One of the largest graphic-novel donations aimed at military families just landed. ComicBooks For Troops and the creators of Digital Lizards of Doom have delivered 100,000 copies of the middle-grade series to support organizations across five locations, Bleeding Cool reports.
The drop breaks the charity’s previous single-shipment record of 20,000 books. Each site received 20,000 copies drawn from volumes 1 through 5: Operation Support Our Troops-America in Naperville, Illinois; North Carolina Support Our Troops in Ayden; Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Centre in Colorado Springs; Hampton Roads Peninsula Bases in Virginia; and USO-Washington in D.C.
How it started
Creator Gabriel Valentin met ComicBooks For Troops founder Mark Weiss at a ComicsPro reception earlier this year. After trading bigger and bigger numbers across the table, Weiss called the following Monday with a plan. Six months of logistics followed, with distribution and fulfillment through Mad Cave Studios, which publishes the books, plus backing from a private investor.
Weiss said partner groups locked onto the series after he learned of a Johns Hopkins study on its impact for students who struggle to read, plus a multi-school pilot. “We wanted to do something impactful, that had never been done on this scale,” he told Bleeding Cool.
What the books are
Digital Lizards of Doom is a science-fiction fantasy series for roughly ages 7–12, mixing video-game logic and humor as lizard warrior Dizzy Doom untangles a universe trapped by trickster Pineapple Pete. Mad Cave and Papercutz publish it; Simon & Schuster handles distribution. The same publisher calendar also includes other Mad Cave dates RCG has noted, such as Escape From North Pole on Dec. 23.
Weiss founded ComicBooks For Kids! in 2017 after discovering there was no large pipeline for donating comics to pediatric patients; ComicBooks For Troops is the sister effort for service members, veterans and families. Holding the news until fulfillment finished was deliberate so the announcement matched books already on site.
Forbes is expected to cover the donation in an upcoming issue, and ComicBooks For Kids! is preparing 10-year anniversary plans.
