CHECK OUT MARK RANTAL’S MEMORIAL RIBBON.

On Friday, Colorado Springs graphic artist Mark Rantal came home from a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” with one thing in mind: Make sense of the Aurora theater shootings that left 12 dead and more 50 people injured.

“It was so surreal to me, (it was) less than 60 miles away from where we had been happy, peaceful,” says Rantal, 27, who saw the film in Colorado Springs.

When he was done, Rantal posted it — the words “In Memoriam July 20, 2012” with the emblem of Colorado state flag, a heart at its center, which morphs into Batman’s somber silhouette — to his Facebook page.

It didn’t take long before the image showed up on the Denver Comic Con Facebook page and registered more than 3,200 shares.

A lot of artists would treasure that kind of popularity. Not Rantal.

“To be honest, it really is a struggle to get accolades for something that is so tragic,” Rantal said quietly. “I was at the vigil in Aurora and a fellow asked, ‘How do you deal with people applauding you for this?’  I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been great. I’ve gotten thousands of messages but I didn’t feel it was respectful to spread (his design) because it was so painful.”

Those “cool art,” “super ribbon” people just don’t get it, he said.

“It was my personal expression and when people thank me for creating an image that represents how they feel, this is a positive. How that makes them feel as they connect, that’s the encouragement.”

Rantal has always loved superheroes, and as a teen, he tried to see the very first showing of every superhero movie. From 2006-2008, Rantal and fellow film buff Alex Billington were two of the midnight-movie aficionados who, as firstshowing.net camped outside Cinemark – several times for a month – to see movies like “The Dark Knight.” They enticed fellow campers to play movie and video games and plied them with movie trivia for prizes.

“Not everybody understands why you would go to a movie at midnight but this is a community of fans,” said Rantal.  “You’re sharing the evening with 500 fans. The event up at Aurora had just such a community. We didn’t know their names but they were part of our crew, part of our community. That’s why it’s rewarding to create something like this.”