To be a hero

Fictional or not, Mohammed- Ali has found a way to make his dream come alive through Comicfest 2017 .

Comicfest will be held at Radisson Hotel in the Festival Ballroom on April 8 .

Much like the storylines he admires, he got into comics and collecting its memorabilia in his early teens after spotting a painted cover of Ghost Rider .

“I got into comics when I was 13/14-years-old. I live in San Fernando and there was a guy at the top of High Street opposite La Piques Mall. He used to sell comics at the side of the road .

“He did not have a store or anything. The first book that caught my eye was a painted cover of Ghost Rider. I actually stopped .

“I used to pass him everyday selling and did not take it on and it was this one day it sparked an interest in me and I bought the first book,” he said .

In an interview with Newsday on the origins of Comicfest, Mohammed-Ali said it began when a group of friends who would come together to sell comics at the mall occasionally, met Terrence Ragoonanan .

“I had the opportunity to meet Mr Terrence Ragoonanan, who was part of the team that did the sales in Trincity Mall and from there we got into the idea instead of doing one-time sales, why not do a convention of sorts,” he said .

The group then fleshed out the particulars and the first event was held in 2013 with Heroes Foundation and then after that two other events were held at the Creative Arts Centre in San Fernando .

For Mohammed-Ali the event is a pop culture one and geared mostly toward promoting literacy and creativity through comic books .

While some might be inclined to think that this is strictly the domain of children, he said it is very popular among 30 to 40-year-olds, “simply because, 30 years ago, in TT collecting comic books was rather non-existent .

“A few stores used to carry comics but everyone knew about Superman, they knew about Batman, they knew about X-men and stuff but here in TT our attitude towards comic books was not same level as in the US .

“ I would like to think within the last ten, 15 years or so and with the advent of the Internet and when people got out…” Mohammed-Ali said part of Comicfest is to illustrate to others that collecting comics or being interested in them is not a useless hobby .

In fact he said it, “can be used for good. It can be used for channelling energies into something worthwhile and productive .

“It is only then people realise it could, aside from the monetary value in collecting –actually help to inspire kids to do something with their talent.” An extension of Mohammed- Ali’s dream was introducing international talent to TT by having a local Comic Con in TT .

“We really want to bring that international feel of the event to Trinidad, which is why we decided to take it a step further and actually bring in international talent this year,” he said .

The fest will feature New Yorkbased Nelson DeCastro a freelance writer and artist who has done work for both Marvel and DC; New York-based Frank Tieri, an established comic book writer who has done work for both Marvel and DC and other independent publishers such as Top Cow and Archie; and New Jersey-based Dave DeVries is a cover artist and illustrator. He did the cover art on Afterlife with Archie in 2013 .

Local artistes Shaun Riaz, Chris Riley and Ryan James will also be featured at the event. Events such as this one, he said, demonstrates that this is a growing field in the local content production field in TT that simply needs some nurturing .

“I see this as a budding segment in TT which just needs a little bit of nurturing to grow,” he said .

“We have the talent here. It is raw it just needs to be focused,” he added .

Since its inception, attendance at the event has grown steadily .

“At the first event we only had 250 visitors. But for us that was a success because it meant there was interest .

“The following event, there was a lot of word of mouth and the attendance doubled, the last event which we hosted in 2015 the tally actually doubled again. We had about 1,000 people at the event.” This year the fest has partnered with Charis Works Christian Academy, a school that deals with special needs children, for an art and essay contest. All essays and art work will be on display at Comicfest 2017 .

For Mohammed-Ali, this is a labour of love funded solely out of his pocket .

As he said, “I want the people to see this is something you can achieve. While you do need to get it at certain level, if you put your mind to it. You can do it. I remember someone said, ‘you need to stop dreaming and start doing’ .

So for me, I am doing.” Tickets are priced at s $150 but will be $125 until the end of the month .