This past Saturday on March 5th I was able to take part in a convention without leaving the comfort of my local comic book store, all thanks to In-Store Kick-Off. 

If you haven’t heard of it, In-Store Kick-Off is a relatively new event that allows the nerdy inclined to find out new things connected to comic books and general nerdy culture. Instead of being hosted at one location In-Store Kick-Off runs a live stream that allows various guests to be seen at a variety of different comic book stores simultaneously. I wasn’t able to attend the entire event, but I was there from about 4 until 6 pm est, which meant I still got to hear from some really cool people.

I was able to see the Dark Horse Panel, which is a comic publisher that I am actually reading a comic in right now. They publish Fight Club 2, which only has one issue left, and I’m really excited to see how it ends. The biggest news I have to share from their portion of the stream was that there will be a Dark Horse Day on June 4th. There will be promotional packets that include things like window clings, sneak peak comics, and a super exclusive patch. I’m definitely going to my comic book store on June 4th.

I then got to watch Ryan North, who talked primarily about Squirrel Girl. I’ve never read the comics, but after watching him I definitely want to check them out. He and the host of the event, also discussed an entirely theoretical comic idea where Galactus becomes a Private Investigator. They were super into it and it sounded hilarious, I mean I would read it if it ever existed. Then I heard from Jim Zub, who showed off some sneak peeks of his work that will be coming out soon, well soonish.

The final live stream I saw was hosted by Marvel comics and was really cool. Admittedly I don’t read a lot of Marvel, but I have enjoyed their movies and their Netflix series so I decided to stay. Their panel was the longest at 45 minutes and was jam packed with news. They discussed the upcoming Civil War 2 series, which will involve pretty much the entire Marvel Universe. There will be a new big bad who causes a divide between the characters, but no hints about who or why the division happens. The X-Men will also be involved in this multi-comic event. We also got to see some covers and promotional posters for characters. They also talked a little bit about Deadpool and the idea of R rated Marvel films and the Netflix Marvel shows, primarily Jessica Jones. No hints about sequels or new seasons though.

I had a wonderful time at my comic book store on Saturday and I’ll definitely check out In-Store Kick-Off again next year. I also got a super cool swag bag full of stuff that I still need to check out and I bought some fun stuff because I literally can’t go into that store and not buy anything.

You can share your thoughts on comics and conventions in the comments or on Twitter, @thenerdygirlexp. You can also tweet me, @kleffnotes, and find me on my blog, kleffnotes.wordpress.com, and on my kleffnotes YouTube channel. I also run The Nerdy Girl Express Snapchat, thenerdygirlexp.