It’s the first Saturday of May and a crowd lines the main street of Hamilton waiting in anticipation for the doors to open at Mark One Comics for their annual Free Comic Book Day.
Preparation for the big event was a family effort with co-owners Chris and Rachel Lander enlisting their children to help them fill 1000 goodie bags the day before.
Inside the shop before the doors opened to the masses at 9am, numerous tables were set up with over 5000 comic books that Chris and Rachel had ordered in for the event. With the help of staff and volunteers the books had been divided in to recommended age ranges – all ages, teens and mature readers.
This year’s event was their largest to date, with 1400 people entering the store and each invited to choose three comic books from the tables to take home in a goodie bag for Free Comic Book Day, which is an international event that celebrates comic books and the local shops that provide them to their communities.
“My view from inside the shop, I didn’t realise the queue was disappearing down the street. So, it was a great surprise to see how much interest there was,” Chris said.
“We especially love seeing kids come into the shop, the great character costumes they wear and seeing them find something neat to read, which is the goal – it’s not about bagging up something that will never be seen again, it’s about providing them with something they’ll enjoy reading.”
He says that with the help of his team on the day, it’s nice for him to be at the front door greeting people and chatting to attendees, rather than busy behind the counter where he normally is.
They’ve been running the free event for more than 10 years now, with last year’s event bringing in 1100 people.
Giving out the goodie bags for people to put their books in allows them to keep track of the numbers of people to enter the premise, so that they can gain an insight in to how many comics they’ll need to order for the following year’s event.
“It keeps growing and is well supported. It is just wonderful, it’s a really good buzz,” Chris said.
Growing up, Chris always had a keen interest in comic books throughout his childhood. His parents were teachers, so they encouraged reading in the household and Chris says his family were all avid readers with chapter books and comics. “We always had piles of iconic comic books such as Disney and Whizzer and Chips.”
Chris’ parents let him choose a comic book to be delivered to him weekly and Chris chose 2000AD, a British anthology science fiction fantasy comic, which is still around today.
“That was quite a cool buzz for me, actually choosing a regular comic to get every week and that’s where my interest came from.”
Mark One Comics - MK1 as its known to its staff and customers – has been offering a wide range of pop culture entertainment to New Zealanders since April 1989 when the store first opened in Hamilton.
Chris had become a regular customer before eventually working at the store as manager. In 2000, the opportunity arose to purchase the store and the husband-and-wife duo jumped at the chance. They’ve been running it successfully ever since.
“We feel so grateful for all the support the shop always gets, and so many people come up to us and want to see the shop doing well. We know we’re here on the back of that support, so we’d like to give a big thank you to the Waikato community. But not just the Waikato region, there are people who we talk to that have come from throughout the country as well, so we’re really thankful”.