CANFIELD — Andrews Educational Hall at the Angels for Animals campus will be full of flashy costumes and superheroes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday for a comic book and cosplay event.

It’s the brainchild of Tom Molocea of North Lima, who wanted to help the Angels for Animals following a tough year of lockdown.

“As a collector, I wanted to see a fellowship of collectors locally,” Molocea said. “And why not use it to help Angels for Animals?”

Molocea said he is a longtime comic-book collector who started at age 6.

“I bought X-Men 100 off the rack at Ryan’s Newstand in Columbiana,” he said. “Ryan’s is no longer there, but I recall paying a quarter for the comic book.”

He said today, a high-grade copy of that 25-cent comic could be valued as highly as $1,000.

Molocea continued collecting and never gave up. He graduated from South Range High School in 1987 and made a career out of buying and selling collectibles.

Today, Molocea has a collection of roughly 35,000 comics, and knows what he wants to add to his lineup.

He also knows the history of the industry, which he said started in 1899 with a collection of comic strips placed into a book format called “Yellow Kid.” The first and most prized possession of actual comic books is what is known as “Action Comics No. 1.” It was produced in 1938, sold for 10 cents, and kicked off the super hero genre. It featured Superman and introduced Lois Lane.

For Molocea, most of the fun of collecting is the camaraderie of other collectors. He said it is not unusual to have a bunch of collectors gather and discuss the latest comic art, or the way a comic book was put together.

Angels for Animals’ Andrews Educational Hall is located at 4750 W. South Range Road in Canfield.

In setting up this big comic book and superhero event, Molocea planned for a lot of comic and toy venders, and thought it would be great to encourage costume wearing. He teamed up with Hake’s Auctions out of York, Pa. and locally, Jack Dixey of Canfield serves as a representative.

“We are going to offer free appraisals of comic books,” Dixey said. “So we encourage people to bring their comics out.”

He said Hake’s is also sponsoring a costume judging contest. There will be several categories including adults, children and pets. Hake’s is providing the awards.

Admission to the event is $5 for individuals or $10 per family. Cosplayers, pets, police officers, firefighters, EMS and nurses will be given free admission. Both Dixey and Molocea hope this will be the start of similar events in the future.

jtwhitehouse@vindy.com