Because next Saturday you're going to your local comic book store for Free Comic Book Day. I know, you tend to look at the comic store the same way you look at the skater store... with a kind of dismissive glare. But walk inside and thumb through some comics. Odds are you'll find something better than whatever you were planning on watching on tv that night.

Free Comic Book Day is your chance to try out the kind of entertainment that comics fans buy every week. On Saturday, May 3, you'll find a stack of books that are totally free. The complete list of free books is on the Free Comic Book Day website, but here's my picks:

See, comics isn't even an indicative word anymore. When you hear it, you probably think super-heroes... which is ironic since the word implies humor, but I digress. Think of comics the same way you think of movies or music or even books. There is a huge variety of material out there presented in comic book form. Slice-of-life, horror, urban, adventure, parody, funny animal, autobiographical, strip, adult, classic reprints, underground, adaptations. Sure, the super-heroes hold the majority, but there's some damn good super-hero books out there.

This is probably going to sound obvious, but comic books have pictures in them. It's their defining feature. You've probably been taught that comic books are a lesser media because of this, but it's really one of the strengths. The art gives you another reason to read them. Find an artist you like, a style you like. Find characters you like to look at.

I've always compared comics to soap operas, but that's probably not a favorable comparison to most. Unless you like soap operas. And it's not a very accurate one. My favorite comics are generally serialized in nature - Superman, Justice League, The Flash - but your favorites may not be. You may discover a taste for comic strip books: Liberty Meadows, Pogo, Dork Tower. You may prefer anthologies: Spider-Man's Tangled Web, Dark Horse Presents. You may like the bigger story but smaller commitment of a miniseries: The Rawhide Kid, Gotham Girls, Unstable Molecules. Or you may just go after the one-story, one-book one-shots: The Pro, DC's Elseworlds.

This is the second year for Free Comic Book Day, and I hope it can become a regular thing. Even a longtime fan such as myself can take advantage of the opportunity to try something new. And while you're there, ask about the recent cheap comics: full-sized books that cost 25 cents or less. DC and Marvel have been jumping on that idea lately as another way to spur interest, with special books featuring Batman, Superman, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil. So for about a dollar, you can walk out with an armload of books... and that's a deal that we haven't enjoyed for sixty years.