ELYRIA - Last month on Free Comic Book Day, Ken Glanc was looking to register people for the Elyria Comic Book Initiative.

Set up at Keith’s Comics at 394 Broad St., Glanc watched as more than 1,000 comic books were passed out and 275 people filled out registration forms for his nonprofit initiative.

“I was blown away by that number,” Glanc said. “I was hoping to see maybe 50 or 60 people stop by and fill out a registration form. We are just trying to create as much awareness for the ECBI and its role in literacy as possible.”

That role is to promote literacy and creativity through comic books, and Glanc is hoping to take his initiative into area schools to engage students in a visual learning program by having them create their own comic books based on themes such as leadership and conflict resolution.

Then Glanc wants to find a place to open the Comic Book Academy, a place where members of the community can come to together and collaborate on comics, for example, combining a writer’s story with an illustrator’s art.

Knowing that there are many students who walk the downtown area, Glanc initially approached Jim Deery - the onetime owner of Jim’s Coffee House at 2 Lake Ave. - last summer about using the second floor of the shop as the Comic Book Academy.

However, since then, Glanc’s has switched his focus from the academy to getting involved with schools and starting an after-school program as an opportunity to share one of his childhood pastimes with today’s youth.

Glanc said he was infatuated with Saturday morning cartoons and superheroes - especially Batman - while growing up, and with an aunt who was big on reading, comics were always his choice.

He said some of his board members share similar experiences.

“One of our board members said that, ‘When I was growing up, I couldn’t stand reading, but then I got turned on to comic books. Ever since I was turned on to comic books, I became a voracious reader,’ ” Glanc said. “Everybody’s got one of these stories.”

For the remainder of the year, EBCI will try to find others who have those same types of stories as it will be represented at some smaller comic book conventions and local arts festivals where admission rates are less expensive.

“We’re still in that introductory phase,” Glanc said. “We don’t have the ability to pay the admission fee for some of these.”

For now, those wishing to get involved with ECBI should e-mail elyriacomicbookinitiative@yahoo.com. A new Web site is expected to up in the next few weeks at www.elyriacomic

bookinitiative.org.

Contact Andrew Harner at 329-7155 or ctnews@chroniclet.com.

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.