Free is good, and free comic books are even better. And tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.

Lubbock’s own Star Comics is once again participating in this year’s FCBD, so you’ll want to stop in on Saturday and pick up your loot.

Now remember “free comics” doesn’t mean “all comics are free.” You can’t walk in and get all your comics for free. The publishers create their own special FCBD comics just to hand out for Free Comic Book Day, and that’s all there is to it. Showing up and demanding a free copy of Action Comics #1 is just going to make you look silly.

This year, Star is giving out prepacks — bags of comics geared different age groups — in this case, adults, teens, and all-ages readers. The free stuff only lasts while supplies last, and since the store opens at 11, you should get there pretty early, or they’ll run out.

They’ll also have balloons, stickers, friendly faces, comics you can pay for (and you should pay for some, because all those FCBD comics actually cost the shops money, so help ’em offset the cash outflow a little. Besides, comics are awesome), and Will Terrell will be on hand, too — he’ll be selling books and prints, doing free sketches when you BUY some comics, and he’ll be doing a cartooning-for-kids demonstration from 2-3 p.m.

So remember — stop by Star Comics, 2014 34th Street in Lubbock, on Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. for Free Comic Book Day!

Not all of the Hub City’s comics ties are linked directly to comics creators — without supportive comics retailers, there probably wouldn’t be any sort of comics scene in Lubbock at all.

Way back in 1977, a guy named Don Mitchell started a used bookstore on 34th Street called Star Bookstore. He had a friend named Joe Gulick who had visited Mile High Comics in Denver, and Joe and his brother Mike discovered that Mile High got new comics much earlier than grocery stores, dime stores, and other places that sold comic books in Lubbock. Realizing that they’d be able to get comics a week or two earlier if Lubbock had a comics shop, they suggested to Don that Star should sell some comic books.

Soon after, in October 1977, Don sold the store to Mike, and the name of the store was changed to Star Books and Comics. Mike sold the store to a long-time customer, Sid Devours, in 1981. Books and RPG sales were phased out around 1992 to make the store all-comics, all the time. Sid died in August 1999 — his nephew Robert Mora took over the business and still runs it today. The name of the store was changed one more time to just plain Star Comics back in 2004.

The store is still located at 2014 34th Street, and they’ll be one of the vendors at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo on May 2 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, so you should be sure to stop by and say howdy.

This is just for you comics-loving Lubbockites out there — if you haven’t heard the news yet, as of today, new comics arrive at Star Comics on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays!

See, Lubbock is actually right on the dividing line between the East Coast and West Coast shippers — all of Texas is served by the shippers on the East Coast, and Lubbock is the farthest away on the shipping lanes. I bet even Amarillo is farther up the chain than we are, since they’re located on the big Interstate. Anyway, that means that Lubbock really is at the very tail-end of the shipping schedules, so while the rest of the country got their new comics every Wednesday, we’ve always gotten ours on Thursdays.

But somehow or other, possibly using magic or some sort of theoretical hyper-science, we’re now going to get comics on Wednesday, the same day that everyone else in the country gets theirs. HUZZAH!

So, Lubbockites, you no longer have to wait for Thursday to pick up your comics. Stop by Star after work today, and they should have all the latest comics.

Well, the good news: Star Comics down on 34th has finally re-opened after their short Christmas vacation. Huzzah, I can get comics again! The bad news: my evening was a bit unexpectedly busy, and I haven’t even had time to read everything I picked up yet. And the worser-than-that news: the two I had time to read last night were dogs. The year is still young, but at least one of them is so bad, it may end up being the worst comic I read this year. So let’s get straight to the craptastic reviews…

The Flash #235

Well, the Flash recruits Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Black Lightning, from the Justice League, to help him take the fight to the aquatic aliens’ homeworld. Or homesea. Or wherever it is. It’s actually underwater, but the water there is so heavily oxygenated that it’s actually breathable. Yes, just like in “The Abyss.” So they’re all kicking sea monster butt until Flash suddenly realizes that they’re fighting illusions. He can’t get the rest of the heroes to break off their attack (because they’ve moved into “warrior-rage mode.” I’m sorry, but WHAT?!) so he heads back to Earth, since he figures the aliens have re-invaded the planet since they’re all distracted.

When Wally gets back to Earth, he finds that his son Jai has gone off on his own to fight the aliens. Flash finds him quickly enough and learns that Jai knows that the powers he and his sister have could kill them at any time. Wally tries to talk him out of his depression, then they go to fight the aliens.

Verdict: Thumbs down. I really can’t get over that howling bulldada about “warrior-rage mode.” Yes, a minute ago, a bunch of the world’s top-notch heroes were perfectly fine, after fighting for hours, and now they’re mindless berserker drones, and the world’s fastest man just can’t think of any way to break ’em out of the spell. Wow. That’s some high-quality monkey fertilizer right there, baby. And really, the rest of the issue ain’t all that great anyway. But “warrior-rage mode” was the 60-ton girder that broke the camel’s back.

Teen Titans #54

Most of the Titans and the future evil Titans Army have been taken over by Starro, who besides being an evil outer-space mind-controlling starfish, also has a Sinestro Corps ring. Umm, okay. The only people who are non-Starroed are Robin and Miss Martian (who both pretty much just watch stuff), Blue Beetle, and evil clone Kid Flash. Beetle and Kid Flash take out Starro, then the Titans Army all try to kill Beetle, Ravager, and Supergirl. Then some of the Army suddenly turn good. Then they all disappear. Then, um, something happens in the future, or maybe not, with some characters who are dead, and, and…

…

It makes no sense. None whatsoever. Holy cats, is this rotten stuff. I’ve been enjoying the recent “Teen Titans” comics, for the most part, so it’s a bit of a shock to see something this stupefyingly awful come out of this book. It’s just staggeringly inept.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Several thumbs down. Several dozen thumbs down.

Hey, if you’re in the Hub City, and you plan on doing some last-minute Christmas shopping for comics, you’re already almost out of time.

Star Comics — out on 2014 34th here in Lubbock — is going to be closed from Monday, December 24 to Wednesday, January 2. They’ll be re-opening as normal on Thursday, January 3.

So if you planned on picking up some comics for your kids’ stockings, you better get there ASAP. If you were going to spend part of your Christmas money on a new comics anthology, better plan on waiting ’til January.

Don’t wait too late! Otherwise, you’ll have to get your mom pans or a dress or underwear, instead of that Jack Kirby “Fourth World” omnibus she really wants! Don’t force your family to suffer through a non-comics Christmas! Get your shopping done now!