One of my favorite events each year is the Holiday Art Show at my local comic shop, Carol & John’s. I’ve been contributing to the show for a few years, and my kids are able to donate their art as well!
Since 2013, Carol & John’s has organized their Holiday Art Show to help provide food security assistance for those in need. Submissions for the show are open to anyone willing to create art, specifically an original comic book cover on blank books that the shop provides. Everyone is able to try to win one of the donated cover art pieces in a basket raffle system. A dollar gets you one raffle ticket towards the cover of your choice. All proceeds go to The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in Northeast Ohio. Last year, proceeds from the art show funded 18,888 meals. The lifetime total is 159,496 meals donated due to proceeds from the art shows.
Earlier this month, a stolen car was intentionally rammed into the front offices of the Food Bank, so this effort to help them out is especially timely.
Each year the art has a fun theme that the shop announces a few weeks ahead of time. Past themes have revolved around the pandemic, holiday movies, Marvel vs. DC, the Spider-Verse, and “What If?” This year’s theme asks artists to create a tribute to a classic comic book cover. Artists donate covers rendered in a variety of mediums, from crayons and markers to funny photoshops and digital art. It’s always a crazy mashup of comics lore, the holidays, pop culture, and Cleveland in jokes.
The aspect of the event that stands out to me is the all ages, everyone is welcome angle. An entire school class has even participated for the past few years. It’s delightful to see the kids’ art, and if my own kids are any indication, the opportunity to have art displayed in a real art show is a confidence boost and inspiration for young artists. It isn’t a “school” show, it’s unique and expands their community. Plus, they help raise money for a good cause. I love getting to collaborate with my kids, as they come up with their cover concept and title, and we mock up the type and fun “cover” graphics like the comics code stamp and vintage price tag.
I think my favorite cover my kids have created so far is “What If… Iron Man was a Frog?”
Carol & John’s puts in the work and turns neighboring retail space into a gallery for a few days, where everyone can enjoy the art and place their raffle tickets. Every donated cover is an obvious labor of love. There are extremely talented and experienced artists involved whose work hangs next to work from someone who might be participating in an art show for the first time. You can see students who have participated multiple times grow into their own year over year. Everyone brings a creative concept and all of the artwork earns money for charity.
The show runs from Wednesday the 18th through Saturday the 21st. If you are unable to visit the shop/gallery on Cleveland’s West Side, you can still view all the covers and call in with a credit card to buy raffle tickets. Each cover will have numbers assigned and the extremely sweet, helpful people at Carol & John’s will place tickets in any cover’s basket for you if you give them the number. Winners are going to be drawn live at their Holiday Party on the night of December 21st!
These are just a handful of past covers for the show:
