The Four Color Media Monitor

The Jerusalem Post wrote about a comics dealer in Israel's capitol who's made plenty of sales on various items, and of recent, is also making special contributions for IDF soldiers to read while the war against the Hamas in the Gaza strip is going on:

Another major part of Dobuler’s sales is what he does to help out others, and that goes beyond the massive discounts he gives to people.

“Whenever a sale is finished, a huge chunk of what I have left over gets donated to IDF lone soldiers,” he explained. “The rest goes into storage and becomes the seed for the next sale.”

With so much going to lone soldiers, a prospective shopper might feel some guilt about buying comics – after all, every comic bought at the sale is one that won’t get donated. But Dobuler assures that there’s no need to feel guilty about it, due to the sheer amount of stock he has.

“Here, look,” he said, hefting a heavy bag filled to the brim with comics stored in another room.

“All of this is already set to be given to lone soldiers.”

But Dobuler’s charity work extends beyond just giving to soldiers. Ever since the October 7 massacre and the ongoing war with Hamas, he has been doing the rounds at hotels throughout Jerusalem, bringing what he has for the evacuees – for free.

This comes in two ways. The first way is, of course, comics and board games.

He explained that since the war started, he knew that people would start donating things, and only then bother to look into what people actually needed. Dobuler took a different approach and considered what they would need first.

To do this, he organized a Facebook group called Jerusalem Helping Others, where he and others like him can coordinate what people need, such as laptops, tablets, and toiletries.

But he also wanted to bring things that would kindle joy, comfort, and entertainment – something comic books excel at.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the only one giving comics, action figures, and board games to lone soldiers and evacuees,” he said, adding that he tries to tailor what he brings to specific needs. That also means catering to niches that often get overlooked, namely adults and teenagers.

Holding up a box of chess, checkers, and Chinese checkers, Dobuler said, “People forget about adults, but they need help and support, too.”

[...] And at the end of the day, that is what characterizes Dobuler’s mission. He is just an ordinary man with an organizational superpower, taking on this heroic endeavor to help others.

If one were to visit Dobuler’s Facebook page, one would see his intro, which reads as follows: “Trying each day to help make the world a better place, and make those around me smile!”

And that explains why he still opened his sale during the war.

“At first, I was hesitant to open the sale now; I didn’t think it was appropriate,” he said. “But people, including soldiers, began reaching out to me for comics.”

In stressful and traumatic times like this, people yearn for something to give them comfort – and the world of comics has been doing exactly that for people for almost a century now. Ever since that fateful day when Superman hit store shelves, the world of caped heroes has been inspiring people, giving them hope in times of darkness that in the right circumstances, even someone ordinary can become a hero.

Providing comics for troops and survivors is definitely a very admirable mission, much like veteran comedian Jerry Seinfeld's taken up in his journey here this week. But what this article unfortunately doesn't make clear is that the Big Two/mainstream hasn't been providing comfort for 2 decades now, based on how they sank into divisive leftist politics themselves since the early 2000s, to say nothing of darkness. Universe-wide crossovers don't help matters either. For that, you need to look in the independent scene these days, and if you know where to look, that's where you'll find better items where the artists/writers focus on serious entertainment value, and what can make people think for the right reasons. A shame papers like these were oblivious all these years to what Joe Quesada and Dan DiDio did to Marvel/DC.

The job the Israeli dealer is taking is certainly impressive. It's just a shame nobody wants to ask what went wrong with all these famous creations of Jewish-American artists and writers from decades past, and how it can end up hurting their Israeli brethren today.

Labels: Europe and Asia, islam and jihad, licensed products, politics, sales, technology, terrorism