YIP!: Hero Comics 2012

Every year, Hero Initiative publishes a benefit comic book, and every year I buy it even though it's usually not very good, being filled with castoff and quickie stories from a hodgepodge of  comics creators.

Why do I buy it then?

It's for a good cause.  Hero helps out comics creators in trouble, often older folks.  Since most comics creators are freelancers, they seldom have health care insurance, so many of them get devastated financially when they have a serious health issue.  Sometimes though, the comics folks are just hard-up and out of work.  The current benefit comic showcases the stories of Tom Ziuko, Russ Heath, Alan Kupperburg, and Robert Washington, names all familiar to me from decades of comics reading.  I found Heath's story to be the most ironic.  In it, he notes how Roy Lichtenstein sold a painting based on a comics panel drawn by Heath for $4 million dollars, while Heath got nothing.  He currently is 84 years old and survives on Social Security.  Thankfully, Hero has helped him out when he's needed it.

Sometimes even superheroes need to be rescued.