To encourage summer reading, Jersey’s Cards and Comics at White Marsh Shopping Center will hand out free comic books from 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. each Saturday from June 11 through Aug. 27.

Owner John Millington said that each person who stops by on Saturdays can select one free comic book. If the customers bring them back to exchange, they can take home two comics the second week, and double the amount of the previous week as the promotion continues. "You might get several hundred comics to keep at the end of the program," he said.

This is the third straight summer Jersey’s has given free comics to support reading habits, Millington said. Last summer, the shop gave away more than 8,000 comics through the promotion, and distributed approximately 10,000 comics in the summer of 2009.

Jersey’s opened its Gloucester store in September 2007. The shop has sister stores in Yorktown and Hampton.

Since opening the Gloucester store, Millington said he has given aw...