MATT'S SPORTSCARDS & COMICS

Ok, so not so much an event as a quick heads up. Park on the side streets as needed. I'm still trying to get in touch with the church to see if we can use their parking lot so hopefully that's a go again. There is also the park across the street that has some spots.

Please drop off your items at the tent in front of the shop. You will get a ticket for each can/box that you hand in. Some things throughout the day will need tickets to enter/purchase. Please no Ramen noodles (the food shelf has a ton) and no expired product. We will not give tickets for expired product. We will also give store credit for canned/boxed food donations. See sale event below for more details.

Two free comics per person with over 100 titles to choose from. We may limit copies later in the day as supply runs low, so get here early for the best selection. Please note that we do this in conjunction with a food drive and ask that everyone bring canned/boxed food donations for the event. The first 2 comics are free, and you get 1 additional book for each item donated. Ton of bonus items and additional freebies for additional canned food donations. No Ramen noodles, the food shelf is stacked to the brim with them and I shouldn’t have to say this but no expired items. Bonus! Free pack of Topps cards instead of comics. We will do a separate sports food drive later in the year but we will incorporate sports into this event as well.

The discount is up to you as we are once again giving store credit for your canned food items. Bring in five cans get $5 off, ten cans get you $10 off. Cans cannot be more than half the cost of your total purchase and cannot be applied to sealed boxes. Please note all cards in the showcase and binders will not be for sale today, unfortunately we had quite a bit of theft last year and we need to minimize it for this year.
We also reserve the right to limit the number of cans traded in for store credit. We bought back over $8000 in canned/boxed items last year. I donate as much as I can but keep in mind that I’m a small family shop.
I’m a firm believer that you must give back to the community that you are a part of, that you’re put on this planet to do some good. I love that so many neighbors participate in this event and feel the same way that I do. I also appreciate all the time and effort my friends and family give to help make this day run smoothly and hope everyone has some fun today.

Come play some old-school favorites in our mini arcade. Please let others waiting have their turn. There are 5 new machines this year, 4 in the break room and one in the warehouse.

Join us as we celebrate 51 years (38 in Enfield) in business. Pizza and cake will be served around noonish so grab a slice and imagine how old I feel.

Enter your cosplay to win a gift card to Matt's Sports cards and Comics! All you have to do is let us show off your awesome costume on Facebook, and the cosplayer our judge deems the best will win a store gift certificate. The winner will be announced on our Facebook page the following week.

Local favorite Matt Ryan will be on hand all day (with the exception of when he’s running Art Fight) offering sketches for 5 canned food items. Get a great sketch and make a donation to a great cause all at once.

Two teams will compete in an epic battle of Name That Toon. All the tunes will be based on some classic and some not so classic anime and cartoons so hit Netflix and start brushing up now because there will be a prize for the winning team.

Trade in 2 canned food items for a bubble tea/drink at no charge. Popping bubbles and bursting with fun.

Shaved Ice for as long as it lasts, 3 flavors of fun and did I mention it only “costs” 2 canned food item?

I bought an industrial Waffle maker for this so lets see how this baby works. Waffles, Ice Cream, Fruit topping all for 2 canned food items.

Join Sip, Paint, Fun of Somers as they help you paint a Superman themed pic to help celebrate the new James Gunn DCU. All the supplies will be free of charge with a 10 canned food item donation...a $40 value! 12 SPOTS OPEN FOR THIS EVENT, PRE-REGISTERING IS RECOMMENDED

Stop by the Hazardville Fire Dept today (across the street next to the park) to get a backstage pass on how the trucks work & what it takes to be a firefighter. Stop by anytime to check out the dept., if you’re good you’ll even get a fire hat to take home.

How many bottles of Japanese Soda can people guzzle without making it explode in the least amount of time? Pick a flavor, somehow get it open, and go! Best time wins a fantastic prize...not really, but hey at least you get a Ramune.

Missed Breakfast? No problem, here is your chance to chow down on some yummy pie. Fastest time wins and the final two will have to do it all over again to see who the king of all pie is. The winner of the contest even gets to take home all the extra pies. See, it all makes sense.

Competitors fight in an audience participant speed drawing game where each player will get 5 minutes to draw a random item.

How have you ever seen a slogan and gone, "Heck, I can do better than that." Well, here's your chance to participate in the wonderful world of marketing. We'll throw you the company and your team must come up with the funniest slogan.

Having a bad day? Step right up and try our version of stress relief. For 5 canned food items you get to shove a shaving cream pie in Matt’s face It's stupid, simple, fun and is for a good cause. So, step on up and splat Matt. Matt will likely be running around that day but just tell any staff member that you want to pie him and they will bring him to you.

The classic Hoop a Bottle game but with Ramune. Get the hoop over the Bottle and you win the bottle. 1 win limit.

Matt has been honored and recognized by a number of professional organizations. He was a member of the Farmington Valley Arts Center faculty for seven years and was named Master Teaching Artist by the Greater Hartford Arts Council. Shortly after joining the Comic Book Artists Guild, he was nominated head of the Connecticut branch and held that position until he stepped down in 2008. In April 2008 at the New York ComicCon, he received the first-ever CAG award for production excellence. At the 2009 New York Comic Con CAG Awards, Matt received the Best Cartoonist and Best Workshop awards. Also, he was juried into the Granby Artists Association, a network of fine artists that partake in galleries, fundraisers, and mentoring activities. In 2011, he received the honor of President of the Granby Artists Association and the Head of the Connecticut Chapter of the Comic Book Artists Guild. Matt was part of the Creative Encompassing Solutions family as a house artist for their design and fabrication production studio.

Born in Hartford, CT, JaVon O. Stokes has spent his entire life in the service of the arts. As a teenager, he took part in various arts-related programs & competitions, including the after-school program J.A.M. (Junior Art Makers), spending his high school afternoons creating various pieces sold to many CT-based companies including Travelers & Aetna. ​ After graduating from Hartford Public High School, JaVon attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). There, he studied in the field of Animation and earned his Bachelor’s degree in 3D animation from SCAD in 2008. while taking an interest in Sequential Arts. ​ While enrolled, he developed his own freelance design company previously named J.S.S. (JaVon Stokes Studios). Through his company he created various graphic design works for businesses such as Aetna & Dijaro Designs in addition to numerous private commissions. During the 2006 holiday season, J.S.S. released a successful line of holiday greeting cards. With the success of the holiday cards, he created a 2nd wave of Holiday cards as well as producing the artwork for Evelyn D. Cook’s second children’s book, “The Andersuns: Keturah’s Bedtime Story”, ​ With the company now rebranded "Visually Stoked Media", JaVon Stokes has moved into other types of art-based products including animation, visual effects and comic books with the most recent offering being the successful independently produced superhero comic book mini-series titled HEAT.