Dan Brereton is known to many horror comic and art fans for his monster super-team the Nocturnals, as well as his instantly recognizable creatures of the night. Brereton has launched several successful kickstarter campaigns for his art books in the past, but his most recent (Nocturnals Anniversary Art Book) was made available exclusively through the Hero Initiative, an organization well-known for helping members of the comic industry in their time of need.
This October, Brereton not only donated his time and efforts to the project, but he also brought in a number of fellow artists in support of the Hero Initiative, who donated original artwork from The Nocturnals Anniversary Art Book for a series of ebay auctions aimed at raising funds for the organization.
Brereton became “…aware of Jim McLauchlin’s efforts as far back as the early 2000s, when the charity was in its first incarnation, A.C.T.O.R. A few years later, around the time it became known as “The Hero Initiative”, Jim instituted a series of sketch cover auctions – the first was in 2007, for Ultimate Spider-Man. I contributed a drawing of Venom done on a blank cover edition created specifically for the project, along with at least 100 other artists . These become known as the Hero 100 Series . When I saw how much these things were going for at auction- the numbers were listed on a sheet of paper accompanying a copy of a book collecting them all- I was not only motivated to keep doing them every year, which I have, but to try and bring in as much for them as possible by making them very appealing to collectors.”
The artist’s personal connection to the charity was formed “When my friend Gene Colan was going through health problems as he entered his 80’s, I was very concerned and renewed my efforts to raise funds to help him and other elder statesmen of the comic creator community, who didn’t have much of any retirement plan. I have done several conventions as a guest artist appearing exclusively at the HI booth in several cities over the last decade- and when The Nocturnals were approaching their 20th Anniversary of publication, Jim and I concocted a project to help raise funds while celebrating the series by creating something the readers of Nocturnals would enjoy. It took longer than we expected to complete it , but Jim and I are nothing, if not dogged.”
If you are interested in donating to Hero Initiative, or purchasing any of the original art from the Nocturnals Anniversary Art Book (or the book itself), please visit their ebay auction/store page and their website.
