This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and you should absolutely pick up some free comics. But as I say every year, if you regularly shop for comics at comics shops, Free Comic Book Day isn't free. These comics may be free for customers, but theystill cost money for comics shop owners to buy, so it is your responsibility as a comics reader to help the comics shop absorb the expenses of the free comics by buying a few comics of your own. I like to use the day to pick up some trade paperbacks I've failed to pick up over the course of the year, for instance.

Don't know which books to buy? Allow me to help! Here are some of my favorite recent paperbacks:

• From local publisher Fantagraphics, I really dug the horror anthology Flayed Corpse, written by Josh Simmons and drawn by a host of other artists — many of whom live here in Seattle. And speaking of Seattle cartoonists, Ellen Forney's brand-new book Rock Steady is a heartfelt guide to staying calm and centered in moments of emotional crisis. (Forney will be reading and signing at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery on FCBD, so you can get an autographed copy for no extra charge.)

• If you're looking for something for younger readers, I wrote about two exceptional new young adult releases from First Second just last week.

• I can't stop thinking about Anneli Furmark’s comic Red Winter, which is about trying to find common ground in a nation torn apart by politics. I think when all is said and done, this could be one of my favorite books of the year.

• Can't afford a trade paperback? Here are a few monthly issues that have been especially interesting lately: the first chapter of the utopian Old Woman Laura story in All-New Wolverine is a great kickoff to a promising new storyline that de-grims an awful (and awfully popular) Wolverine story; the Clowes-ian Miami noir of Dry County; and the first couple issues of the engaging historical Harlem-set mystery Incognegro: Renaissance.

• In the mood for work from local cartoonists? Look for Katie Wheeler's personal diary comics; The City, which chronicles a fictional European city in between world wars; and Brett Hamill's very funny gag strips.

• And lastly, if you liked the trippy cosmic energy of the Infinity War movie, you should definitely check out the reprints of Phillipe Druillet's Loan Sloane comics series, especially the latest installment, Gail. The goings-on in that book make Infinity War look like a comic book convention in comparison.