When trouble is brewing in the Marvel Comics Universe, Captain America summons his fellow superheroes with the simple rallying cry, “Avengers Assemble!” In the real-world, Steve Rogers and his superhero cohorts do not exist but a similar call can be heard on the Internet and at pop culture conventions like San Diego Comic-Con and Wondercon. This cry isn’t about doing battle against evil doers but to unite teachers, librarians, artists, and writers in support of using popular culture as an education tool.
Nonetheless, the call is just as inspirational as that of Captain America – Creators Assemble!
“Creators Assemble! exists to raise awareness of the value of comics, graphic novels, role playing games, and popular culture in education and literacy,” Moni Barrette says of the nonprofit organization she co-founded with husband Joe Barrette. “We provide tangible support to educators and librarians who want to use these materials in educational settings and create innovative educational opportunities for our local community. We also facilitate connections and resources to help creators build their professional skills and networks.”
Just as Marvel’s Avengers banded together by accident rather than grand design, Creators Assemble! was the result of an unexpected turn of events that led to the right time and opportunity.
“I was working at a public library and began to specialize in community building through comics and games,” Moni Barrette explains. “My husband and co-founder, Joe, kept saying it would be fun to have a nonprofit that just focused on those elements, minus red tape or other distractions. When we both abruptly found ourselves out of work at the start of the pandemic in 2020, we decided it was finally time to make this idea a reality!”
From those modest beginnings, Creators Assemble! has grown into a network of creative and educational professionals with over one hundred years of combined experience in community building, event planning, panel participation, convention networking, and grant writing. Together, they have launched a number of innovative programs, including Blind Date with a Banned Comic Book, Reindeer Games, Holiday Heroes, and a twice-a-year “speed dating”-style networking event at San Diego Comic-Con and Wondercon.
“Blind Date with a Banned Comic Book is an anti-censorship initiative we organized to support the freedom to read sequential art,” Moni Barrette says of the project. “Participants signed up to be randomly paired with a challenged or banned comic book based on their interests, receive it in the mail, and share their thoughts both about the story they read and the reasons it’s been banned or challenged. So far it was a one-time initiative, but if funding permitted we would love to revive it.”
Reindeer Games, meanwhile, takes place annually and coincides with Giving Tuesday, a national fundraiser for nonprofits held after high-profile shopping days Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A Tabletop RPG (TTRPG) charity event that is streamed live on Twitch, Reindeer Games not only raises funds for Creators Assemble! but awareness of its Holiday Heroes program as well.
“Holiday Heroes is a project that pairs indie artists with hospitalized or critically ill children to create custom artwork using the child’s likeness,” Moni Barette explains. “Artists learn about each child’s favorite things, hobbies, movies, books, and foods to weave personal details into superheroes or similar designs. Finished posters are delivered directly to the kids and their families to bring joy and hope during the holiday season.”
Creators Assemble! also organizes a semiannual networking event where attendees at San Diego Comic-Con and Wondercon are broken into small groups that move from table-to-table after short intervals at each. Along the way, they meet educators, librarians, publishers, editors, artists, writers, and even comic bookstore owners who answer questions and offer advice on a wide range of topics. The event is especially ideal for independent comic book creators trying to market their books, get them into stores or libraries, or in need of some other assistance.
“So many talented folks struggle to get paid for their creativity,” Moni Barrette notes. “There’s so much to navigate including marketing, networking, legalities, and longevity in the comics and the gaming industries. One thing librarians are good at is connecting people with resources, so I brought that with me from my time as a librarian.”
Barrette also considers the networking event a personal favorite. “They say people don’t remember what you do for them, but they remember how you made them feel,” she says. “I feel that way about everyone I’ve met through CA over the last six years. A favorite thing from this process is seeing how many folks came empty handed to our networking and came back as a promoted guest in subsequent years because they met and worked with someone from our event.”
That’s not to say that the educational component of Creators Assemble! isn’t vital as well. “At the current moment in history, we are losing the literacy battle in America,” Moni Barrette notes. “There are many reasons and factors involved in that, but one component is that reading from textbooks or forty-plus year-old fiction is not always fun. Meanwhile, modern comics and gaming is fun, has something for literally everyone, and fosters both connections and learning in ways that aging, required reading lists just aren’t.”
As a result, Creators Assemble! has collaborated with such publishers as Image Comics, Ablaze, Legendary Comics, SHP Comics, Skybound Entertainment, and an assortment of independent creators to develop teaching and library activity guides for comics at all levels and areas of interest. A toolkit for using TTRPGs in the classroom is likewise forthcoming. The nonprofit also works with teachers, librarians, and caretakers so that they can more easily integrate comics into their classrooms and communities.
It is ultimately those teachers and librarians who were the reason Moni and Joe Barrette co-founded Creators Assemble!, as well as the reason the nonprofit has found such success since its inception in 2020.
“Truly, we get a lot of support from the local libraries, teachers, particularly those who are or want to work with comics and games in their learning environments, and the comics community as a whole,” Moni Barrette explains. “People seem to understand and connect with what we do, and we couldn’t be more grateful to have this growing community!”
No doubt Captain America would say the same thing about his fellow Avengers.
Anthony Letizia
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