by MATTHEW PRICE

From the Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, edition of The Oklahoman

Batman and the Joker are among the characters who are part of this year’s Local Comic Shop Day celebration. Comic shops and publishers will celebrate the independent spirit of local comic shops with “Local Comic Shop Day” on Wednesday.

Batman and the Joker are forced to work together in “Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo” #1 by writer/artist Marc Silvestri (“Uncanny X-Men”). A special edition foil cover celebrating Local Comic Shop Day will showcase Silvestri’s art.  

The annual Local Comic Shop Day event is organized by ComicsPRO, the comics industry’s trade organization. This is the third year for Local Comic Shop Day to take place on a Wednesday, after beginning on a Saturday in 2011.   

Marco Davanzo, Executive Director of ComicsPRO, said the move was to take advantage of existing comic shop traffic patterns, as Wednesday is traditionally a new release day for comics. 

The goal of Local Comic Shop Day, according to ComicsPRO, is to get comic fans into their local shop for the holidays – to celebrate the local comic shop. 

Another interesting LCSD selection is an “ashcan edition” of the second crossover between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. 

In comics terms, an “ashcan” was originally a quick throwaway comic produced to secure copyright on a title – often it was a cover placed around random insides from another comic. Early comic “ashcans” are now highly desirable. In the 1990s, it became a term used more often for a collectible preview of an upcoming series, often incomplete, smaller or not in color. 

In the first “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series in 2019, the martial arts heroes had to work together to defeat an alliance of their enemies, Rita Repulsa and Shredder. In the new series, an invasion and a team-up of old enemies requires the teams to work together again. 

Longtime “Power Rangers” comics writer Ryan Parrott and artist Dan Mora (“World’s Finest”) are the creative team.

A list of all 23 items available for Local Comic Shop Day can be found at this link: http://localcomicshopday.com/unique-items/

For more information, visit localcomicshopday.com.  

Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman. Price serves on the national Local Comic Shop Day committee for ComicsPRO.