Heavy Ink - Comics for the troops

Dec 10, 2007 9:07pm

TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)

About two weeks ago, a lieutenant in the US Army, stationed in Afghanistan, wrote to us and asked if we had any comic books or graphic novels that we might want to send to his troops.

Putting aside politics (where there are likely 1,000 different opinions among the HeavyInk community), I think we can all agree that the troops put in long, hard, sweaty hours thousands of miles from their loved ones, and can certainly enjoy a nice stack of comic books to take their minds off the heat, the sweat, and their distance from home.

...so we put together a care package of about 500 comic books, and sent it off to Afghanistan this morning.

We did drop a note in there, pointing out that HeavyInk has free shipping to every place with a US zipcode (and this includes US military bases worldwide, through the APO (Army Post Office) system.

...so a month or two down the road, we might see a few new HeavyInk customers with drastically different perspective on, say, the comic Infinite Horizon (which, by the way, I’m seriously grooving on right now…go read my review!)

We may do another “comics for the troops” drop in the future – depending on peoples’s level of interest, we might even set up some sort of formal program.

Dec 10, 2007 9:22pm

MD 84 post(s)

I fully support this.

My family sent off a care package to the troops for Thanksgiving. I wish I had thought to throw some comics in there now!

Dec 10, 2007 9:27pm

blue_j 53 post(s)

That’s awesome. My brother was in the Navy for some 13 years and I’m sure he’d have enjoyed a nice box of free comics coming his way. If a program were set-up someday, I’d gladly contribute.

I’m curious though: What’d you send?

Dec 10, 2007 10:17pm

TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)

We gave the following (5 copies of each):

ACTION COMICS #854 (CD)
ACTION COMICS #855
ALL NEW ATOM #15
AMAZONS ATTACK #1 (OF 6)
AMAZONS ATTACK #2 (OF 6)
AMAZONS ATTACK #3 (OF 6)
AMAZONS ATTACK #4 (OF 6)
AMAZONS ATTACK #5 (OF 6)
AMAZONS ATTACK #6 (OF 6)
AMERICAN VIRGIN #18 (MR)
AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #55
BATMAN ANNUAL #26 HEAD OF THE DEMON
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #36
CATWOMAN #70 (AA)
CHECKMATE #17
DETECTIVE COMICS #836
EXTERMINATORS #21 (MR)
FRIDAY THE 13TH PAMELAS TALE #1 (OF 2) (MR)
FRIDAY THE 13TH PAMELAS TALE #2 (OF 2) (MR)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #1 (OF 6)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #2 (OF 6)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #3 (OF 6)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #4 (OF 6)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #5 (OF 6)
GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #6 (OF 6)
HELLBLAZER #234 (MR)
HELLBLAZER #235 (MR)
JONAH HEX #23
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #37
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #5
LOONEY TUNES #154
MAD MAGAZINE #481
NIGHTWING #136
NINJA SCROLL #12
OUTSIDERS #50
OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 1 NIGHTWING BOOMERANG
OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 2 KATANA SHAZAM
OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 3 THUNDER MARTIAN MANHUNTER
OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 4 METAMORPHO AQUAMAN
OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 5 GRACE WONDER WOMAN
ROBIN #165
SHADOWPACT #16
SUPERGIRL #21
TEEN TITANS GO #46
WETWORKS #12

Dec 10, 2007 10:52pm

blue_j 53 post(s)

Darn, nothing I’ve read.

Dec 11, 2007 4:48am

MadMikeyD 36 post(s)

Glad to see this. I’m sure they appreciate the show of support. I’m currently stationed in Alaska, but I still appreciate things like this. Always happy to see support for the troops, and I’m sure a lot of us military comic fans will be looking into your service. Thank you for supporting the U.S. Military.

Dec 11, 2007 1:55pm

Matt 255 post(s)

I think this is a very cool project, Travis.

I wonder if there’s any interest in soliciting and shipping comics donated by the Heavy Ink community? I have some miniseries floppies that I’ve upgraded to trades, which I’d be happy to send along. They’re not crappy, either! Also could probably scare up a couple trade paperbacks as well.

This might also be a neat idea for the holidays as well, next year…collect comics to donate to homeless shelters, Toys for Tots (age appropriate of course), etc.

Dec 12, 2007 3:04am

Classic Beetle 19 post(s)

How about something like a “Donor subscription,” where you select a cause and comics are regularly given to it. The cause would be picked from a list and there would be a choice of “subscription frequencies” (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Each cause could have a list of suitable comics (so kids aren’t getting the Boys). We could even vote on these lists.

Dec 12, 2007 1:38pm

Matt 255 post(s)

The “donate subscription” concept is also VERY cool.

Dec 12, 2007 3:32pm

TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)

Classic Beetle,

Great idea!

This project is really 1-2 man-weeks total (we need to do paperwork, like creating a non-profit arm, or at least figure out how to do the bookkeeping on this), we need to create database models, new web pages, blah blah blah blah.

It is a priority of mine, but it’s not the TOP priority: I think we’ll manage to pull it off sometime in Q1 of next year (Jan / Feb / March).

