By: Charity Meier | C&G Newspapers | Published November 21, 2025
NOVI — Comic books are so much more than a small pictorial storybook that some might recall being included with the children’s menu at Big Boy Restaurants, or the “funnies” that Grandpa used to read to us as kids, and later wrap presents with.
They are a way for writers to voice their perspectives on issues, and they are a driving force behind much of pop culture, which has created mega conventions like the biannual Motor City Comic Con in Novi, drawing thousands of people from all over the country.
“It’s very wild how vast all this is now,” said Ryan Hetkowski, owner of State of Comics in Plymouth. “You’re talking Marvel (Comics) has got 60 years of multiverse stories that explore the entire universe, and the science and the knowledge behind publishing these comics is just astronomical — pun intended. It’s just very cool, and again, it’s a learning experience because there is so much to it. It is so much more than just art or stories.”
Kyle Kaminski, 50, writer and publisher of Big Blue Comics, celebrated the 30th anniversary of his first comic book, “The Resistants,” at MC3 and reunited with his friends from Troy High School — Jason Krause, Micah Faulkner, and Josh Dahl — with whom he published it.
Originally published under the name Blue Comics, Kaminski said he changed the name when he decided to go back into publishing comics eight years ago. Since he was coming back bigger than ever, he decided to call his company Big Blue Comics.
“It’s just that personal connection of having your hand in every aspect of it and being able to shape your vision that kind of gets lost in some of the other media, because there’s so many cooks in the kitchen,” Kaminski said. “But being able to put out a story that’s similar to that, that could be adapted one day into a movie, but being able to do that with just three people, I don’t think there is another art form out there, a visual art form, that you can create a whole story with only three people.”
Comic Artist Andy Bennett, of Columbus, Ohio, got his start in the business at Caliber Comics in Livonia and said there is just something special about comics.
“I think all little kids love them, and I just never stopped,” Bennett said.
Hetkowski said that comics are multifaceted. He said there is the collectible side, the restoration/conservation side, the stories and reading aspect, and on top of that, there’s the art side.
“There’s so many different ways to appreciate comic books that people don’t see, and I just find it super interesting because there’s so many different angles to it,” Hetkowski said.
Bennett said that while going to school for illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design, he discovered some of the more sophisticated comics that were not so much into “kids stuff” that people are used to seeing, and it spoke to him. He said he really likes the storytelling and illustration aspects of comics.
“There’s a lot of parts to comics. It’s kind of like rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “You can’t just teach comics. It’s illustration. It’s storytelling. It’s editing. There’s so many different disciplines that go into making a comic book,” Bennett said.
The first comic books, as we think of them today, were published in the 1930s. Superman debuted in 1938 in Action Comics. The following year, Superman gained his own series. The first book in the series is so highly sought after that a copy in extraordinarily good condition sold for $9.12 million at auction on Nov. 20.
Many of the books and characters were designed to introduce social issues to children. Hetkowski said that Captain America was created as a form of war propaganda in the 1940s to fight Nazi Germany. On the cover of the first issue in the series, Captain America is punching Hitler. According to Hetkowski, the X-Men comic series is based on civil rights. The humans hated the X-Men, and the mutants just wanted equal rights, Hetkowski said.
“(Comic books) can give information indirectly that we’re not going to get to kids, because kids don’t watch the news or whatever it may be, or they do not pay attention to social issues,” Hetkowski said.
Kaminski said his comic series “The Resistants” is about an “uncompromising strike force that fights for a world that fears and hates them.” He said it is really about what drives the individuals and the difficulties they go through.
“We were influenced by these ’80s cautionary tales, and the funny thing is these ideas keep percolating over the years, and a lot of people, we have this corporate state and border walls where the unemployed are cast out, and it sounds like we might be trying to talk about today’s issues, but it is just the fact that we created this world 30 years ago and it just becomes more relevant,” Kaminski said.
“Even though many people say that comic books don’t get political, they definitely do,” Hetkowski said.”And I think that is a good way to get people to realize what’s happening in the world is through stories like that. So, they’re great and I think they are educational to a certain standpoint.”
“Sherlock Homes and the Empire Builders” is a graphic novel series that Bennett has illustrated. The books are an alternate history take on Sherlock Homes. People are being oppressed by a fascist government and trying to turn the tables on the fascist government and get things back to the way they used to be.
Bennett said that he is often asked if that is his way of trying to convey a message about the state of the current government. He said it was not a deliberate attempt to convey a message, but he feels that it does seem to apply to current times.
“I don’t think it is deliberate, but there is no way to not read that into it,” he said.
Hetkowski said there is a science element to comics when it comes to the paper they are printed on and how to store and restore the books to preserve them for future generations.
“It’s interesting. It’s crazy to look at the different types of effects that can happen when moisture gets into the paper. … And the oxidation can happen and change the color of the pages. The science behind it is super interesting, because people, when they see comics or newspapers or books, they probably don’t even think twice about it. They don’t think about the restoration and stuff like that, so it is just super interesting to me, personally,” Hetkowski said.
Allen Byrd, of Ferndale, said he has been collecting comics off and on since he was in seventh grade. He said that he sold his original collection to pay for the downpayment on his house circa 2011. He got back into collecting around 2020.
“I always liked the characters. I always wanted to have all my favorite characters displayed on my walls,” he said.
He said his favorite character is the Hulk, because he was always misunderstood. He said that the Hulk was always trying to do the right thing.
“He had a good heart and was trying to do the right thing, and he was still an outcast,” he said.
He said that when he purchases comics, he goes for good covers, good storylines and first appearances of characters — something that has a good look to it and something with value.
Hetkowski said that the most important thing about comics is that they provide people with a way of escaping the harsh reality of their own lives for a moment
“That’s super important because reality is pretty harsh sometimes,” Hetkowski said.