OCR

I'm a supporter of Operation: Comix Relief....a...I guess you'd call it charitable service organization or something. They collect and send comics to members of the armed forces all over the world. They've sent tens of thousands of comics to all corners of the globe, from combat theaters to more peaceful postings. They've received awards from the Postal Service, military chaplains organizations and others. It's not political at all. It's about people...us doing even the smallest thing to let them know, regardless of how we feel about various situations, we care.

It started simply, Chris Tarrbasian sending comics to a friend of his working with the wounded warriors coming out of the Middle East. They figured to comics could provide a few minutes distraction. They were right and they couldn't believe how big an impact it had. Before he knew it Chris was running a full-fledged OPERATION, address after address came in of troops requesting comics, officers started contacting OCR and thanking them for the morale boost and asking them to keep it up and get more books into the hands of their troops.

Maybe more important, letters and emails from the troops themselves came in. Chris shares these in his frequent newsletters and I won't BS you, sometimes they get me a little choked up. Especially the ones coming in from Iraq and Afghanistan thanking OCR and their donors....yeah, THEM thanking US. Once in a while there's a "I haven't read a comic in years! I forgot how much fun they are." which is great for a comic guy like me to hear. But more often there is one simple sentiment, sometimes conveyed in a couple words, sometimes a few sentences..."It nice to know the folks back home haven't forgotten about us and that they care."

This spring marked the beginning of OCR's fifth year and that threw me for a loop. It made me realize that after my first shipments of comics right at the beginning and talking OCR up on message boards whenever I can, I have dropped the ball on my support of OCR. I've been setting aside books all this time and never sent them. They are now packed, some of them anyway, and awaiting a trip to the post office this weekend...6 boxes of around 16 pounds each. I have no idea how many comics that is but it's a lot. I even included several graphic novels and miniseries and some complete runs...Batman: Hush, the first New Avengers, Loveless, and Moon Knight arcs among others. I hope some of these guys have enough downtime to read a whole story arc, I guess that would mean things are a little quiet where they are.

I created the logo up there, and got Chris' approval on it of course, to use in some ads. I want to enlist the help of some artists and create my own little one page public service announcements to run in my future comics as well as anywhere else that will run it. Maybe I'll see about taking out a page in some of the Digital Webbing books and Trailer Park of Terror...maybe see if any of the other indy guys has an extra page.