Posted in: Comics, Mad Cave Studios | Tagged: ComcBooks For Troops, comicspro, digital lizards of doom, graphic novels
100,000 Digital Lizards Of Doom Comics Given Free To Military Families
100,000 Digital Lizards Of Doom graphic novels given to U.S. military families courtesy of ComicBooks For Troops
Article Summary
- ComicBooks For Troops delivered 100,000 Digital Lizards Of Doom graphic novels free to U.S. military families.
- The record-setting ComicBooks For Troops donation sent 20,000 books each to five military support locations.
- Gabriel Valentin, Mark Weiss, Mad Cave Studios, and a private investor teamed up to make the drop happen.
- ComicBooks For Troops chose the series for its reading appeal, backed by Johns Hopkins research and school pilots.
ComicBooks For Troops and the creators of the Digital Lizards Of Doom graphic novels have delivered 100,000 copies of the series to military families and support organisations across five locations. The donation is the largest single drop in the charity’s history, eclipsing its previous record of 20,000 books at one time, and is believed to be among the largest single donations of graphic novels to military communities.
The project began at a ComicsPro reception table at the beginning of the year, when Gabriel Valentin, creator of the Digital Lizards of Doom series, was seated with Mark Weiss, founder and president of ComicBooks For Kids! and its sister organisation, ComicBooks For Troops. Gabriel Valentin noted that 60 per cent of American fourth graders read below grade level, a problem compounded for many military families who relocate every 9 to 12 months. Mark Weiss asked whether they could supply 20,000 books. Valentin asked about 40,000, then 60,000. After the conference, Mark Weiss called Gabriel Valentin the following Monday and opened with “I have a plan.”
Six months of planning followed, along with support from a private investor and distribution and fulfilment were handled through Mad Cave Studios, which publishes the graphic novels. The books have now landed. The 100,000 copies, 20,000 per location, drawn from Volumes 1 to 5, went to the following places:
- Naperville, IL — Operation Support Our Troops-America (founded 2003), one of the country’s largest volunteer-based military support organisations, providing comfort, resources, and education to service members, veterans, and their families.
- Ayden, NC — North Carolina Support Our Troops (founded 2004), which sends care packages and support to deployed troops and their families.
- Colorado Springs, CO — Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Centre (founded 2016), which provides wraparound services including employment transition, behavioural health, and wellness to veterans and military families across Southern Colorado. A September 11 celebration there included giveaways to military families and a signing by Valentin.
- Hampton, VA — Hampton Roads Peninsula Bases, active-duty installations home to service members and their families.
- Washington, DC — USO-Washington, coordinating distribution alongside the Hampton Roads bases.
Mark Weiss said the organisations selected the Digital Lizards of Doom series after he learned of a Johns Hopkins study on the books’ impact on students, including those struggling to read and learn, and of a subsequent multi-school pilot. “We wanted to do something impactful, that had never been done on this scale and make a positive educational difference for those reading these books. Once I heard about the Hopkins study and their follow-on pilot with multiple schools, we knew we had the right product to work with. A few phone calls to some of the organisations we support and we found ourselves actually limiting this to 100,000 books.”
The team held the announcement until the books had arrived at all five locations. Forbes is expected to cover the donation in an upcoming issue. ComicBooks For Kids! is also preparing to mark its 10-year anniversary with additional announcements in the coming weeks.
Digital Lizards of Doom is a middle-grade graphic novel series created and written by Gabriel Valentin that mixes science fiction, fantasy, video-game logic, and humour, published by Papercutz/Mad Cave and distributed by Simon & Schuster, aimed at roughly ages 7–12. A magical trickster, Pineapple Pete, traps an entire universe inside a video-game world, and a young lizard warrior named Dizzy Doom has to unravel the mystery, form unlikely alliances, including a mysterious ninja and a cyborg cat pirate named Fat Cat Rogers, and confront threats such as the evil robot Commander E.K.O. It is in a hybrid format, with full-page illustrations paired with text-heavy pages that resemble group chats, complete emoticons.
ComicBooks For Kids! is a nonprofit founded in 2017 by Mark Weiss that provides free comic books, graphic novels, and pop-culture items to children in hospitals and cancer centres. Mark Weiss, a retired IT professional, started the organisation after deciding to donate from his own collection and discovering there was no existing group set up to handle large-scale distribution of comics to pediatric patients. Its sister organisation, ComicBooks For Troops, handles donations of comics and pop-culture items to U.S. military service members, veterans, and their families, both domestically and overseas, often through partner support groups.
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