For the last 2-3 months, I have been doing a lot of preparation for the big party on May 2nd, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. We are sure to have an outstanding event this year, even more so than we usually do, because of our high profile Special Guests and our great charity that we are doing this for. While I was trying to brainstorm how to get people into the store, and trying to think demographics that I wanted to attract, one thing struck me as something that I do not think we have accomplished as a comic book store. I do not think we have reached the young kids as well as their parents as much as I have wanted to.

And it's not for the lack of trying. For the last few years, we have done things QUIETLY behind the scenes to work with schools and libraries. A year ago, we became the Official Reseller of Graphic Novels to the Los Angeles Public Library System. We sponsored the Summer Reading program at the 7 West Valley branches of LAPL around us. We have done numerous donations to several school programs, including one we do Every Year for one of our friends, as well as the school where my two kids go to. We have paid a lot of attention to creating a vast and friendly "KIDS CORNER" in the store that is impossible to miss, and is located at the very front of the store. We even have Kids Sizes T-shirts now in stock, something I never thought we'd have until about 3 weeks ago.

So why is it I think that we are not doing enough? Partially, it's my frustration with the bureaucracy of the LA Public Libraries, with a ZERO Budget available for purchases such as these. We can only do so much with Donations. Another frustration is the difficulty I find trying to prove to school principles something I have known for a few years: Comics are one of the best ways to get their kids to read! My two children grew up reading comic books, and because of them, are both great readers, higher than their grade level.

All this frustration has been making me try to create a way for the people in charge of the libraries and schools to decide to WANT to embrace comics, and I think I may have found an interesting approach. We are going to contact every school in the neighborhood. IF the management agrees to this, we'll give them pre-printed coupon forms which they would give to their kids to take home. The forms will say something like this:

Print your school name in the space provided, and bring this coupon back to Collector's Paradise on May 2, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. With a minimum $5 purchase (mainly to help the charity) your school will become eligible. The school that brings the MOST coupons will receive a $250 Graphic Novel Library (all age appropriate of course) courtesy of Collector's Paradise.

What that does not say is that we are likely to pick more than one winner. Our goal is to get comics into school libraries, and we'll try our hardest to do so. We'll award 2nd, 3rd places and so on. Any school that really promotes this to their kids and shows initiative in doing this, will receive something, even if it's a stack of 5-6 graphic novels. Something is better than nothing.

Would you like to get involved? Do you have kids that go to a school? Talk to their school principle and have them contact me. We'll get the coupons to them. I will be going to quite a few schools, but I can not cover them all. Want to see a new generation of kids reading comics? Help us spread the message, help us find a way to get the message across to people who need to see it.