If Kara Dyer, director of youth services for the Faulkner County Library in Conway, says she has a little idea, don’t believe her.
“My favorite part is event planning. I never have a small idea; if it’s a small idea, it doesn’t stay that way long,” she said. “It stresses me out, but it’s almost like jumping off of a cliff — it’s a major adrenaline rush. I love it.”
Dyer, 44, said a haunted house in October is one example.
“It was way too big because we had to turn people away,” she said. The zombie-survival event drew about 300 people; 150 were able to go through the library.
“We didn’t expect to have that big of a turnout. People who went through absolutely loved it,” she said.
The Guy native is also the mastermind behind ComiCon-way, a free event that started Friday with a reception at the library and will end at 6 p.m. today at the Conway Expo Center, 2505 E. Oak St.
The three-day convention took off like gangbusters five years ago, and after bursting out of the Faulkner County Library like the Incredible Hulk from his shirt, the event was moved to the expo center for two of the days. Last year, ComiCon-way attracted 6,000 people.
“It started as a teeny-tiny idea,” she said. “For me, it’s personal — it’s like my child.”
Dyer was helped by her husband, Jimmy, and library patron Mike Curtis of Greenbrier, who writes the Dick Tracy comic strip.
Dyer isn’t a big comic-book fan or collector like her husband, but she reads one — The Walking Dead. She also has a weakness for Yoda from Star Wars and owns a life-size one. The event is not just about comic books — although it brings in artists and writers from all over the country — it’s also for people who love science fiction, anime or gaming, she said.
“The one thing about it, if you like to laugh, if you like to smile, if you are an extrovert and you’re not a geek at all, this show is for you because this show is entertaining. It’s literacy; it’s fun, no matter what you like to do,” she said. “We try to bring it all together in one place where no matter what you love geekwise, it’s there.”
Many of the participants dress as their favorite characters, called cosplay, so she said it’s almost a carnival-like atmosphere — a family-friendly one.
“I’m not a comic-book fan, but I love the atmosphere,” she said.
She also enjoys taking chaos and bringing it together in a cohesive event, she said.
“There’s something about that chaos and bringing it to order that’s an adrenaline rush,” Dyer said.
“I’m not organized,” she said. Dyer pointed to her office as proof — it was full of boxes of ComiCon-way T-shirts, a huge Jar Jar Binks figure and random Halloween items, left over from the library’s haunted house.
ComiCon-way is “busting out at the seams” with vendors this year, she said.
The library doesn’t make any money from ComiCon-way — in fact, Dyer struggles to stay within her budget for the event.
“It’s all about advertising for the library and to let people know the library is willing to go above and beyond to bring you what you’re seeking,” she said. “We are the most bend-over-backward library that I’ve ever seen. It’s truly about the patrons.”
Dyer said the event has increased interest in reading comic books, which can be checked out at the library.
“We have almost tripled our comic-book collection,” she said.
Dyer said she wasn’t a good reader growing up, but she loved art and drawing. Her father, a farmer, had a knack for drawing. He could accurately draw the comic-strip character Beetle Bailey, “so that was the first character I learned to draw,” she said. “My dad saw that potential in me and pushed that.”
She went to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway with the intention of becoming a home-economics teacher because she was inspired by her high school home-ec teacher, Sue Ellen Ward.
“She was just an amazing role model. She took us places; she pushed us to be better, so I always ran for office,” Dyer said, referring to what was then called Future Homemakers
of America. They went to conferences in Missouri, Texas and Kentucky, she said.
“The first time I ever rode in an airplane was with her,” Dyer said. “She was all about the experience, the participation, being better, so I wanted to be just like her.”
Dyer grabbed a tissue from a box on her desk and apologized for getting emotional when talking about her mentor.
Ward, who is retired, said Dyer is “kind of like a daughter” to her. She, Dyer and Dyer’s father have the same birthday, Oct. 13, Ward said.
“She’s a great young lady, and she was involved in family and consumer sciences classes — home ec back then — all during junior high and high school. She was very, very active in FHA.”
Ward said Dyer is a “special, special” person and seems to have found her niche.
“I’m happy for her,” Ward said.
The home-economics classes in college weren’t as interesting as the ones in high school, Dyer said, and she was particularly turned off by a health and nutrition class, so she switched her major to art education.
“I loved that, loved it,” she said.
Dyer said she had three “major inspirations” at UCA — Jeff Young, professor and chairman of the department of art; Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication; and Bryan Massey, professor of art and a sculptor.
“They were all on top of you to push you to find your place,” Dyer said.
Seymour said Dyer “is one of those people who was just a wonderful student to have in class and was good at everything she did and worked hard. It’s fun because I get to see her ever so often when I’m at the library.”
Dyer said her favorite classes were taught by Massey.
“I loved three-dimensional art,” she said. “I loved to weld and work with metal and
fabrication.”
Massey said Dyer “was a hardworking student; I remember her well.”
However, an experience Dyer had substitute-teaching changed her mind about a career in art education. She said a student threw a chair at her in class when she tore up his paper because he copied someone else’s work.
“I changed my minor the next day to business,” she said.
Dyer had two children and had gotten a divorce by the time she earned her degree. She was living with another single mother and looking for a job when the woman found an advertisement for a director of teen services at the Faulkner County Library.
“She said, ‘That would be perfect for you,’” Dyer said. “It would be working with teenagers, and I had wanted to be a teacher. I’m crafty; I’m creative.”
Dyer was hired in 2005 as an assistant manager at the library because of her business degree, but a few months later, she took over the teen-services position. When the children’s librarian retired, Dyer took that on, which became youth services.
“Oh, my gosh — I can’t imagine myself being anywhere else,” she said.
She serves youth from infants to 18 years old, she said. Her job includes children’s programming, including story time and crafts, and she goes to schools to conduct story times and promote the library. She sets up tours of the library, promotes the summer reading programs in Faulkner and Van Buren counties, and oversees children’s-programming
budgets for six branches in Faulkner County, summer reading budgets for eight libraries, teen budgets for six libraries and the ComiCon-way budget.
Dyer said it’s impressive what services the library offers on a limited budget. The library operates on a half-mill property tax.
“We have not had a millage increase in 15, 20 years,” she said.
She has several goals for her position.
Another event she launched was the Renaissance Fair, which was held in June.
“It was way too hot,” she said. One of her goals is to sponsor the fair again, possibly in April, and, of course, expand it.
“I would love to do a yearly haunted house. I would love to do more with authors and artists,” she said.
“We have the books and all the services. How do we get these services shown? We have an event to get them here,” she said. “Another thing I love is doing an event I’ve never done, and doing the research. I like to challenge myself.”
If she won big in the lottery, Dyer said, the first thing she would do is build an event center at the library — for plays, concerts and comicons.
“It’s endless what we could do,” she said.
And you can bet it would be big.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.