Free comic books in Drinko Library, courtesy of HerdCon, came from an unlikely source on Thursday, Sept. 22.

“Before HerdCon 2021, we were very fortunate to be contacted by our fellow HerdCon committee member, Ryan Adkins in IT, whose family’s church, Danleyton Missionary Baptist Church in Greenup, KY, subscribes to a cool service that provides resources to needy families,” Monica Brooks, dean of university libraries, said.

“They had received a large shipment of random comic books through ‘Save the Children’ and asked if we wanted to distribute them to attendees during the event,” Brooks said. This unexpected boon kicked off amazing interest in the comics!”

Instructional Technologist Ryan Adkins elaborated, “The program in which the church participates is called the ‘Christian Appalachian Project,’ which stipulates you cannot re-sell their goods for profit; you have to give them away,” Adkins said.

“The church receives large shipments of comic books,” he said. 

However, they would not have been able to find enough people to hand them out to. So, the church was excited when Adkins told them about HerdCon and that they would be able to hand them out.

Brooks said that the shipments are random and include a wide range of books from anime and manga to comics about popular characters like Spiderman and X-Man to even books for children and adults.

“Additionally, our other colleague who is the co-chair of HerdCon, Michelle Alford in the library, developed a link to ‘Save the Children’ to help supplement our amazing Danleyton connection,” Brooks said.

This connection allows them to receive periodic shipments of comic books that keep the bookshelf in Drinko Library stocked.