Troops to get a boost from King Kong and Friends

This month Britain's Comic Book Alliance will be joining with the 'Support Our Soldiers' charity to send thousands of comic books and graphic novels to troops stationed around the world and many miles from home.

The CBA spoke to troops before Christmas and were told that one of the biggest problems facing service personnel was boredom when they are not deployed in the field. Comic books have always been a favourite with the troops because they are light, entertaining; easy to carry, share and read.

Passing on that information on to its members, the CBA were instantly inundated with offers from publishers and retailers wishing to help. "There were so many offers that it was impossible to arrange for shipments before Christmas," says CBA spokesperson and co-founder GM Jordan. "Plus, the CBA simply did not have the expertise to send out the parcels themselves.

"Thankfully the problem was solved when Support Our Soldiers, who have been sending goodwill parcels to members of the armed forces since 2003, agreed to take the donations to ensure they reached the people who needed them the most.'

With the S.O.S partnership in place there was a further complication: the donors were spread out across the UK. The comics needed to be collected and then delivered to a central point for distribution and with time running out; it looked like they were in danger of failing to meet their March deadline.

Luckily the Post Office was at hand and, thanks to their logistical skills, they were able to collect all the donations into a central depot in the South East before shipping them north to be delivered to S.O.S.

"We owe a great deal of thanks to the Post Office, when we explained the difficulties facing us the managers and staff understood the difficulties involved and found the right solution to help us. Without the Post Office we would have been in serious trouble," GM Jordan explained.

The CBA is especially grateful to help from independent comics publisher Markosia Enterprises and comics retail chain Forbidden Planet, who were amongst the first to pledge their support and been a great supporters of the CBA.

Titles distributed to the troops include Markosia's King Kong of Skull Island, Starship Troopers, Harker and the critically acclaimed Hope Falls by Tony Lee.

“Thank you for doing a great job on our behalf and we wish you well” said Harry Markos, head of Markosia, before adding, "If our small token goes any way towards cheering up the troops then we are all very happy."

The CBA was founded in 2009 to represent the comic book industry in the UK, working with retailers, publishers, creators, educators and fans to ensure a bright future for the industry.

Web Links

• Comic Book Alliance: www.comicbookalliance.org.uk
• Support Our Soldiers: www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk
• Markosia Enterprises: www.markosia.com
• Forbidden Planet: www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Foundry supports Haiti relief effort, comic creators wanted

London's The Foundry is running an evening to raise money for earthquake victims in Haiti on 27th January - and comic creators are invited to get involved.

The event is just part of a joint fund raising campaign by the Haitian arts group Ghetto Biennale, which is based in Port-Au-Prince, and the Foundry. A foundry/haiti fund to support the artists community www.atis-rezistans.com in Grand Rue, Port-au Prince has now been set up.

The evening will have entertainment, but funds will be raised by people bringing tables on which to sell their wares to those attending, the money from the sales of which are to be given to the fund. Jonathan, who runs the Foundry, has asked if Britain's small press community would be able to bring a table and sell some of their items to raise money for charity.

The Alternative Press have done two "Are You Zine Friendly" events there previously, but by chance all of them are out of the country at that time, so they can't bring a table for people to sell their stuff on.

"So we're asking if anyone is interested in bringing a table to the Foundry, for use by the small press community," Peter Lally told downthetubes, "so that they can sell their goodies and give the money to the Haiti fund.

If they can, they should contact me (peterlally@gmail.com) and we'll put the details up on our "Are You Zine Friendly" Blog so that anyone interested in selling their goods can get the information and contact you to arrange things."

"So for example, we can put on the blog 'Johnny from Johnny Zine is bringing a table down to the Foundry, he'll be there by 6pm, and if you're coming please email him at: ...co.uk' etc., etc."

Pete adds that you should also contact Jonathan of The Foundry to say you're bringing a table, his contact details are on the Foundry link below.

If you cannot attend but wish to donate some money to their Fund, there is a Paypal button on the Foundry page.

• The event takes place on Wednesday 27th January 6pm - 11pm, The Foundry, 84-86 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3JL (nearest station: Old Street) Web Link: http://www.foundry.tv/haiti/

Comic Creators Ally against Human Trafficking

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead


Monday, 11th January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. To participate, a number of comics creators including Heroes Inc. creator Scott Austin, writer Peter David and X-Men artist J.K. Woodward - formed the Comic Creator's Alliance - a group of over 80 comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered their artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause.

You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide - more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year.

Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won't end until awareness is raised, and people need to take a stand.

So here's what the comic creators - all listed here - did: each of them contributed an original drawing of one of their own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The preview featured above is just a small snippet of a simply gorgeous montage intended to raise money and awareness for an important cause.

The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more.

To get hold of a copy, all you need to do is donate to the cause via the CCA website and download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from 11th - 24th January and all proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House - two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

• To learn more about the Comic Creator's Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com.


• To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Be warned: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)