(heroic music) ♪ ♪ ♪ - Hello and welcome to Comic Culture.

I'm Terence Dollard, a professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

We're in Charlotte, North Carolina for Heroes Con 2025.

But unlike other shows when we start up on the convention floor, today we're starting off on Friday night at an event known as Drink and Draw.

What is Drink and Draw?

It's a unique fundraising event to help end Parkinson's disease.

I spoke with organizer Chris Sparks.

Chris, what's going on here?

- So we raise money, this is our 15th year raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

And up to date so far we've raised $270,000, we'll probably be over $300,000 by the weekend.

All the money goes to Parkinson's research, every penny.

And so we've been doing this for 13 years.

As you say, you can see we have coasters that people draw on and they turn them in and we sell.

We also have larger pieces of art on the backboard that people donate.

And it's just a fun time for everybody.

Every year it gets bigger.

- It is enormous in here, it is loud in here.

And I've seen parents with their kids here.

So this isn't just for grownups to come and enjoy a cocktail.

This is a unique fundraiser.

The idea behind Drink and Draw comes from where?

- For me to do this for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, they do a lot of golf tournaments, marathons, pancake dinners, everything I don't want to do.

But I love comics and I can drink.

And I was like, let's do my passion.

And let's have people have a good time at a comic show and do this.

And so it's turned out to be huge for us.

- To learn more about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, we'll go back in time to Friday afternoon, the first day of Heroes Con, where I spoke with Kate Harmon, a community fundraising specialist with the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

- We're at a comic convention and you are not a comic creator.

- I'm here to represent the Michael J. Fox Foundation and support Team Cul-De-Sac, which is in their 15th year raising money through an after hours event here at Heroes Con, the Drink and Draw.

- How in terms of fundraising is a unique angle like that effective?

- We have so many different people who do what we call DIY events for us.

A lot of galas, a lot of golf tournaments, but this is the only comic based one.

And it actually started out with the book that they made for Richard.

And I actually bought it.

I'm a Team Fox member at heart, staff member only about a year now.

So I actually owned a copy of it that I bought from my father who had Parkinson's way back when.

So it's kind of interesting to be here in a full circle moment.

But this is definitely a very unique event.

I don't come to anything else like this.

- A lot of times people are interested in a cause because it is touching and impacting their lives.

But when you go to an event like this, a comic convention that has people of all walks of life, whether they're cosplayers, comic fans, fans of newspaper strips, original art, and you get a chance to introduce them to a very worthwhile cause, how does this make it easier for you to sort of get them on board in future projects?

- Once people find something that they're interested in, the gateway into our cause, they might be more likely to go around.

And we found that people who come in through the DIY events are way more likely than anyone else who comes in through the other avenues, whether it's annual giving or research or policy.

They're more likely to stick around and learn more and stay with us for the long term.

So if we can catch you with something you love, whether it be comics or golf or wine, whatever we can do to get people in the door, it's hard to not wanna stay because of the way that the unique business model that we have.

That really puts 100% of the donations that we make tonight into research, and it's unheard of in non-profits around all over the place.

- If the folks at home watching wanted to find out more about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, or maybe make a donation, how can they do that?

- They can go to michaeljfox.org, and you can actually search for events.

You can search for Team Cul-de-sac if you wanted to come to this event, or you can just donate and join.

- Back at Drink and Draw, hundreds of people bought blank coasters and started drawing, like artist Chris Coates and Savannah Castile, who wanted to give something back to the Heroes Con community.

- You know, the draw of Drink and Draw that you're helping out the Team Cul-de-sac organization?

- Yes.

- Every year.

Every year, absolutely.

Always willing to.

I mean, if it wasn't already going on, I was like this would be such a great opportunity to run a charity event.

But it's already going on, so happy to be a part of it and contribute.

- Yeah, this is my second year here, so the first year my mind was blown.

I've never seen anything like this before at a convention, and I've been doing various Comic Cons since 2019, and this is one of a kind, truly.

It's my favorite one.

- Now, you mentioned that you were drawing some stuff that might not be safe for television, but do you mind sharing some of the stuff that is safe for television?

- Yes.

