Zoom with Shaker Library and Comics Entrepreneur Keith Harris

Shaker Library presents A Conversation with Keith Harris via Zoom from 3 pm to 4 pm Saturday, September 25.

Selected as one of Crain Cleveland’s Notable Entrepreneurs for 2021, Keith Harris turned his youthful passion for comic books into FutureGen Comics, a digital company that develops characters for other companies and publishers to use. With its tagline, "Be the hero you were meant to be," FutureGen Comics offers a variety of creative approaches to marketing, advertising, and training. And who doesn't love a superhero?

After he retired from his start-up company Kero International, Harris decided that he wanted to create a business around comic books. He began studying the business side of the industry and met with independent publishers and attended Comic-Con conventions. With a sketch of an idea, he solicited the help of artists from Northeast Ohio to create his start-up. FutureGen Comics now has over 100 characters drawn by a dozen artists.

One of FutureGen’s notable clients was the LeBron James Family Foundation, for which the company developed superheroes based on the foundation’s key members.

Meet Keith Harris, hear his story, and learn how he anticipates the comics industry will evolve in Northeast Ohio. Or perhaps your company or volunteer organization needs its own superhero?

About Keith Harris
Keith A. Harris is President of both FutureGen Comics, LLC and Regal Consulting Group, LLC. He is the former President of Kero International Incorporated as well as its CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors. His corporate experience ranges from chemical manufacturing to large-scale product distribution. He is a certified Construction Management graduate of the James H. Walker Construction Management course conducted by Case Western Reserve University and Turner Construction.
Harris is a member of both the President’s Council of Greater Cleveland and the Sandler Sales Training President’s Club. He is a past member of the National African American Speakers Association and winner of the Small Business Administration’s 2015 Minority Business Champion award in the Cleveland district. He also currently serves on a number of boards and committees and mentors entrepreneurial, business and marketing students from Kent State University. He works with students at Walsh University, has been “Locked Up for Good” by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and graduated with the inaugural class of the United Way of Summit County’s Neighborhood Leadership Institute.