Happy National Comic Book Day. Today honors the art, artists and stories of comic books. To help us celebrate, comic book artist and Blackfoot native Adrian Ropp has five ways to celebrate National Comic Book Day in Idaho.
- Share a hero with someone.
“Everybody has someone in their life that could use another hero and I think the best way you can support national comic book day is either go to a bookstore and find a comic book collection that looks interesting, buy it for someone you love, or go to the library and do the same thing,” Ropp said.
- Support a local comic bookstore like Inner Circle Comics and Games in Idaho Falls, or Captain Bengal’s Comic Cove in Pocatello.
“Sometimes the comic bookstores are struggling these days,” Ropp said. “Search on Google and find if you live by a comic bookstore. If you live by a comic bookstore, go pick up a few comics, support the local store.”
- Ask for recommendations.
“I guarantee you, if you go to that store, they will have some really good recommendations on what you should read. There's something for everybody's age. They make kids' comics like ‘My Little Pony’ and ‘Garfield.’ And then they make comics for teens like Spider-Man and Superman and all the way up,” Ropp said.
- Read a comic and learn what it means to be a hero in the community.
“What makes them a hero isn't putting on a costume,” Ropp said. “It's how they act when they're not in costume. The way that I'd relate that to us is how do you act when nobody's watching you? Do you do the right thing or when nobody's watching, is that when you do bad things? Comics are this really great way to tell you like, hey, when nobody's watching you, when you're not in the spotlight, how do you treat others?”
- Attend a comic convention like the Gem State Comic Con in Boise, FanX in Salt Lake, or the free Boise Comic Arts Festival happening through this weekend.
“There's going to be professional comic book artists, like myself, there that are going to have their work there for you to purchase and read and they'll sign the books for you and you can talk to them about the process. It's a really good way to interact with the creative people that have made these amazing stories,” Ropp said.