Local artists come to the rescue of burgled comic store
Members of a group for local comic creators are rallying to support a shop that was broken into last week.
The group, Panel One, is holding a fundraising event at 2 p. m. on Saturday at Alpha Comics, 7005 18 St. S. E. The store was burgled for the second time this year in the early morning of May 28.
“If anybody has their doubts about how great people are, they should look at what’s going on here,” said the owner of Alpha Comics, Chris Humphries.
“I had a break- in, there were three people that broke into my store, but it looks like there’s going to be 30 people setting up here to help fundraise for that, so that’s really amazing.”
Artists from Panel One, which is a loosely organized umbrella group for local comic creators, will charge $ 20 per custom drawing and more for bigger and more complex works. Writers will also be there for story consultations.
“Chris does so much for us to promote the community and support us as local creators, we couldn’t just let it stand. No way,” said Erin Millar, co- founder of Panel One and organizer of the fundraiser.
Humphries says the cost of replacing his glass door, which was smashed with a pipe during the break- in, will be around $ 1,000.
“That’s a lot of dollars in comic money,” he said.
Millar, however, says she’s confident they’ll surpass that amount and aims to double it. With at least 10 artists on the roster producing a drawing around every 20 minutes, that goal is entirely possible if enough people want to buy.
Humphries says he hopes to use any leftover money to buy pulldown shutters for the new door to prevent any further break- ins.
Police say they haven’t identified suspects for the crime yet, although they are examining CCTV footage. It’s unknown if this burglary was related to the one in January, although that one involved only one culprit and Thursday’s had three.
The thieves stole hundreds of comic books, worth around $ 3 or $ 4 each. Humphries says the motive is unclear. None of the books were particularly expensive, many were not popular stories and the burglars didn’t even handle them carefully.
“I can’t rationalize a break- in in the beginning. I could kind of understand that there’s criminals out there who break into places, but here, it made no sense,” he said.
“Maybe they believed that I did carry older comics, but all the same, they’re just throwing them into a sack and destroying them. I don’t know where these people came from or what their mindset is.”
Regardless, Humphries says the community’s support has made him feel stronger than ever.
“I had a few days feeling really depressed about this, and then people started to reach out,” he said. “I was really overwhelmed by all the people that want to help me.”
Hearing that he said this, Millar laughed. “Good!” she said. “That’s the point.”
A list of the comics stolen is posted on the Alpha Comics Facebook page.