CLEVELAND — Collin Cochran loves comic books.

What You Need To Know

  • This year is the 9th annual Lake Erie Ink Kids' Comic Con

  • The event gives kids the opportunity to learn more about writing with different workshops they can attend

  • 12-year-old Collin Cochran is attending his third Kids' Comic Con

"I really like the dog man series in Captain Underpants. You know the ones that Dav Pilkey wrote," Collin said.

At just 12 years old, he's already writing and drawing his own.

"This is . . . It's kind of hard to see but it's called 'The Halloween Bundle Alien Apocalypse,'" Colli said. "It's basically like an alien apocalypse taking over the world and the superheroes are trying to stop it."

For the past two years, Collin has participated in 'Kids' Comic Con' put on by Lake Erie Ink, a nonprofit that provides writing opportunities for kids.

"We have workshops where kids can do like comic journaling and that's when you basically like write a journal but, you know, doing comics. I'm leading a workshop where you do a random comic generator. We have several writing workshops where kids get to write their own stories," said Od Perry-Robinson, a creative arts teacher for Lake Erie Ink.

This year is the 9th annual Kids' Comic Con and instead of canceling it because of the pandemic, the organization decided to take it virtual.

"What I'm really looking forward to is just the amount the kids that are going to be able to experience something like this. Despite all of the hurdles of the past year and the hurdles that are continuing now, this is still something that they can participate in. Something that they can enjoy," Perry-Robinson said.

The format is a bit different this year but Collin is just as excited to hear from professional comic writers.

"I really like talking to professionals at drawing so I can get some ideas, you know, and just fill my head with all these ideas. Because I'm not a professional at comic making so I still need to learn stuff," he said.

He hopes to one day be a professional comic writer himself.

"I do have a best friend. His name is Dylan and we write comics together. We each have different styles but I think he mostly comes up with the ideas and I do the drawing. And then we just throw ideas at each other,"​ he said.

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