Comic Creators Ally to Fight Human Trafficking

by Rob on December 8, 2010 at 5:12 am

Posted In: blog

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

–Leo Tolstoy

You know that guy in the commercials that said, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV?” Well, for the last few years I’ve been wondering why it never occurred to me to go into police work, firefighting or a search-and-rescue type field, since most of my life I’ve been vicariously thrilled by superhero comics like Uncanny X-Men and the Amazing Spider-Man, watching them undergo tremendous personal sacrifices to save a world that hates and fears them.

Too old to begin the training, as Yoda might say, and much more likely to need a search and rescue team than be a part of one, I thought I had settled into the idea that heroics are best left to the young, and that I would be thrilled plenty writing and drawing my own dreamed-up adventures.

Then my friend Liz, an avid webcomic fan, grabbed my attention with this facebook post to my wall:
“Hey ROOOOBBBBB http://comicalliance.weebly.com/ I think you should join”
The Comic Creators Alliance: Fighting Together to End Human Trafficking.

Human Trafficking? The CCA site statistics are sobering. Film and television and news programs like 20/20 and Dateline are brimming with stories of abductions and sex slave rings. A quick search through the UNICEF website led me to this article from April of this year:

African Union leaders and international experts launch campaign to combat human trafficking

ABUJA, Nigeria, 8 April 2010 – An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide each year for sexual exploitation and cheap labor. Child trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry that affects every country in the world – either as a source of trafficked children or a destination for them – and the global economic crisis has only exacerbated this grave violation of human rights.

So, late in 2009, Lora Innes, creator of The Dreamer adventure/romance comic, motivated when trafficking hit close to home, set out to organize a few comic creators with the idea of building awareness and generating a larger donation pool. It snowballed. By January, 2010, 87 comic creators each provided artwork of one of their female characters to a single image, a downloadable wallpaper, that was made available to readers who donated to the CCA’s two-week fund-raising drive. They raised $10,000!

The donations were split evenly between Love 146, an international organization dedicated to the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through Prevention and Aftercare programs–and Gracehaven, a faith-based, non-profit organization providing shelter, security, and rehabilitation to girls under the age of 18 who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation in central Ohio.

In 2011, January 11th, National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, the Comic Creators Alliance will kick off another donations drive, and it will run to the 24th.

So here’s my chance to feel a like a hero: I’m proud to announce that I’ve joined up, and I’ll be creating an exclusive illustration of Captain Sera Besh for the CCA wallpaper!

Now here’s your chance:

I invite my fellow webcomic creators do the same. Visit the cca site here for info on the project.

I also humbly ask our readers to set aside a few dollars from their Christmas or New Year’s Eve party funds for what I am certain will not only be an epic gathering of comic characters, but a truly epic gathering of readers to deliver a devastating blow to the dark industry of human trafficking.

To change the world for the better, we have to become better.