Comic Donations and Opportunities to Get Involved!

Hey everyone! My name is Carl Scheckel and I’m a junior here at Montclair High. Some of you may already know about me and what I do, but for those who don’t, let me explain. For a while I’ve been donating comics to deployed soldiers, veteran hospitals, underprivileged kids, and most recently even MHS’s own Cards for Hospitalized Kids Club! In total I have donated over 70 thousand comics, which is the equivalent of about $40-50 thousand dollars!

However, I now need your help. The surge of donations has slowed, but I believe that together, we can reignite the spark. If you have spare books or comics lying around, or even if you’re simply intrigued by the idea of making a positive impact, reach out to me at either my school email ([email protected]), or personal email ([email protected]). Every contribution, big or small, has the power to bring a smile to someone’s face.

You may be wondering about how this all started. Why am I donating comic books of all things? Wouldn’t things like food, toys, or even money be better?

Well, about 9 years ago I started a small side project called CarlsComix. It began as a simple website (carlscomix.com) where I would post reviews of various things (although mostly comics/comic related things). However an idea slowly began to grow: interviews! I could go around to different comic book shows/conventions and ask writers, artists, and creators there why they like comics, and why they became interested in them in the first place. It’d also help the website gain traction and spread my name around the comic book community some more. So I took a leap into the world of interviews.

My first interview was with Herb Trimpe (who is most well known for working on the Hulk). It was a long shot, and I almost didn’t do it, but I am extremely glad I did. That set me down a path that would eventually lead to fame (but that’s an entirely different story, and relatively unimportant to this).

Fast forwarding a bit, it was in late 2016 that a comment was posted on one of the interviews I had published. The commenter posed the idea of donating comics, and I immediately loved the idea, while also simultaneously not having a clue on how to turn it into reality. I went to a couple bigger donating services and proposed the idea to them, saying that I could get the comics myself and give what I managed to raise to them, so that they could then send them all out to whoever they wanted. But, not even being ten years old, I was turned away time and time again. Feeling tired of rejection, I decided that if nobody allowed me to go through them, I’d just do everything myself, and that’s exactly what I ended up doing.

I began to use the community I had built through my website to ask for donations. I told them that I wanted others to enjoy comics like I do, and that people who were put in bad situations could use these as something to make them feel better. I managed to raise over 3 thousand comics, which I considered a huge win. With these, I reached out to Jennifer Myers, who works for Veterans Affairs to see if she could help. After receiving my message, she was beyond happy to help. She put in the work to allow me to donate the comics to a nearby military base so they could be sent to deployed soldiers who were in Afghanistan at the time.

This act once again exploded my name across the comic community. But not just there, I became famous worldwide. More and more donations began to come in, more people wanted to help out. I began to look for more outlets to send my comics, and as you already know, I found a bunch! It’s been amazing seeing all the support people have been willing to give and I’m so thankful for all of it.

So, the choice is ultimately yours, but you have the opportunity to be part of something amazing. Lets spread the joy of comics and reading together so we can make a difference. Reach out, donate, and let’s continue this incredible journey!