What makes a good July 4th?

The 4th of July has always been a special day for me. I have childhood memories of us going to see the fireworks display in Corpus Christi and having a great time. I can’t remember if it had an official name but now the hashtag is #bigbangcc. It’s a 20-minute spectacle located just north of People’s Street T-Head. We were always around the beach area but there are plenty of places to see it from. I think with covid, as with everything else, everybody is looking for things to do to sort of reconnect with people. I think this a great idea to do with the family if you’re in an area that does firework displays. The kids will have a great time and you can always sit back and have a few cold ones with the loved ones.

I’m sure there won’t be a shortage of people donning their favorite American flag apparel. I usually don’t but I have worn hats with my favorite teams during the 4th celebration. Most retailers do a promotion with their apparel capturing the essence of the flag and the holiday. Lids has great products that do this very well. I’ll link you to them so you can check them out here.

I am personally a Boston Red sox fan, and they have a killer July 4th on the field hat. They also have free shipping so that’s a plus! Or you can always go into your local shop and pick one up. And if you are up to going to a ballpark, they will usually have a fireworks display, granted if it’s a night game. Here is a list of games that will be played on the 4th:

• Miami Marlins at Washington Nationals — 11:05 a.m. ET Nationals Park – Washington, DC
• Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles —‚ 1:05 p.m. ET Oriole Park at Camden Yards – Baltimore, MD
• Cleveland Guardians at Detroit Tigers —‚ 1:10 p.m. ET and 6:40 p.m. ET Comerica Park – Detroit, MI
• Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox — 1:35 p.m. ET Fenway Park – Boston, MA
• Kansas City Royals at Houston Astros — 4:10 p.m. ET Minute Maid Park – Houston, TX
• Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers — 4:10 p.m. ET American Family Field – Milwaukee, WI
• San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks — 6:10 p.m. ET Chase Field – Phoenix, AZ
• New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds — 6:40 p.m. ET Great American Ball Park – Cincinnati, OH
• Seattle Mariners at San Diego Padres — 6:40 p.m. ET Petco Park – San Diego, CA
• St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves — 7:20 p.m. ET Truist Park – Atlanta, GA
• Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox — 8:10 p.m. ET Guaranteed Rate Field – Chicago, IL
• Toronto Blue Jays at Oakland Athletics — 9:07 p.m. ET Oakland Coliseum – Oakland, CA
• Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers — 10:10 p.m. ET Dodger Stadium – Los Angeles, CA

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Of course, there are other ways to entertain the family or things you can do with your significant other. Since we live in Charlotte (more to come on that later), there are plenty of activities going on in and around the city. But just as a short list:

• Planning a picknick with the family. Grab your BBQ gear and head for the backyard. This will not only save you money but will perhaps make get you to finish cleaning out that backyard.
• While you’re in the backyard why not set up a little camping trip?
• If you don’t have the luxury of a backyard, you could also go the cabin route, there are a ton of hiking and outdoor spots ideal for camping in and around the area.

Charlotte does have a minor league team but I think I’ll be watching the Red Sox!

Make sure what ever you do you keep the gas prices in mind INSIDER had an article stating that the Gas station chain SHEETZ was lowering their prices to $3.99 a gallon. Although they try to compete with my beloved Buc-ee’s, which they fail at by the way, this is still an awesome gesture for those up in the Northeast. There’s a lot more to that article so I’ll link it here. Don’t get me started on the price gouging that is going on even when Oil companies have record profits. That’s a discussion for another day. I think what SHEETZ is doing is awesome and they deserve some kudos.

I would recommend getting a gas price app. I personally use gas buddy. Its one of my favorites. That being said. I do travel a lot, so this comes in clutch a lot. For me a visit to the local comic shop would be ideal. I will be in Charlotte for the weekend but I am currently working in the Kansas City area and have been overwhelmingly welcomed in the comic community. Shout out to Pop Culture Comix. They are an awesome shop located in Overland Park, KS. Because of the owner I got hooked up with a Facebook group called Kansas City Comic Collectors (KCCC). They post a lot of their comic crawls and what the comic community is doing in and around the Kansas City Area. You can find the group here. I’m glad I got hooked up with them. I’m going to give another shout out to one of the members, Addison Miller. He was selling some X-23 comics that I was searching for, and the transaction was as smooth as butter. The community is great so if you ever find yourself in the Kansas City Area, look them up.

