Throwback Thursday: Superheroes!

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday. (Between that and Star Ways Day on May 4, this is pretty much the best weekend ever.)

You can and should celebrate Free Comic Book Day with our friends at Comics & Friends; but, with all due respect to them and every other beautiful comic book shop across this wonderful country, every day is Free Comic Book Day at Mentor Library.

That's why we're dedicating this Throwback Thursday to the superheroes! So come with us and see some of the cool superheroics you can check out from the library.

1. We could dedicate an entire Throwback Thursday just to Batman. We have movies where he's played by Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, Adam West, Kevin Conroy and (ugh) George Clooney. We even have one where he's made from Lego and another where he teams up with Scooby-Doo.

As per TV shows, you can borrow Batman: The Animated Series, Beware the Batman, The Batman, Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Batman Beyond and The New Adventures of Batman.

We also have plenty of videos starring Batman's team, the Justice League—everything from Challenge of the Superfriends to Justice League to Justice League Unlimited to the Robot Chicken DC Special. (Consider yourself warned. The Robot Chicken special is not the sort of thing you want to play for younger kids.)

If you prefer Robin to Batman, we have Teen Titans, Young Justice and Teen Titans Go.

We've got the greatest hits of Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and, ummmm, Martian Manhunter. Sure, why not? Martian Manhunter!

If you'd rather make yours Marvel, we have that been abundance, as well.

We have DVDs that you can borrow of almost every iteration of the X-Men ever committed to video: movies and animated series spanning three decades. No, Pryde of the X-Men though. Sorry.

And that's still dwarfed by our Spider-Man collection. Whether you prefer Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Neil Patrick Harris, Drake Bell, Christopher Daniel Barnes or Josh Keaton as your webslinger, we have something for you.

And we've still got more Avengers movies and TV shows than you can shake an adamantium claw at: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Planet Hulk (yes, that's a thing,) Iron Man again, the whole team and more Iron Man. We also have the Avengers teaming up with Phineas and Ferb. (A match-up for the ages: Batman & Scooby-Doo v. the Avengers & Perry the Platypus.)

There are plenty of awesome superheroes beyond the Marvel and DC stables: Hellboy, the Rocketeer, Sailor Moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more are all worth your time. (It makes me sad that Static Shock isn't on DVD.)

Furthermore, there are all sorts of great stories that came from comics that have nothing to do with tights and flights. Ghost World, Road to Perdition and Archie all got their start as sequential art.

If you want to know more, visit your local library or comic shop. (After all, Free Comic Book Day is coming up...)

Come back each week for a new Throwback Thursday profile.

Welcome to Superhero School

Brian practices rescuing civilians (in this case, a stuffed raccoon) from a tall building,

Superheroes aren't born. They don't climb from the crib and start fighting for truth, justice and the American way.

No, superheroes are made. And where are they made?

Superhero school.

Rileigh practices leaping over a building in a single bound.

Mentor Public Library held a session of Superhero School last Wednesday. Tiny future Flashes, Wonder Women and Captain Americas leaped tall building (blocks,) rescued civilians and trained on our obstacle course.

They also made their own Wonder bracelets in case they have to deflect any oncoming projectiles. (Note: Wonder bracelets may not be able to deflect anything denser than a balled-up piece of paper.)

But they do look awesome.

For more photos from our Superhero School, visit our Facebook page.

For more information on programs and events for kids and adults, visit the event calendar on our website.

This photo is probably better (and at least more adorable) than any inevitable Justice League film.

Everyone's a Hero at our Comics Club

Ryan draws his ideal sidekick.

Is your kid a Batman fan? Wolverine? A Superman or a Spider-man? A Wonder Woman or a Rogue?

Do they watch reruns of Young Justice? Fill sketchpads with drawings of Finn and Jake? Snatch the comics section from the Sunday newspaper?

If so, we've got the club for them.

Our Comics Club is for any 8- through 12-year-old who likes to read, talk about or draw sequential art. (We're not just talking about superheroes either. We love everything from Amelia Rules to Bone.)

Abby draws a comic with characters she created.

Our Comic Club meets from 7 to 8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month at our Main Branch.

“We often have children who visit our department looking for books about their favorite superheroes and cartoon characters. Many enjoy cartoons and comic books so we thought that we would start a club to bring together children who read graphic novels and comic books and enjoy drawing,” said Judy Schulz, who runs our Comics Club with Marilyn Weiss.

At a typical meeting, the kids talk about a special theme. For February, it was sidekicks. Then Weiss and Schulz introduce the kids to graphic novels and comics that can be found in the library’s collection.

They close out each meeting with free time for the kids to draw.

“Their favorite part of the night is drawing time,” Schulz said. “We use templates that resemble comic strips and comic-book pages, so the kids can do short 3-panel or longer stories. Some have created their own characters that they revisit every month while others draw something new every time.”

The next Comics Club meeting will be at 7 p.m. on March 4 at the Mentor Public Library’s Main Branch. The theme will be “the funnies.”

To register a child for the Comics Club, call the library at (440) 255-8811 ext. 221.

For more photos from our Comics Club, visit our Facebook page.