Our favorite shop highlights from 2015

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We're 22 days away from Free Comic Book Day Mini-Con 2016 and poised to give away 20,000 free comic books!

Here's a look at just one of the pallets of boxes that we received. There were two of these. Loading and unloading these into the trucks really gave us quite the workout this morning.

So, as we draw closer to the ultimate day of the year, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on the moments that made 2015 an amazing year -- all 15 of them!

Which of these were your favorite Empire's moments?

We'd love to hear about it. Let us know in the comments, please.


Top 15 Moments of 2015

  1. One of Ben and Jen's long time favorite comic book authors, Barbara Kesel (listen to the interview) joined us at Creative Women Mini-Con 2015. On top of that, Mairghread Scott (listen to the interview), the first woman to write a Transformers comic book and author of Toil and Trouble, also joined us!
  2. At FCBD Mini-Con 2015, we had food at the event -- the Italian shaved ice booth and the Wandering Boba food truck.
  3. We started having live models once a month for our artist group to sketch.
  4. Our Graphic Novel Discussion Group really took off and has continued into 2016.
  5. Captain Dylan Hunt came into our lives.
  6. We put a 65" giant screen television in Empire's Comics Lounge.
  7. We rearranged the store to give it a brighter and more spacious feel.
  8. Empire's Movie Crew had a blast at the movies. We had a huge turnout for Avengers.
  9. Empire's Open Podcast (now called Cracking the Vault) really came together with an amazing crew -- Jake, Amy, Tony, Patrick, and regular special guests -- and lots of entertaining, clean talk about comics related topics.
  10. We started having a reserved section for Empire's Roller Derby Crew at all the Sac City Roller games.
  11. Ben and Cody Stark spoke on a panel at the Intergalactic Expo (which took place on Earth in 2015).
  12. Ben served as the costume contest judge at Crocker-Con.
  13. We saw Mad Max at Studio Movie Grill.
  14. On Back to the Future Day, we packed the shop and played the movies and counted down to when the future became the past.
  15. Sac-Con outgrew the Scottish Rite Temple, expanding in a huge way.
That's our list.

Please let us know in the comments what made 2015 great for you. 

And now, onward! We have a post headed your away about what's new in 2016 and a whole lot of posts about this year's Free Comic Book Day Mini-Con!


(left: after-hours comedy night at Empire's)