Rebellion Publishing

Best Comic Books Ever (This Week) is our weekly guide to the best new comics in stores, but today we're taking a special look at the best free comics on offer at this year's Free Comic Book Day on Saturday 7 May. Free Comic Book Day is an annual event in which publishers offer readers a chance to pick up free comics and samplers at local comic book stores. To find a participating store near you visit FreeComicBookDay.com. Most stores will only let you pick up a limited number of free comics, so that there are enough to go around, so here are our recommendations of the cream of the crop.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.

You might know Mezco from its diverse line of figures ranging from Axe Cop and the DC Universe to TV shows like Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad. While the company has mostly worked in the more standard (read: affordable) action figure market in the past, Mezco's new One:12 Collective line has a more high-end collector in mind. Last year, Mezco announced its first One:12 Collective figure, Batman from The Dark Knight Returns. Now, ahead of Toy Fair 2015, the manufacturer has provided new images of the second figure in the One:12 Collective line--none other than Mega-City One's Judge Dredd.

We've given Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing's fantastical The Zaucer of Zilk series a fairly thorough look over the past few weeks, previewing it's initial installment and contemplating its subjectmatter with an essay by David Brothers. You might even say we've been under its spell...

Comic wizards Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing's original 2000 AD tale of a magical man and his realm-saving exploits is headed back to comic stores as a standalone two-issue miniseries this Wednesday in The Zaucer of Zilk #1 from IDW and Rebellion Publishing...