Late yesterday afternoon the UPS left leaving an envelope whose contents — “Superman: Last Son of Krypton” and “Beware the Batman” — sent me rocketing back to my childhood.

They’re two of the books to be given away tomorrow for Free Comic Book Day 2013. Every first Saturday in May the comics industry gives away millions of titles for free at comic shops across the country.

Some 4.6 million comics will be handed across counters this year, which is a 30% increase over 2012.

Comics have moved beyond the POW! ZAP! these days. SpongeBob Squarepants has his own comic series. So does “Sesame Street.” The wildly popular series “The Walking Dead” began as a comic book, although purists would probably call it a graphic novel.

The free-comic lineup is quite the mixed bag: books based on the usual superheroes like Superman, Batman and The Hulk, plus titles whose heroes range from Judge Dredd to MegaMan to the children’s book character Pippi Longstocking. (Go here for a full list of offerings.)

I mailed my taxes on Tuesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? Since some of you may be finishing up the paperwork, or may be glum about the paperwork you just mailed, I’m hoping this week’s giveaway will cheer you up.

And if not, maybe my upcoming Swagbucks announcement (more on that below) will do the trick.

The every-Friday giveaway fell by the wayside for a few weeks. I missed it again last week because I was waiting for a couple of items to arrive from Good Earth Beauty.

They sat in the mailbox until my roommate got home late Friday evening and I must admit that the first glimpse caused me to make the girl-noise. Take a look at the accompanying photo and you’ll see why.

Couldn’t use them right away, because they were solidly frozen. But oh, how delicious they smelled on Saturday morning.

Even though I had a bad cold I had a great time at the recent Financial Blogger Conference in Denver. If you want to know more about the event, check out my daughter’s posts over at I Pick Up Pennies:

• Off to FinCon
• FinCon: One day down, three to go
• FinCon day two
• Bank vault dinner and “Star Wars” slides

And if you want to win some conference swag? Read on.

This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Stacy Johnson of Money Talks News, a website that produces a personal finance television news series. You’ve probably seen these pieces on MSN Money (among other places). If you have, you’ve also seen Stacy, who stars in many of these programs. He also writes PF articles to go along with the film work.

Two other important facts about Stacy:

He syndicates my stuff over at Money Talks News. Bless his heart.

He designed a heck of a funny T-shirt — one which you get six chances to win this week, rather than five.