ORANGE PARK – Dustin Brunell created a business model on making oases out of art deserts.

When he opened the Rogue Gallery of Orange Park last April, he wanted to root his comic book shop firmly in an area where there not a comic book shop – but in a place where art was taken for granted.

Now, with community support, he wants to make The Rogue Gallery Comic Book Shop a household name.

Brunell has partnered with Andy Morlock of the childhood reading advocacy nonprofit Superheroes of Literacy to open a second storefront on Jacksonville’s Northside focused on colorful, interesting books to encourage the love of reading among young people.

Four years ago, Morlock read weekly to classrooms full of children while wearing superhero t-shirts. He has since expanded the idea to inviting speakers dressed in full superhero costumes, an idea Brunell latched onto almost immediately. Morlock is working on getting more support for the program.

Six months after Brunell opened in April, he asked Morlock to become a partner with him to open and run the new store. The two plan to open their new store on Free Comic Book Day – May 6 – but have not yet found a firm location for the store. Morlock is currently looking at a number of promising locations.

With Morlock’s help, Brunell hopes to expand superhero-reading events into Clay County Schools, as well.

Morlock approached Grove Park Elementary administrators to pitch the program to them. The school has since sponsored the program. Morlock hopes to continue to spread the program through the school system from its Orange Park epicenter.

“I don’t want children to feel like reading is a punishment – I want them to want to read,” said Brunell, who has a six-year-old daughter. “When my daughter first started, she hated it, absolutely hated it. It was hard for her when she first started so she didn’t want to do it.”

“We started picking up books from [the shop] to bring them to the house so she can read them, and it was easier for her to take her time reading and not worry about an assignment. It was ‘I’m enjoying this, so I want to read it.’ It’s a powerful thing.”

Morelock formed Superheroes of Literacy to combat technologies’ incursion on the intrinsic value of a paper book.

The new store will donate 10 percent of its profits to local PTAs with the caveat that the money is used exclusively for a literature program.

“We want to promote not just comic books, we want to be the gateway to real literacy. We want them to also pick up novels eventually,” Morlock said.

The Orange Park location opened with the idea of watering Clay County’s artscape through local artist promotion, bringing in out of town artists and hosting Clay County’s first art walk. He said artists’ work isn’t respected as much as it should be anymore because anyone can go onto the internet and download whatever image they like.

“I created what I did here for what was missing,” Brunell said. “I grew up in this town, and I knew what it needed, what it didn’t have, and what I never saw. I didn’t want to go to Jacksonville… If you look at the Northside, there’s schools everywhere – no shops for these young people to go to.”

He slowly began to realize the same went for writers and their work, and wanted to work to change that.

Brunell said the new store would have children at the forefront.

“When you can go to a place where they’re safe from that, and pick up a book that is safe for them to pick up and they can hang out, talk shop and everything with everyone else – that’s a thing man. That’s powerful,” he said.

Morelock said that means costume contests, book specials and community events. His store will feature a ‘Smash Card.’ Children who meet their school’s reading requirements will walk out of the store with free merchandise.

The Orange Park location will host its first ‘Kids Go Rogue’ event at the Orange Park store located at 2186 Park Ave. for kids to became better engaged with the store. Children can participate in a costume contest and other activities with the hope being children become a part of the community and develop a lifetime love of reading.

“If kids don’t think it’s important to read now, they won’t read later,” Brunell said. “My daughter will walk up and pickup Charles Dickens and ask her to read it to you. She wants to read because it’s interesting now…If you’ve got a child, and all of a sudden they come to you and ask, ‘Hey, I’ve read this book, can I read it to you?’ Dude – I can’t tell you what that feels like.”

To learn more about Superheroes of Literacy, contact Andy Morlock at northsidecomics@gmail.com.