Near Mint Memories: A Tradition of Caring

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1984

A two-year drought culminated in a famine in the African nation of Ethiopia that killed one million people. The situation was exacerbated by a twenty year civil war that had displaced thousands and cut as many off from aid. Many national governments and international bodies rallied to help, but despite the international effort almost eight million Africans were close to starving to death. It was time for pop culture heroes to rise up and take action.


Musicians Unite!

In the mid 1980s, the 32 year old Irish rocker lead of the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof, was spurred to action by the devastating famine in Africa and world apathy after watching a BBC documentary.

He organized a Band-Aid group of many of the top British and English-speaking European pop stars of the time and they recorded the classic “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” It debuted in the number one spot on the British charts in November 1984. It hit the number one on the American charts within weeks. It sold 3 million in Great Britain alone and raised $14 million from world-wide sales. It became the best selling single ever in Great Britain until Elton John’s 1997 “Candle in the Wind” tribute to the late Princess Diana.

The success of Band-Aid was not surprising since Geldof leveraged the popularity of his talent to spur sales. The Band-Aid performers included Culture Club (Boy George), David Bowie, Duran Duran, Eurythmics (Annie Lennox), Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Sting, U2 (Bono and the boys), Wham! (George Michael), Bob Geldof, and others.

In 1989, lesser know artists recorded Band-Aid II, and in 2004 a new version was recorded by Bono, Paul McCartney, Dido and others. The proceeds were to go to support humanitarian aid in Sudan.

Following a year later after the success of Britain’s first Band-Aid effort, musicians from the United States came together as U.S.A. For Africa and released “We are the World” in 1985. It was an effort spearheaded and organized by Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder and few others. The song was written by Lionel Richie (father of current blonde “it” girl Nicole Richie of The Simple Life infamy) and a younger, less crazy Michael Jackson. It raised $60 million in world-wide sales.

Forty-five American artists came together in January of 1985 to record the hit single. They included the likes of Dan Aykroyd, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, Bob Geldof, and others.

Canadian musicians also came together to raise funds for famine relief efforts in Africa through the efforts of agent Bruce Allen. More than fifty of Canada’s top talent recorded “Tears Are Not Enough”, a song written by Bryan Adams, and released it early 1985.

It was an all-star Canadian cast that included the aforementioned Bryan Adams, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Corey Hart, Geddy Lee of Rush, Oscar Peterson, Paul Shaffer of David Letterman fame, and others. It was also included as part of the U.S.A. For Africa album, but also was released as a single in March 1985 and raised more than $3 million dollars in Canada.

These recordings were followed by the largest international gathering of musicians in Live Aid on July 13, 1985 an event on both sides of the world: Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. At the helm was none other than Bob Geldof. It was a 16-hour effort that began in Great Britain and a salute by Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana and ended in the U.S. with the singing of “We are the World”. This Live Aid effort televised concert raised over $100 million world-wide for African famine relief.


Comic Creators Unite!

So why mention all that? Well the actions of Sir Bob Geldof, eventually knighted for his famine relief efforts, inspired comic creators to action. Who was comics’ Geldof? None other than legendary artist Berni Wrightson. Bernie was good friends with writer/artist Jim Starlin and they pitched his idea for an X-Men special addition to then Marvel Editor in Chief Jim Shooter. Marvel agreed and the participating creators donated their time and work, with all revenue going to African famine relief.

Their efforts coalesced in 1985’s Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men. Twenty-one writers and artists collaborated on the project. Joining the likes of writers Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, Mike Baron, Denny O’Neil, Mike Grell, Steve Englehart and Archie Goodwin were non-comic writers Stephen King and Harlan Ellison. In addition to a handful of other writers, inkers, letterers, and colorists, some top pencillers also donated their time and included John Buscema, John Byrne, Richard Corben, Brian Bolland, Howard Chaykin, and others.

Essentially, in Marvel’s charity title, the X-Men ultimately learn that the famine in Africa was caused by entity who fed on human misery. Was it alien or one that evolved from humanity? Was it a mutant? The story didn’t reveal that. The X-Men vanquished the villain, but the fact this being caused or made the famine in Africa worse was a very poor plot device. I also felt it trivialized the famine. I know that was an unintentional byproduct of the story, but Marvel still deserves kudos for doing the whole charity book in the first place.

The Marvel book, while well intentioned, was not a great read although it was visually great with the ensemble of artists on board.

In 1986 DC Comics followed with a benefit book of their own called Superman and Batman in Heroes against Hunger. Who was at helm? Yup, you guessed it Berni Wrightson and Jim Starlin. They had approached then DC Vice-President – Executive Editor Dick Giordano who green lit the project.

A who’s who (pun intended) of writers, pencillers, inkers, letterers, and colorists collaborated on the 48-page mega charity book. Top writers included Jim Starlin, Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggin, Roy Thomas, J.M. DeMatteis, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, and others. Marquee pencillers included Berni Wrightson, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, George Perez, Carmine Infantino, Marshall Rogers, Curt Swan, Barry Windsor-Smith, Walt Simonson, Dave Gibbons, and so many other fine artists.

This story also had an alien component, which was equally as contrived as Marvel’s, but what I did like about the issue was the teaming of Batman, Superman and his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. Even after negotiating a temporary detente with the villainous Luthor, with their combined smarts and ingenuity they couldn’t solve or cure the famine. Lex was visibly upset that he couldn’t achieve that goal. It was quite a moving book particularly in its latter half.


2004

Twenty years after the severe famine in Ethiopia, the world would be moved by another international crisis. On December 26, 2004, at almost 8 a.m. local time, a magnitude 9 earthquake hit South Asia. Two tectonic plates shifted under the sea 150 kilometers off the coast of Indonesia. It resulted in a tsunami whose large waves spread across the Indian Ocean and devastated the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. The waves actually reached and caused havoc in Somalia thousands of kilometers away in the eastern part of Africa. Over 150,000 people have been killed and thousands remain missing.

After 9-11, a horrible tragedy that changed the face of New York and moved the heart of the world, many celebrities supported 9-11 charities and recovery efforts. The comic industry stepped up and produced multiple charity books. Some were collaborative cross-company books and others were company specific.

Where is the comic industry now? With the exception of a handful of independent companies that are donating the profits from books to tsunami relief efforts or a handful of creators donating work for auction, the big companies and the industry as a whole have yet to galvanize and step up as they did on a smaller scale in the 1980s and on a large one in 2001 through to 2002.

Its time for action. Would you support a relief book or two? I think you would.Well, I actually hope you would. Contact your favorite comic book companies and ask them what they are doing for the tsunami relief effort. And, let me know. I hope to spotlight comic company and creator charity efforts as part of upcoming columns.

For more information on what you can do please visit
here.

Peace.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!