- I'm not an artist myself, but I like to consider myself a professional doodler, so I've got some stuff that I doodled.

- I decided to join the fun and bought a few coasters to draw on.

That's when I ran into Brad and Lisa Gullickson from the comic book Couples Counseling podcast, who were not only at their first Drink and Draw, but their first Heroes Con.

What do you think of this really unique fundraiser?

- I mean, it's fantastic.

One, it's hard not to participate in, even though I have zero talent.

But I also see people that might be maybe one degree above zero talent, next to people who are extremely talented.

So maybe I shouldn't feel so shy with my artistic skills.

So yeah, it's fantastic.

- I love the idea of just bringing people together to make art, and this is such a tremendously great cause, and in the spirit of cul-de-sac.

And it's just really cool.

I really appreciate it.

- Yeah, and compared to some of the other conventions that you've been to, I mean, I've been to Baltimore, I've been to some smaller ones here and there.

But I haven't seen this sort of after hours activity.

Now, you've been to a lot of the bigger conventions.

Is this something that is unique to Heroes, or is this something that you see at other places?

- It's unique to us that we actually came to an after convention thing.

And it is a testament to the beautiful people at this convention.

Everyone is so friendly, and so kind, and so nice.

And we have so many friends here that we just had to come out and check this out.

We generally turn in early.

- Yeah, and what Team Cul-de-Sac is doing is obviously great work.

Richard Thompson, an idol of ours as well.

And to participate in that, and to hang out and schmooze, and drink, and ogle over people's artwork, it's kind of undeniable.

- One of those pieces was by artist Charles Vess, who donated original art to be auctioned off to benefit Team Cul-de-Sac.

- When you get that call from someone who says, we're doing this for a good cause, it's an investment in your time, it's an investment in your talent.

What makes you wanna go ahead and help a group like that?

- I like what they're trying to do.

I really enjoy being around Chris.

And it's just a pleasure to do things like that.

You need to give back into the world what you can.

- As an artist, you work in a studio, you work in a bubble.

You don't get a chance to hear instant feedback from somebody the same way if I were in a classroom and the student has a question.

So at a convention, you get that opportunity.

So what's it like for you to sort of hear back from the people who love your work, who have a question about it, or maybe have a story about how something that you did led them to this place or that place?

- It's very gratifying.

It's wonderful.

Sometimes you can give them a piece that, someone that's come back multiple times and they're looking and they keep looking and they have a conversation with you about it.

And you know they understand why they want it, but they don't have the cash.

And sometimes you're just like, here, take it.

And it's really nice to have people come in.

And like you said, I work in a studio that's about less than five minute walk from my house.

And there's not many people around, so it's great sometimes to get out there and see what people are thinking.

- Charles, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- This is my coaster.

I'm getting ready to go bring it over to, well, I guess the officials, the folks who are gonna take this and maybe sell it and try and raise a little bit more money for Team Cul-de-sac .

In any event, this was a great fundraiser, a great event, and I really had a lot of fun doing it.

And I haven't even had a drink.

- Team Cul-de-sac raised more than $17,000 on Friday night and nearly $25,000 during the three days of Heroes Con.

That just shows you that comic fans are real heroes.

If you'd like to be a hero too, you can visit TeamCul-de-sac .com to learn more.

But drink and draw wasn't the only way for attendees to help their community.

Heroes Con hosts an annual blood drive at the convention.

To learn more, I spoke with Mackenzie Jarrett.

Mackenzie, we're at Heroes Con, but you are not necessarily a comic fan or a collector or an artist.

What brings you to Heroes Con today?

- I'm here with the Blood Connection.

Our mission is to save lives.

I mean, same thing the heroes do.

Every donation that we have with anyone, any specific donor, you save three lives.

We have the option to do a double donation.

The third double, we call it an Alex machine.

You save six lives with that.

So any donation, you're saving a minimum of three lives and that's what we're passionate about.

We try and stay local.

All of the blood that we get from this drive here today is going to go to the local hospitals here.

We don't ship it out anywhere else.

We try and keep it as close to home as we can.

So really just saving lives is what we're here for.

