Gaudin had a hunch the troops would appreciate it. Taking a seat on stacks of comic catalogues, two years worth of his own comic covers peeking out from the rack behind him, Gaudin tries to recall how many subscribers he gets in his shop. He figures it's 200 overall. More than a quarter of those, he says, are in the army and navy.

He half-jokes that a few of them will pass through the shop in the next 10 minutes. Many, he hasn't seen in months. "The people who've mysteriously gone missing are probably still there (in Afghanistan)," he says.

"Knowing these guys who are all happy-go-lucky, cool guys that come in the store, and these are friends of mine. And it's hard to think they're in the desert bored out of their minds. That's a job I don’t envy. What I can do is send some comics," he says.

About a month ago, he started asking his military customers if they thought it was a good idea.

Leading seaman Jason Aucoin was one of those guys. His emphatic response: "Oh, yeah."

Aucoin regularly brings a stack of comics with him when at sea, including Gaudin's titles. "You don't get a lot of time to yourself. If you can climb in with a book and escape from everything else, it's a nice little vacation, even if it's only for 20 or 30 minutes," he said.

Gaudin's printer, South Island Print Services in Sidney, B.C. was also impressed by the idea. They agreed to make up the order, gratis.

Labels: British Columbia, comic strips, comics retailers, international