Despite gloomy skies and rainy weather, many Cupertino families gathered in the children and teens section of the Cupertino Library on May 4 to check out comic books for their children, as the Cupertino Library hosted a free comic book event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event was supported by Comics Conspiracy, a comic book store located in Sunnyvale.

According to Cupertino children’s librarian Elizabeth Bartholomew, the event was inspired by Joe Field, owner of Field’s Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff store in Concord, which is set to close in early 2025. Field started the first-ever Free Comic Book Day in 2002, and since then over 2,000 shops and libraries in more than 60 countries have participated in the annual event. 

“We’re just sort of a lucky participant [of Free Comic Book Day] because Matt Lorenzo, the Cupertino teen librarian, actually organizes it for us,” Bartholomew said. “He’s in touch with a comic book shop, and he gets all the comics and then sorts them out by anything he thinks is for kids.”  

Bartholomew believes social events like these help motivate more children to read, whether it be comic books or other novels. Seeing children find excitement in the books they pick makes events like Free Comic Book Day successful for Bartholomew, and makes her hopeful that more people will come to the library. 

“It’s always good to be able to have new programming and to bring people in, who might not really think about libraries in a fun way,” Bartholomew said. “Some people might think, ‘Oh, it’s a quiet place,’ or ‘It’s a boring place and you can only get boring books.’ The Cupertino Library is a really good place that has programs that interest people and we have visitors who come in and say ‘I never thought of the library like that.”