Heroes Help Rebuild New Orleans Library

Press Release - December 8, 2006

The Hero Foundry began its final fundraiser of the year, The Convention Season Sketchbook Auction on Wednesday the 6th of December at 8 p.m. Central Time. The long awaited sketchbook is finally finished and packed full of breathtaking art!

The Hero Foundry have placed the 2006 Convention Season Sketchbook on eBay to raise funds to help put comic books into libraries, schools and hospitals that cannot afford them. Proceeds from the auction will go towards purchasing comic books and graphic novels for the New Orleans Public Library System, which was ravaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"We (The New Orleans Public Library) have only recently begun to build a graphic novel collection for our system and this was mainly done through donations. Right now only two of our branches maintains an adequate selection. Since having added them their circulation has been overwhelming especially among boys and teenagers which as you may know are often reluctant readers" Sharon Kohl, Branch Manager, Children's Resource Center, New Orleans Public Library.

The Convention Season Sketchbook is the culmination of months of hard work by dedicated Hero Foundry volunteers who carried the book around to the conventions they attended. Numerous artists rose to the challenge and donated a sketch, ink drawing, and in some cases a full painting to the cause. Many artists charge for the time it takes to create these amazing pieces of art but every single one involved gladly donated the time and effort to The Hero Foundry.

The theme for this year's Sketchbook was Supermen and Mutants in honor of the release of Superman Returns and X-Men 3. The book contains some tough looking mutants and lots of strong supermen as well as many drawings by artists who chose to do their own character, or just something completely different. Among the amazing artwork featured are drawings of Superman by Brian Hitch, Brian Denham, Dustin Nguyen, Ryan Sook, John Paul Leon, Ben Dunn, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Scott Kurtz, J.E. Smith, Marc Andreyko, Andy Lee, Tim Seely, Franco, Zander Cannon, Josh Middleton, Yanick Paquette, Dave Johnson, Mitch Breitweiser, Bill Tucci, and Kody Chamberlain . Members of the X-men family are represented by Bill Sienkiewicz, Charlie Adlard, Art Balthazar, Billy Tan, Tone Rodriguez, Marc Wolfe, Greg Horn, Taki Soma, David Finch, Talent Caldwell, Chris Moreno, Angel Medina, and Paul Milligan . Other contributors are Tony Bedard, James Kolchalka, Steve Galgas, Gail Simone, Stan Sakai, Gabe of Penny Arcade, Kurt Busiek, Cheeks, Mike Mignola, Skottie Young, Scott Kolins, Jeff Amano, and Buzz . In all there are 44 individual drawings in this beautiful sketchbook. Images from the book are available at www.theherofoundry.org/sketchbook .
The sketchbook can be found at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190059663564

This is a unique opportunity to not only own a beautiful collection of original art by some of the industries hottest artists but also a chance to help a worthy institution in its time of need. If you don't have the money to donate then you can help out by spreading the word and letting people know about the sketchbook auction and the great cause it is raising money for.

The Hero Foundry is a Non Profit Organization founded in 2006 in order to assist libraries, schools, hospitals, and other organizations that lack the financial resources in building a library of comic books, graphic novels, and similar literature. Their intentions are to increase literacy, inspire creativity, and most importantly, to provide positive role models and moral guidance to today's youth through the comic book medium.

Donations to The Hero Foundry are accepted in the form of monetary contributions through their PayPal account thefuture@theherofoundry.org ), mailing a check to the address below, or by stopping by their booth at one of their upcoming comic convention appearances. Additionally, comic books, graphic novels and other materials will be accepted. These materials will either be donated to beneficiaries of The Hero Foundry, or will be sold to finance The Foundry's mission.

Any questions or comments, contact me at comicsintheclassroom @ gmail.com