- It's really interesting because what I like to talk about with this convention is the fact that it's a community.

There's a great sense of giving.

We spoke with the folks from Team Cul-de-sac , which is part of the Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation.

A blood drive seems like it's something that's important for everybody at some point in their life.

We never wanna need it, but if we do, we want it to be there.

So you're around here asking people to go to donate blood.

So at an average convention like this, how successful are you?

- Yesterday we saw great success.

We set a goal for ourselves for 45 donors.

I think we came in right at that 45.

We were a little more optimistic today.

We set a goal closer to 60.

So we're hoping to pull 60 people in and you count that 60.

If everyone does just the single self donation, that's 180 lives that we've saved just in six, eight hours of our time.

So it's really great.

- If the folks watching at home wanted to find out more, maybe they can donate some money to help with the organization or anything.

How can we get in touch?

- So the bloodconnection.org is our best resource.

So you can go on there, it pulls up a big map.

So if they wanna donate but they're not here locally, we're in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and a little bit on the eastern side of Tennessee.

- Well, thank you so much.

- Yeah, of course, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

- There were other not-for-profit groups at Heroes Con, like the National Cartoonist Society.

I spoke with James Lyle to learn more.

You are here representing the National Cartoonist Society.

Can you tell us a little bit about the organization?

- The organization began after a number of professional syndicated cartoonists got together during World War II.

They were doing USO shows to build up the troop morale.

And when it was all over, they said, we kinda like hanging out together.

Now, at the time, most of them were centered around New York.

So it was easy for them to form a society there in the area.

But then as people, as the war broke up, they started moving west and east and south, they realized, we have to make this bigger.

So they actually have divided the National Cartoonist Society up into regions.

So I've been with the Southeast chapter now since 2007, myself.

And I've got to serve as vice chairman and then chairman of the group.

But anyway, that's kinda beside the point.

The NCS has performed as an apolitical society, professional, and it's really a black tie society.

When we have the annual meetings, it is our version of the Oscars or the Grammys.

Everybody's expected to be in black tie, which is kinda hard for cartoonists sometimes.

We're like, I have to wear a real suit, real tie.

But we clean up, okay?

[LAUGH] - What is the big award that you give out?

- Well, the big award is called the Ruben Award.

It's named after Rube Goldberg, the famous cartoonist who did all these wacky inventions that didn't quite make sense.

And you may be familiar with the game Mousetrap, which is based on Rube's work.

But he did it every week.

He would come up with one of these wacky inventions.

And it was just like, where did he come up with that?

Well, it came out of his head.

- The Ruben Awards, I mean, it is something we've heard, at least I've heard about.

When we think about those great cartoons, I think I was mentioning to you at your table.

Newspaper strips are sort of that gateway, or at least they were for people in my generation earlier.

And that was how we learned how to read.

We would open up the newspaper, not necessarily know the world events, but we knew, if I turn to this page, there's Dagwood and Blondie, and then there's Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

So as you see newspapers becoming less a part of American life, how do you, as a society, try to keep what you do in the public eye?

- That's a good question.

I don't know that I have a good answer to it.

I wish I did, because that would be such a boon to my own career.

Everybody's trying to use the Internet as the delivery system, and I think that's valid, obviously.

But we're having a great deal of trouble navigating these new waters, if you would, right?

And so, honestly, a lot of people are having a lot of success with crowdfunding their books.

But again, you have to have people that are interested in what you're doing before you can make those connections and say, well, don't you wanna support my book?

Whereas in the newspaper, that was in everyone's home.

You're talking about the Sunday comics, there was a ritual in my house.

We'd come home from church and my dad would read us the comics from the time we were toddlers.

And that's one of the ways that I got into it.

And yeah, you're talking about people of a certain age that haunted the library because I knew I wanted to do this.

And so I read all the comics, everything, all the comic strips as well as the comic books.

I buy the comic books myself, I go to the library and get the collections, read Peanuts and BC and Doonesbury.

And again, I found and discovered Rube Goldberg and Windsor McCay and all these older cartoonists as well.

And I'm like, I struggle with that.

I lament the fact that a lot of kids are unaware of the history of comics.

