The sixth annual Heroes for Kids Comic Con, held Saturday and Sunday at the Perry Park Center, delivered a weekend packed with fun for fans of superheroes, horror and sci-fi. But this year’s event may best be remembered as the moment Perry County’s own “Man of Steel” received a surprise worthy of a comic book twist.
Lonnie “Superman” Johnson — deputy with the Perry County Sheriff’s Department and longtime co-coordinator of the comic con — was stunned when Sheriff Jason Klaus unveiled a fully redesigned patrol car, decked out head to toe in a Superman motif to match Johnson’s alter ego.
After the presentation, Klaus shared the story behind the tribute and how Johnson ended up with the department’s final vehicle still bearing the old yellow striping.
“We knew the Heroes for Kids Comic Con was coming up, and Lonnie has been such a great ambassador for the sheriff’s office in the community with the Heroes for Kids event,” Klaus said. “I thought, ‘What better way to recognize what he does and what he means to our community than to give him a new graphics package on his patrol car by Brewer Graphics, who helps us with all of our cars.’
“We redid a strapping package a few years ago, and we wanted to keep that theme, but we changed the colors a little bit to match the Superman theme.
“He had the last car in our department with the old yellow graphics on it. It’s not that I wanted to change it or had an issue with it — I wanted to do this, but I didn’t want to tell them. I said, ‘Lonnie, I’m going to pull these off. We’re just going to go with a white car.’ It’s got higher mileage, but he just drives to the courthouse and back for a few transports. But I thought, ‘I’m gonna put something special on there and I’m going to make it a surprise.’”
And a surprise it was.
“I was speechless… shocked,” Johnson said. “It was awesome. As I tell people, very few people have been able to surprise me, but the sheriff did it.” Johnson wasted no time putting the souped-up squad car to use.
On Monday evening, he and a costumed Batman made a special visit to a local young person — a gesture made all the more memorable by the supercharged arrival. “It was amazing,” he said. “We pulled up to the house — I had Batman with me in the car — and everybody was like, ‘Wow!’ It was awesome seeing the reactions of the people when I pulled up in front of the house with the squad car, and it was an honor to meet the young man.”
Reflecting on this year’s Heroes for Kids Comic Con, Johnson said, “I think it went great. We’re still at the preliminary total, but hopefully, within the next week or two, once everything clears, we should be able to give everybody a final amount of how much we raised for this year’s charities — and we’re already looking forward to next year.”
