House of Heroes opens doors to hundreds of visitors by offering comic palate expansion

photo by Julian Morris

Every year, on the first Saturday in May, a line of a few hundred souls forms behind the House of Heroes Comic Shop in downtown Oshkosh. This event, Free Comic Book Day, brings together a community of comic book lovers to celebrate their shared interest, while also allowing others to find new titles to read they might not have considered before. Free Comic Book Day started in 2002, almost seven years after the House of Heroes opened its doors to Oshkosh in 1995.

Shop owner Scott Dercks has worked at House of Heroes since its original opening. The Free Comic Book Day is the store’s busiest day of the year. 

“It’s the most traffic we have, and it’s the busiest day of the year for us,” he said. “There’s easily a line of a couple hundred people outside when we open in the morning.” 

This time around, the event also drew in even more people than in the past. 

 “It seemed to be one of the busier years. I mean, it’s hard to say, but still, it’s insanely busy all day long,” Derecks said. 

Free Comic Book Day brings in guests and members of the community who may be looking for something new to read, letting people branch out their horizons. 

“It’s a way for people to find new things, cause, every year Marvel does a book and DC does a book, but before the Invincible cartoon came out, they did an Invincible comic,” Dercks said. “There are over 40 different books to pick from, so it’s just a cool way to find some new titles that you haven’t seen before.”

Derecks also appreciates that visitors could continue supporting local stores downtown, such as the New Moon Cafe, which is directly adjacent to the House of Heroes. 

“I feel like it’s just a fun day, and if people leave House of Heroes, they can go and check out the other stores downtown,” he said. 

After decades of participating in the event, the store wanted to add an element to the event that would support the community. House of Heroes now hosts a canned food drive along with the comic book giveaway event, which they began doing a few years ago. 

“It’s something we started because we always gave away free comic books, and now, if people want, they could drop off some food,” Dercks said. 

This year saw an increase in donations from previous years, making it the year with the most food collected. 

“We had 350 pounds of food that was dropped off, which we donated to the Oshkosh Area Food Pantry,” Dercks said.

While Dercks has worked every year of Free Comic Book Day, new employees also enjoy hosting the event. Oliver VanThiel is a sophomore at West and has worked at the House of Heroes for a little under a year. 

“This was my first ever time working for Free Comic Book Day,” they said. “We get a lot of traffic that day, but yeah, we’re prepared for that and, typically, it runs very smoothly.”

 As someone who has attended Free Comic Day as a guest in years past, VanThiel was excited about helping to host.

“I think it’s good because it gets people interested in comics without having to pay to see if they like it or not,” they said. 

Often, people will visit in costume dressed as their favorite comic book characters, take pictures, and celebrate the community that they’re all a part of.

“It’s very nice seeing all the people that are coming in,” VanThiel said, “and it was really nice to see the community coming together for this one day. I thought it was very fun.”

by Julian Morris

Published May 26, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue VIII