September 25 is National Comic Book Day.  Not to be confused with National FREE Comic Book Day, which takes place on the first Saturday in May, this is a day for readers, collectors, and fans to celebrate all Things about comic books.

In honor of this auspicious occasion, I thought I'd provide you with a few facts you can use to astound your friends (or just show off).

• The first known American comic book was a hardcover called "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck". It was printed in 1842. 
• Newspaper comic strips established many of the story telling techniques used in the early comic books, which evolved into the comics we know today when publishers started reprinting them in book form.
• "Famous Funnies", which appeared in the US in 1933, is believed to be the first reprinting of newspaper comic strips as a book.
• Comic books are not always 'comic'. In fact, they span all genres from horror to sci-fi to humor to drama.
•  People who collect comic books are known as pannapictagraphists.

So how do you celebrate national comic book day? Buy a new comic book. Or two or three. Try drawing a comic of your own. Use the hashtag #NationalComicBookDay to get your friends involved on social media. Then again, you could just read a comic book or two. Or five or ten.

Happy Comic Book Day! See you next week,
Bobby