- It's funny, I have got a collection of different comics, whether it's those Scholastic pressings of Peanuts characters or Beetle Bailey or Dennis the Menace.

But also some books that had been put together by libraries where they would literally just take the pages of the Sunday Funnies and put them into a binding for archival purposes.

As somebody in the cartoonist society, is this something that you have an archive that people can reference?

Or is this something that maybe a collector comes and says, I'd like to donate this to you?

- Very often there's donated materials.

The Billy Ireland Museum of Ohio State has a massive collection of originals.

And it's actually been donated to some of the other museums that have unfortunately fallen out, have been donated their collections to the Billy Ireland collection.

So I haven't been able to see it myself yet.

I'd really like to.

- If people wanted to find out more about the National Cartoonist Society and your chapter, where can they find you on the web?

- It's the NCS, National Cartoonist Society.

It used to be Ruben.org, but I think that we've changed that, gotten away from Ruben.

In spite of the fact that we still madly, are madly affectionate of Rube Goldberg.

But since he, it's over a century ago, his work doesn't connect with the masses like it did.

- While groups like the NCS encourage the next generation of comic creators, I was amazed when I came across two middle schoolers already making and selling their own artwork.

Meet Alex Qarri and Hudson Tenbroeck.

Hudson and Alexander, you are artists at Heroes Con.

You're in Artist Alley and you're doing commissions.

So what brought you to this convention?

- At first, our art teacher, he taught a class with a bunch of other kids, right?

Eventually, me and Hudson, we stepped up, all right?

We were one of his best students, right?

Well, we got so good that we decided to do Comic-Con together.

And this is our first time tabling.

It's been a good, I like this place, it's awesome.

- Yeah, it's very fun.

It's a great atmosphere.

I love walking around and seeing all the people enjoying each other.

It's where you can really express your interests and stuff.

- Definitely.

- And you've been doing some great commissions.

I saw you were doing Iron Man yesterday.

- Yes, really, a lot of Iron Men.

- Is he your favorite character?

- My favorite character, for sure.

I'm gonna get a hoodie.

- And you were doing The Simpsons, you said?

- Yeah, I was doing some original stuff, and then I did a drawing of The Simpsons, and that sold.

So I figured I'd draw another one.

So yeah, I have another one for sale right now.

- So when you meet people, are they excited and really like your work?

- Yeah, some people really love our work.

There was two people that bought mine, and they said I was very talented for 12.

And people seem to enjoy mine.

- Well, gentlemen, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- From middle schoolers to comics about middle schoolers, I spoke with creator Rob Potchak about getting younger readers into comics.

What is it that you're doing at Heroes this year?

- I am both a writer and an editor at Keen Spawn Entertainment.

So I do have a new book that I am launching in just a couple weeks that will be in comic book stores July 2nd called Dreadmutt.

But otherwise, I'm here to sell the wares of the brand.

Comics like Junior High Horrors, Dyed Hard, Zor, a bunch of different things that I've done over the past.

- So I mean, this is probably the biggest comics-only convention in the world.

So for somebody who is not one of the big three publishers, how important is it for you to get out and meet people and introduce them to what your company does?

- It's extremely important, obviously.

We have to sit there and, I mean, it's almost like guerrilla marketing.

You wanna be ground level, you wanna be able to talk to the people so that that way they know exactly what you've got going on.

Because there are more comics out there than the big three that you were talking about.

A bunch of the stuff that I've done has been all ages stuff, which is very hard necessarily to get into comic book shops.

Because you don't necessarily see a market for it, but they do wanna see younger people walking into the comic book stores, which is why they do free comic book day or whatever.

Shows like this, first of all, I think it's one of the shows that as a creator, you have to do this show.

I know it's the biggest comic book show out there, and I want my audience to know that I'm making as big of a display as possible so that you know I'm out there too.

- And now you mentioned one of your titles, and I thought it was a rather ingenious mashup.

So it's sort of like the young adult meets the classic horror icons of the 80s and 90s.

- Yes, so I came out with a comic book in 2018 called Junior High Horrors.

And it basically reimagined all of your favorite horror characters as 12 year old kids going through regular middle school situations.