Thanks for the feedback!

Dec 10, 2007 9:07pm TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)	About two weeks ago, a lieutenant in the US Army, stationed in Afghanistan, wrote to us and asked if we had any comic books or graphic novels that we might want to send to his troops. Putting aside politics (where there are likely 1,000 different opinions among the HeavyInk community), I think we can all agree that the troops put in long, hard, sweaty hours thousands of miles from their loved ones, and can certainly enjoy a nice stack of comic books to take their minds off the heat, the sweat, and their distance from home. ...so we put together a care package of about 500 comic books, and sent it off to Afghanistan this morning. We did drop a note in there, pointing out that HeavyInk has free shipping to every place with a US zipcode (and this includes US military bases worldwide, through the APO (Army Post Office) system. ...so a month or two down the road, we might see a few new HeavyInk customers with drastically different perspective on, say, the comic Infinite Horizon (which, by the way, I’m seriously grooving on right now…go read my review!) We may do another “comics for the troops” drop in the future – depending on peoples’s level of interest, we might even set up some sort of formal program.

Dec 10, 2007 9:22pm MD 84 post(s)	I fully support this. My family sent off a care package to the troops for Thanksgiving. I wish I had thought to throw some comics in there now!

Dec 10, 2007 9:27pm blue_j 53 post(s)	That’s awesome. My brother was in the Navy for some 13 years and I’m sure he’d have enjoyed a nice box of free comics coming his way. If a program were set-up someday, I’d gladly contribute. I’m curious though: What’d you send?

Dec 10, 2007 10:17pm TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)	We gave the following (5 copies of each): ACTION COMICS #854 (CD) ACTION COMICS #855 ALL NEW ATOM #15 AMAZONS ATTACK #1 (OF 6) AMAZONS ATTACK #2 (OF 6) AMAZONS ATTACK #3 (OF 6) AMAZONS ATTACK #4 (OF 6) AMAZONS ATTACK #5 (OF 6) AMAZONS ATTACK #6 (OF 6) AMERICAN VIRGIN #18 (MR) AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #55 BATMAN ANNUAL #26 HEAD OF THE DEMON CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #36 CATWOMAN #70 (AA) CHECKMATE #17 DETECTIVE COMICS #836 EXTERMINATORS #21 (MR) FRIDAY THE 13TH PAMELAS TALE #1 (OF 2) (MR) FRIDAY THE 13TH PAMELAS TALE #2 (OF 2) (MR) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #1 (OF 6) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #2 (OF 6) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #3 (OF 6) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #4 (OF 6) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #5 (OF 6) GRIFTER MIDNIGHTER #6 (OF 6) HELLBLAZER #234 (MR) HELLBLAZER #235 (MR) JONAH HEX #23 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #37 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #5 LOONEY TUNES #154 MAD MAGAZINE #481 NIGHTWING #136 NINJA SCROLL #12 OUTSIDERS #50 OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 1 NIGHTWING BOOMERANG OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 2 KATANA SHAZAM OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 3 THUNDER MARTIAN MANHUNTER OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 4 METAMORPHO AQUAMAN OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 5 GRACE WONDER WOMAN ROBIN #165 SHADOWPACT #16 SUPERGIRL #21 TEEN TITANS GO #46 WETWORKS #12

Dec 10, 2007 10:52pm blue_j 53 post(s)	Darn, nothing I’ve read.

Dec 11, 2007 4:48am MadMikeyD 36 post(s)	Glad to see this. I’m sure they appreciate the show of support. I’m currently stationed in Alaska, but I still appreciate things like this. Always happy to see support for the troops, and I’m sure a lot of us military comic fans will be looking into your service. Thank you for supporting the U.S. Military.

Dec 11, 2007 1:55pm Matt 255 post(s)	I think this is a very cool project, Travis. I wonder if there’s any interest in soliciting and shipping comics donated by the Heavy Ink community? I have some miniseries floppies that I’ve upgraded to trades, which I’d be happy to send along. They’re not crappy, either! Also could probably scare up a couple trade paperbacks as well. This might also be a neat idea for the holidays as well, next year…collect comics to donate to homeless shelters, Toys for Tots (age appropriate of course), etc.

Dec 12, 2007 3:04am Classic Beetle 19 post(s)	How about something like a “Donor subscription,” where you select a cause and comics are regularly given to it. The cause would be picked from a list and there would be a choice of “subscription frequencies” (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Each cause could have a list of suitable comics (so kids aren’t getting the Boys). We could even vote on these lists.

Dec 12, 2007 1:38pm Matt 255 post(s)	The “donate subscription” concept is also VERY cool.

Dec 12, 2007 3:32pm TJIC Administrator 123 post(s)	Classic Beetle, Great idea! This project is really 1-2 man-weeks total (we need to do paperwork, like creating a non-profit arm, or at least figure out how to do the bookkeeping on this), we need to create database models, new web pages, blah blah blah blah. It is a priority of mine, but it’s not the TOP priority: I think we’ll manage to pull it off sometime in Q1 of next year (Jan / Feb / March). Thanks for the feedback!