Customers lined up outside Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark during the store’s eighth Free Comic Book Day.

More than 1,400 people visited the store on May 3 to pick up a free comic book, take pictures with superheroes or learn how artists draw comic-book characters.

A good comic book has exciting artwork, an engrossing story and leaves a reader breathless at the end, said Daniel Robinson, a Newark resident.

“Comic books are interesting because it is a different form of art,” said Robinson, 13. “They are another world, an expression of someone’s imagination, like a bunch of paintings mixed together.”

One of his favorite comic books is Ultimate Spiderman, which he said he enjoys because Spiderman is not an invincible hero, which makes him easier to relate to.

An actor dressed in a Spiderman costume walked up and down the line of people waiting outside the store, pausing to take pictures with young comic-book fans.

Six-year-old Joseph Haslam took advantage of the opportunity to ask Spiderman questions about crime fighting. His mother, Jennifer, a Newark resident, said Joseph loves Spiderman so much he sleeps in his Spiderman costume.

Joseph is learning to read and Haslam, 26, said she and her husband read comic books to him to spark his interest in reading.

Down the line, Newark-resident Jim Brannon agreed that comic books can promote literacy. Brannon brought his 9-year-old nephew, Joey, to Free Comic Book Day to find new reading material.

Joey likes to read Naruto comics, which Brannon said teach him about Japanese culture while expanding his vocabulary.

‘Good and Evil’

“But the most important thing about comics is that they are a literature of morality,” said Brannon, 49. “Comics say there is good, there is evil and people need to stand up against evil.”

We all have a responsibility to do what is right and, while Brannon admitted his building-climbing days are over, he said you do not need a cape to be a superhero.

Good superheroes have strengths and weaknesses that make them fun to read about, said 11-year-old Jacob Daniels.

Daniels, a Newark resident, likes heroes who have intelligence and problem-solving skills, like Iron Man, a comic book character who built a metal suit he uses to fight crime.

Next door to the comic book store, children inside the Newark Arts Alliance designed comic book characters of their own with help from professional comic artists.

Buz Hasson, a Newark resident who draws a comic book called “The Living Corpse,” showed a group of children how to draw a monster’s face.

He explained that a mean character needs a scowling mouth and arched eyebrows. Hasson, 31, sketched on an easel while a group of children used markers to copy his drawing.

Noah Seador, 9, drew a horned monster with claws and carefully colored the drawing bright green. He said green is a typical monster color, but he would rather draw happy monsters than scary monsters.

Seador, a Newark resident, said he would like to draw comic strips for a newspaper and might pursue comic-book drawing as a hobby.

An escape

Drawing and reading comics allows you to escape into your imagination, said Dylan Cody, a Pike Creek resident. Cody, 8, said reading comics is more fun than watching television.

Promoting literacy was the one of the reasons Free Comic Book Day started in 2002, said Joe Murray, owner of Captain Blue Hem Comics.

Comic books help children who are reluctant readers by giving them fun stories they can relate to, he said. The books engage the visual and cognitive parts of the brain, which is important to help children learn, he said.

Reading comic books can be empowering because children who do not understand a word can derive its meaning from the pictures on the page, he said.

According to “The New Republic,” a journal about politics and art, children learn twice as many new words in a comic book as in a children’s book.

Murray said comic books are useful learning tools that everyone can benefit from reading.