The thing about it is that it has two very distinct audience bases for it.

Because as you mentioned, the mashup from the horror side, adults who liked all those movies, we've got homage covers and different things like that for it.

But then if you're a 12 year old kid, it's literally what you could be going through in the middle school situation.

So you get all these different Easter eggs.

Like for example, in the very first issue, the locker numbers for each of the kids is the year the movies came out.

When they're driving to the school, they're actually in Christine.

And it's playing Bad to the Bone as the only song playing on the radio.

So it's things like that that really drove it to where the adult audience was like, this is funny.

And the kids were like, I don't know what's so funny, but I actually had that happen in school to me.

So two very distinct audiences, which is something kind of rare.

- Now if the folks at home watching wanted to find out more about you and your company, where can they find you on the web?

- So you can absolutely find me on Instagram @RobPotchak.

You can find me on Twitter or X @Potchak.

I'm on TikTok as @RobPotsyPotchak.

So you can find me anywhere.

My library is actually at thekeenspotshop.com.

My more recent stuff, which has been more teen to adult nature in terms of the levels of action and violence, but then also my family friendly and all ages stuff like Zor, which is about a little girl's tears that come to life and go on an adventure to get something back.

As well as Dyed Hard, like I mentioned.

And of course Dreadmutt will be on the site soon.

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Wonderful time, thank you.

- Continuing the youth movement, I spoke with podcaster, Brant Lewis.

Brant, you are at Heroes Con, you are a fan, but you're also a podcaster.

So as somebody who is both enjoying the craft and the reading of comics, and somebody who is working on content about comics, what does an experience like this mean, what does it mean for you?

- I think for me, this is really one of the few times a year where I can really dive deep into my passion as both a fan and I think also as a creative worker as well.

Cuz I think a lot of it is meeting people that I love that enjoy that passion about their work, which is why I do the podcast, cuz I feel a lot of it is just diving deep with them on that journey.

I think also being at Heroes Con is a great way of meeting people as well and build those relationships.

So when I want to call upon them in the future and try to do interviews, shows, all that with them.

I use this as kind of like a way of introducing myself in that way, capacity too.

Cuz I think there's a difference between obviously cold email and so on compared to meeting them face to face.

And even if they don't remember, if you mention Heroes Con, that's a great way of bringing attention that you meant.

- That's something that I do here as well.

Before we had our little booth space here, I would go around with the camera and interview people at their booth.

And it's a great way for you to get to know different people because you have that conversation and that interaction.

They might not remember your name, but they'll certainly remember that you talked about X, Y, and Z. So you talk about going to the convention to sort of network a little bit.

What about the other side of a podcast where you might be, I love comics, I want a podcast about it, but what are the comics that you love that you're looking for?

- A lot of it is Jack Kirby, I'm a huge fan of The Fourth World.

Funny enough, this con actually found my quote unquote white whale episode for years, which is Mr.

Miracle number one, because I'm such a huge fan of that work of Kirby, it's made a huge impact on my life as a fan, as a reader, as a comic book enthusiast.

And I also discovered new stuff as well too, which I love a lot about Heroes Con, especially Indy Island, which is one of my favorite spots.

Just meeting all these new talent that I've never heard of before.

It just kind of really gets me then to see a lot of their work, pick up Zides, prints, stickers, all that.

In a way too, it feels like I've supported them in a way that you really don't get a lot of other conventions, cuz I think oftentimes a lot of the Indy tables kind of put in the corner, but I think having the Indy tables be in the dead center.

It just really shows a lot about Heroes Con, the fact that it's not only about the big celebrities, the big comic writers, artists, all that.

Also, the other kind of people as well, cuz I think that's in general about comics, is just everyone can do it.

There's really a wide variety of experiences, talents, and I think also just levels as well that everyone can inhabit in some way.

- You've got a podcast, what's the name of it so the folks at home can look it up?

- Yeah, the name of the podcast is the Ash K Edition is through Graphic Policy, it's on YouTube.

- Thank you so much.

- I really appreciate you taking time.

- That's all the time we have for this episode of Comic Culture.

Thank you so much for watching.

Until next time, we'll see you soon.

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