OUTLOUD Multimedia

Free Comic Book Day at Tate’s Comics

Free Comic Book Day is the one day out of the year when superhero fans and dealers can come together for the love of comic books. Established in 2002, Free Comic Book Day takes place on the first Saturday of every May. All across the world, long lines of people gather to pick up a free comic book (or several!). Major publishers, such as Marvel and DC, print special comics for this day. Free Comic Book Day is definitely something everyone should attend at least once in their lifetime.

This year, the OUTLOUD team was lucky enough to spend it at Tate’s Comics in Lauderhill, FL. Arriving at 10 a.m., there was already a line trailing outside of the door. There were people dressed up as Stormtroopers, Finn from Adventure Time, Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool and many more.

This year Tate’s Comics celebrated 20 years in South Florida, but Tate’s is more than just a comic book store. Not only does it carry a wide array of comics, but also action figures, posters, vinyls, DVDs, and more. The second floor of the store is an art gallery. Anyone can ask to have their art put up there and hope someone will love it enough to buy it. The staff also proved to be friendly and knowledgeable. You can check out our podcast interview with Anthony from Tate’s Comics here.

Make sure to also take a look at our Street Talk video, where we asked guests which superhero would make a better president, whether hardcopy or digital graphic novels are preferable, and their thoughts on the rising popularity of superheroes.

Check out our Free Comic Book Day gallery here.

Running From Zombies… For Charity!

While everyone else was still moping at home because of how “The Walking Dead” ended its third season, devoted zombie fans poured into Hialeah’s Amelia Earhart Park on April 27 to participate in the first of its kind: a 5K-marathon obstacle course called Run For Your Lives.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the event, it combines the endurance aspect of G4’s Ninja Warrior with a gory, undead twist. Runners must brave a 5k obstacle course complete with water barriers, mud pits and mock barbed wire crawls. In order to be counted among the survivors, a runner must climb, slide, crawl, dodge, and sometimes swim away from zombies and cross the finish line with at least one health flag remaining.

This new trend has turned the horrific image of the living dead into a catalyst for saving lives. In 2011, Reed Street Productions created the event as a way to spread awareness for Warware, a clothing line founded by an active duty service member with the goal of giving athletes and service men and women high performance apparel at more affordable prices.

Read more here.

Slut Walk Miami

Women have been fighting for equality for decades. It is apparently okay for a rapist to blame the victim, using excuses such as how much the victim had to drink, or the fact that they were dressed provocatively at the time of the act. Consequently, instead of focusing on the prevention of rape in the first place, attention has been directed towards the victim and what they “should” or “shouldn’t” do.

The first SlutWalk took place in Toronto, Canada, where over 3,000 protesters joined together to end the ongoing shaming and degrading of women based on their choice of clothing. SlutWalks have hit the streets of Canada, India, and many states in the US. Now for the first time, Miami, Florida has hopped on the bandwagon. On April 3, 2013, protesters marched Florida International University’s halls. Both women and men alike could be heard chanting, “one, two, three, four, slut shaming out the door,” and seen raising their fists in unity. This may have been the first for Miami, but organizers of the event say it certainly won’t be the last.

Here’s the story.