House Fire Leaves Heroes’ Friend, and Beloved Member of the Comics Community, Hospitalized

David Gomien originally came to Charlotte in the early 1980’s, at Shelton’s request, to work part-time and help out at shows with Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find.

During that time Diamond Distributors opened a warehouse in Charlotte, and David ended up working there part-time as well. He quickly became the manager of their Charlotte office, and would spend the next decade plus building relationships with comic stores and comic retailers all throughout the Southeast.

Last Saturday, March 16, David was severely injured in a house fire that destroyed his family’s home of 28 years. He sustained 3rd degree burns covering 60% of his body, and was airlifted to the Burn Center in Augusta, GA.

Currently, David is under full-time sedation due to the severity of his injuries and will not be awake for the next several weeks. He will be recovering in the Burn Center ICU over the next several months, and his road to recovery will not be an easy one. There will be several surgeries and months of rehabilitation over the days to come.

David’s wife, son, and two dogs are currently staying in a pet-friendly hotel, but they will need to relocate to a more permanent solution while David recovers and they try rebuild what they have lost.

At 64, David was still working a full-time job with no plans to retire.

As Shelton has stated many times this week, “David is one of us”.

He’s a hard worker. He loves comic books, music, dogs, and his family. He also has a grandson who desperately needs him to get better soon, so that they can get back to reading comics and eating cookies.

But in the meantime, the bills will keep coming.

David’s daughter, Maria Gomien, has started a Go Fund Me for David that you can access here.

Heroes will be accepting donations on behalf of the Gomien family, in-person, this Sunday, March 24 at the Charlotte Comicon if you would like to make any donation to help the Gomien family through this difficult time. All donations collected will be given directly to the family after the show.

If you would like to send anything – cards, money, checks, gift cards, etc – directly to the family, but you will not be at the Charlotte Comicon this Sunday, you can drop off or mail donations to Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find and we will send them directly to David’s daughter Maria.

You may send items to our PO Box:
Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find
PO Box 9181
Charlotte, NC 28299
You may also email us at [email protected] to request Maria Gomien’s mailing address, but we would prefer not to post her address online.

We know that times are tough for everyone, and anything you can spare, no matter how small, would mean so much to his family and ours.

We appreciate you all, and send all our love to the Gomien Family!

Get better David!! Shelton has a Sub-Mariner comic with your name on it!