Nau speak: Vegas: Zappos Fandom Friday Marvel Mini-con April 2018

May the Fourth be with you!

From time to time, I'm lucky enough to donate my time to help Critical Care Comics, a 501c nonprofit organization, with their cause. What, exactly, is their cause, you may ask? To put it simply, Critical Care Comics is; " Dedicated to bringing joy to children in hospitals by delivering comic books to help them escape the discomfort of hospital life. If only for only 28 pages. "... the long version, however, is a bit more personal. The founder of Critical Care Comics (referred to as "CCC" from here onward) was diagnosed with cancer when he was young, causing him to spend weeks in the hospital at a time for treatment and missing out on time with his friends and other normal adolescents pursuits. It was a challenging situation to be in and his greatest escape was in the form of comics that his family would bring him to read. While he recovered and has gone on to grow and become a healthy man with a loving wife, he's always wanted to give back to the community and help others who find themselves in a similar situation to his. CCC was born of that need and in the 5-6 years since it began has gone on to donate thousands upon thousands of donated comics to children in Las Vegas area hospitals. I've been working with them now for about 3 years, tagging along on hospital visits and events to draw and help where needed. All of the comics and toys that we take to the hospitals and give to the kids are donated by kind-hearted citizens! There are several comic book stores throughout the city of Las Vegas that have partnered with the cause and have permanent donation boxes in their stores where people can drop off their books, too.

The cause naturally attracts the hero types who, between saving the world, might drop in for a visit. They're all pretty busy, of course, with that whole saving-the-world thing... it's pretty amazing how often Earth finds itself in peril, isn't it? Luckily we've got so many heroes who call our humble planet home or at least have taken a liking to it, like Chewbacca up there. He was kind enough to pose for photos with all of us, who were honored by his presence. Hawk Eye, Wolverine and Spider Gwen also hung out with us for a bit, ensuring the safety of our supplies and the other people attending the Fandom Friday mini-con. There were even a few surprise appearances from other Avengers, too! Pretty cool, man, pretty cool. Every hospital visit has at least three of our galaxies greatest heroes there, so kids get to bond with Wonder Woman, Batman, Spiderman, even Deadpool!

This event, in particular, was Zappos Fandom Friday, a free event to the public celebrating Marvel and all things nerdy held at the Zappos corporate office in Downtown Las Vegas. The event was on the official release date for Infinity War, so they were definitely celebrating the momentous occasion. There were banners for each of the Infinity Stones, life-size cut-outs of Thanos (definitely don't want him attending in person), many different artists and vendors celebrating and sharing their crafts, and raffles galore! CCC was there to collect donations with games and raffles and spread awareness of the cause. It's an awesome event and totally worth attending if you get the chance! I went back in 2016 as an artist and had a great time. There are painting classes, the Taco Fest truck, amazingly talented artists and so much more! You definitely don't want to miss the costume contest!