the store much these days, I live and work in neighborhoods in other parts of the city, with easy comic purchasing options walking distance. But I wish I did.

And hey, I'll be there tomorrow.