I’ve only seen Vintage Stocks in the Midwest so I’m not 100% sure if they are all over the county. I mention this because they are another place that I have found that always has great deals and will be doing another sale for the Independence Day holiday. They sell everything from the newest hit movies, music, and video games to the rarest comics, toys, and memorabilia. They do ship also so click on the link to see what they got.

So If you are on the hunt for keys this Independence weekend go to Key Collector Comics. According to Comic Tom it’s the best comic app in existence. New Keys were released on Wednesday the 29^th and with it came:

• Sonic #50 (the 1:50 variant was done by Tyson Hesse

• Redman #1 (Creators of Ultraman introduce a new Kaiju Hunter

• Sins of the Black Flamingo #1 (Five-issue series about a flamboyant and narcissistic thief who gets his kicks stealing mystic artifacts from the wealthy and corrupt of Miami’s occult underground)

• Public Domain #1 (Originally published digitally through substack, written and illustrated by Chip Zdarsky. A series about the world’s greatest metafictional comic character, The Domain that addresses the battle between comic publishers and corporation’s vs creators)

• Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E #1 (An agent for the ultra-bizarre sci-fi spy organization W.O.R.L.D.E wonders if there’s more to life than the creatively violent disposal of out-there oddities)

• Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. : Old Man Whittier#1 (A woman from a cursed linage inherits the Family home and relies on Hellboy to make certain inhabiting spirits are at rest.)

• Deathstroke Inc. #10 (Origin of Deathstroke, year one)

• DC vs Vampires: Killers #1 (One-shot feat. Harley Quinn leading the human resistance against the new Vampire world order in a spin off DC vs Vampires maxiseries.

• Harley Quinn #16 (Origin of Verdict)

• Avengers #57 (First appearance of Sgt. Szardos, Soldier Supreme, possibly Stephan Szardos from an alternate reality. First team appearance of the Secret invaders of WWII

• Iron Cat #1 (First appearance of Tamara Blake as Iron Cat, previously introduced in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4

• Iron man / Hellcat Annual #1 (1:100 Variant cover my Artgerm)

• Mech Strike: Monster Hunters #1: (Five issue limited series feat. Mech Avengers vs three known super villains transformed into kaiju monsters by Doctor Doom’s Eye of Kraken.

• Spider-Man 2099: Exodus #3 (First team appearance of Avengers2099: Moon Knight 2099, Hulk 2099, Aero 2099 (Zhe Li), Captain Marvel 2099 (Rowena Stern, Black Panther 2099 (T’Shamba), Wave 2099 (Mackenzie Salgado), Captain America 2099 (Roberta Mendez)

• Star Wars: Doctor Aprha #21 (Cover art by Scott Forbes)

• Thor: Lightning and Lament #1 (One-Shot: Thor has abandoned Asgard in her greatest hour of need, leaving the Realm Eternal in the hands of his half brother Loki

• The Variants #1 (Five issue limited series feat. Jessica Jones as Jewel, Knightress and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

• Venom: Lethal Protector #3 (Debut of new costume and powers in this limited series that takes place in the early days of Venom

• X-Cellent #4 (First appearance of a teleporter named Toodle Pip, a teleporter referenced (misspelled) in the solicitation for issue #5

• X-Men Red #4 (Solicitation: Storm faces a Galactic Illuminati)

• Captain America: Symbol of Truth #2 (1:25 Variant by the talented Peach Momoko)

• Detective Comics #1061 (1:25 Variant cover by Erin McDermott)

• Robin #15 (1:25 Variant by Mario Faccillo)

• Task Force Z #9 (1:25 Variant by James Harren)

• She Hulk #4 (Variant cover by Russell Dauterman)

I sourced this list, again, from Key collector comic. This link will take you directly to the list which has a ton of other information as well as prices and what the different variants look like. It’s a great source of information.

If you need comic supplies for your collection, I have a 10% referral link here with gemini comic supply. You can also use DEFY8BIT for a 5% off coupon code.

With plenty to do this coming weekend might I remind you to keep your pets safe and inside if possible. Please have a safe and festive Independence Day weekend!