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Interview: Janine Bielski from the HERO Initiative   By Matt Yocum Published: 2006-09-22

Editor’s note: There was an unfortunately long time between the actual interview with Ms. Bielski and me editing and inserting the interview into our database. Nearly three weeks ago, ACTOR changed its name to the HERO Intiative, “a name that helps build association in the mainstream.” Hence the HERO logo on this page and on our front page, and all the links in this interview point at the new URL, www.heroinitiative.org. — louis

While attending the Wizard World Los Angeles Convention in March 2006, I sat down with Janine Bielski, Development Director for ACTOR, to discuss who they are. The audio interview conducted with Janine turned out to be of too poor a quality to include on CCdC, however the following is as near an accurate transcription of the interview as could be made.

Matt Yocum: This is Matt Yocum from ComicCritique.com, and I wanted to thank ACTOR who gave me the opportunity at the Wizard World Los Angeles Convention — I had lunch with Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief at Marvel thanks to an auction that they had on ebay. So I want to thank Janine Bielski, who’s the Development Director with ACTOR.

Janine Bielski: Thank you so much. We really appreciate your support.

MY: Janine, the first question I had is, for people who aren’t aware, what is ACTOR? It’s an acronym, so what does the acronym stand for and what is it that you do?

JB: ACTOR stands for A Commitment to Our Roots. Basically we’re a non-profit organization. We’re relatively new, and it was all started because we found that a lot of individuals within the comic book industry, particularly those in the Golden and Silver Age of comics, the creators had kind of fallen on hard times. They had worked for merely pennies a page, they didn’t have a pension fund, and now they were living paycheck to paycheck. It was based on the premise of the Major League Baseball “Baseball Assistance Team” [BAT]. So it’s a similar situation where we’re catering to those who’ve gone before us and kind of paved the way.

And it’s a very exciting organization because we’re new and have a lot of support from the industry, the creators, the talent, the random individuals that have embraced our organization have been so kind to us. And we’ve really come a long way since we first started.

MY: Well, one question I know several people out there are probably going to have is, if they do want to help, how can they? Is it strictly monetary or are there other avenues, and how can they reach you?

JB: We have so many different ways to be able to assist in fundraising endeavors. It is not just monetary. We have programs set up with grocery stores that might be in your neck of the woods, community contribution programs that we can set up with your employer. We have so many different avenues to help. You can go into your local comic book store and ask if they want to participate in our donation program, if they want to become an Excelsior rep and retailer. You can even go into you local movie theater and ask them to bring your favorite comic book movie, and a percentage of the proceeds can be sent back to our organization. All you need to do is go on our website, www.ACTORcomicfund.org. You can always email me at ACTORcomicfund@aol.com. And look at our website and see the various ways that we have to be able to assist us.

MY: Well, I know personally there’s another way that you generated funds was through the auction. Am I correct that you’ve done this in the past as well?

JB: We have.

MY: Again, I want to thank you for this amazing opportunity I had to spend time with Joe Quesada, but also to get to know you at ACTOR. It truly is a great cause. For those who’ve been into comics a long time, we know that it’s a great cause. Thank you.

JB: Again, thank you so much for your support, and for Joe Quesada for agreeing to do this. We really have been so blessed. It’s a pleasure for us to take the contacts that we made and bring it back around, to give a little something back to the fans as well.