Courtesy of @KellySue DeConnick (writer of my favorite series of the year, Osborn, and one of the nicest people in comics), here’s another way of sending comics (and other things) to the troops.  It’s actually a bit more personal than Operation Gratitude, as you can direct it to specific service men and women.

“Here’s how it works:

1. Go to anysoldier.com.
2. Click on WHERE TO SEND.
3. Click on ANY SOLDIER SEARCH TOOL.
4. Leaving everything else blank, put either COMICS or COMIC BOOKS into the REQUESTS AND EMAIL CONTENTS field.  (As I write this, COMICS returns 8 units requesting comics–7 Army, 1 Air Force; 5 in Iraq, 1 in Qatar, 1 in Afghanistan and 1 in the Philippines.)
5. Click on one of the soldiers names and read their email, making sure what they want is actually what you’ve got.  Often they’re specific — they want funny comics, or newspaper comics, or Marvel comics, or they may even request a particular hero.
6. Once you find someone who either wants what you’ve got or is just generally requesting comics, click where it says CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THE COMPLETE ADDRESS.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and I can’t proceed any further right now because I don’t actually have any comics to send, but if I recall correctly, you fill out a short form and then you’re emailed the soldier’s address.  I believe you can request up to 2 addresses per day.  (While you’re at it, you might look at what else your soldier is requesting–sometimes it’s something as simple as cotton swabs.  Surely you can throw a package of q-tips in the box.)

The postage fees you pay to an APO or FPO address are NOT international shipping rates.  You pay domestic rates, so while you are picking up a bill, it’s pretty small considering the effect.  And it’s worth mentioning that our local UPS store in KC used to pack up any donations for troops overseas for free.  They’ve since changed ownership and we’ve since moved, so I have no idea if that’s common practice or not, but it’s certainly worth asking.

Good luck!”

It’s not just 11-11-11, it’s Veteran’s Day.  GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES’ research and reception afforded me to interact with a many veterans, and as a result the day has added meaning for me.  Spend any time with someone that’s served, hear the stories of what they and their loved ones have sacrificed and you can’t help but want to do something.  I did.  You can too, and it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably amassed a huge collection of comic books.  You may not have room for them, and it’s unlikely you’re going to re-read most of them.  The secondary market for comics has collapsed to the point where you not only can’t make money by selling old books, you can’t even get most comic stores to take them off your hands for free.

But there are men and women who could use the diversion that comics provide.  War has been described as “long periods of boredom punctuated by punctuated by moments of sheer terror”.  There’s not much you can do about the sheer terror short of enlisting, but there is something you can do to help alleviate the boredom.

Donate your comics to Operation Gratitude.

Here’s how they describe what they do:

“Operation Gratitude annually sends 100,000 care packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed in hostile regions, to their children left behind and to Wounded Warriors recuperating in Transition Units. Our mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member’s face and express to our Armed Forces the appreciation and support of the American people. Each package contains donated product valued at ~$125 and costs the organization $15 to assemble and ship.  For safety and security, assembling of packages occurs at the Army National Guard armory in Van Nuys, California. Since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude volunteers have shipped more than 660,000 packages to American Military deployed overseas.”

I’ve driven hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books, dvds and videogames over to their HQ and the Van Nuys, CA National Guard Armory.  I’m not saying that to brag, but rather to give you an idea how easy it is.

My poorly taken photo doesn’t convey the massive volunteer operation they have going, but I felt uncomfortable taking pictures at a military installation, even with permission.

But everything you see here, and more, gets sent directly overseas to the troops:

(Those are Marines standing by a Cobra gunship like the ones in GRAVEYARD)

You don’t need to drive to Van Nuys, you can mail your comics there.  They don’t need to be comics…You can donate candy, cellphones, cars, even cash (here’s a more complete list of things you can do, including volunteering your time).  But do something.

Trust me…I’m lazy, self-involved and practically a shut-in, and I did.

At the very least, please re-blog, re-tweet and re-post the hell out of this on Facebook so others can.