Mike Carey says he’s done complaining talking about attendance at women’s basketball games.

“Every time I say something, a lot of people come up and say I cry about it all the time,” he said last week. “I guess I’m a crybaby about attendance.”

In his position, there are more and less noble things to cry about, I suppose, but he’s done with that spilled milk. There comes a point where you can only do and say so much — and he and his marketing team have pretty much reached that line.

Or not.

This season, which is shaping up to be maybe the best ever at the school, has a wild card. With unprecedented preseason buzz, a roster returning in tact and so many televised games, along comes an extremely fortuitious grant from the NCAA to generate awareness and increase attendance for women’s basketball.

The grant money is devoted to the design, production and distribution of the comic book, which will go to students in grades eight and under statewide as well as other youth and community groups. WVU and Starbridge will also develop an associated interactive website. The plan is to reveal both in conjunction with the start of the season early next month.

In addition to fostering awareness and popularity for the women’s team, each comic book will be good for a ticket voucher later in the season.

“The comic book initiative is the newest, biggest thing and it’ll be seen on the most widespread basis,” said Matt Wells, WVU’s director of sports marketing. “It has huge potential, I think, to take the grass roots, the elementary schools, the 4-H programs we had in place, and take it to a whole new level. We can take 10,000 comic books and put them in the hands of kids across the state.”