First, I apologize for the blind mass email. I know we all hate to get them, and I offer no excuse
except that it’s for a good cause.
Many of you may know that one of the all-time industry greats, and a hero of mine, John
Ostrander, has suffered from severe eye problems for some time now. He recently
underwent eye surgery to help with his glaucoma. I spent several days with him
at the Superman Celebration in Illinois a couple weeks ago,
,and he was just a complete pleasure to be
around the whole time, and never once complained about his eyes, though they
did seem to be obviously causing him some discomfort. He spent the entire
weekend being amazingly generous to both the fans and the other creators, giving advice
to both aspiring and working writers, and free comics to little kids. As I’m
sure we all know, there’s no feeling quite like meeting someone you have idolized and
finding out that they’re a wonderful person on top of everything else.
John’s very expensive health insurance isn’t completely covering his surgeries, his
recuperation time in Boston, or his follow-ups. Thus, his friends at the Chicago Comic-Con and Wizard Entertainment are endeavoring to raise some money to help,
bless ‘em, through both cash donations and an auction to be held Saturday, August
8th. All the information right is right here at:
This is all those guys, I have nothing to do with it, I’m just passing along notice of
their good works. They put it more simply and powerfully than I could–if he loses
this battle, he loses his sight.
All of us have enjoyed John’s brilliant work, most of us have been inspired by what
he’s created or improved, and more than a few of us, like myself, have shamelessly
been swimming in his wake for some time now. Please take a moment and donate
what you can in cash, and also consider adding an item to the auction that these
wonderful people are putting on.
This is one of the really, really good guys in the industry, one of the best writers
we’ve ever had. Please help these people lend him a hand in his complete
recuperation. John has asked that any monies raised over his medical expenses
be given to the Hero Initiative, so whatever you donate is going to a
worthy comics cause no matter what.
Thank you all,
Gail Simone
He definitely is one of the best writers in comics. I well remember his Grimjack and Suicide Squad back in the ’80s. His wife, Kim Yale, was a class act too — she’s still sadly missed.
I have a vague memory of working on Grimjack. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about John and Kim, but didn’t really know them.
I sent a small donation.