Comic capers raise G8 awareness in Leeds

Oxfam Leeds and OK Comics hosted a free comic book day to help put pressure on world leaders at the G8. Oxfam Volunteer Tyne Gettings was in on the action.

The paper people, along with thousands of others collected around the world, will be shipped off to Chancellor Angela Merkel - to remind her of the actions that need to be taken in the up and coming G8

Bright and early on Saturday morning Abi, another volunteer, and myself headed down to OK Comics raring to go. Although half the reason we were there so early was to make sure that Abi was first in the queue for a free comic book. (Unlike me, she’s a huge comic enthusiast – I’ve never even opened one in my life!)

The day aimed to show people the joys of comic books by giving away a selection from all the major publishers. We joined forces with the Global Campaign for Education’s ‘Send My Friend to School’ campaign to enable people to raise their voices for next month’s G8 Summit. The street was packed by lunchtime and passers-by made a paper chain of cut out people to represent the 80 million children that are currently denied an education.

They also wrote messages in speech bubbles to present to world leaders. People were drawn into the spirit of the day and were more then happy to decorate messages, especially young children. Jared Myland, manager of OK Comics, and his staff had thought of everything to ensure the day was a blast, having over 200 cakes on hand! A big thanks to the comic artists who came down to lend their services.

The event was a great success, and we ended up with more then a hundred paper people and G8 speech bubbles. The paper people, along with thousands of others collected around the world, will be shipped off to Chancellor Angela Merkel - to remind her of the actions that need to be taken in the up and coming G8.The speech bubbles will be taken to London on 2 June for the G8 rally.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and raised awareness of these important issues. It is exciting to see that issues such as education and the G8 were brought to people that may have had little knowledge before.I left the day not only with handfuls of brightly coloured paper people and G8 speech bubbles but also with a new found appreciation for comic books.