Celebrities (and, me) draw doodles to be auctioned off to benefit Neurofibromatosis Inc.

Gillian Anderson of the X-Files is the spokesperson. Her brother has the disease. A gallery of doodles for sale is now up.

AUCTION STARTS TODAY AT 6PM ET. DIRECT LINK TO EBAY PAGE HERE.

Clive Barker, Tony Bennet, Chris Carter, Tom Bosley, Barbara Eden, Arnold Palmer, Jodi Picoult, and others have contributed.

Check it out. Auctions start today. I hope you will consider bidding on some of the art!

Meet Hunter Cavanaugh. He has neurofibromatosis and is a big comics fan. He’s smart and has great taste, too! Click the link to see more pictures of Hunter in fabulous crime fighting poses.

(FYI: A page from the Absolute Sandman, that is. Thanks for helping out. – c)

This is a call to action!

As many of you may know already, artist Josh Medors (Frazetta’s Swamp Demon & Sorcerer, Runes of Ragnan, 30 Days of Night) has been fighting a losing battle against a terminal form of cancer for well over a year, and it has recently taken a turn for the worst. The doctors and conventional medicine have all but given up on him and say there isn’t anything else they can do. But he has found an alternative treatment that has the possibility of extending his life a bit and can help improve the quality of his life near the end so he can spend it with his wife and son. There is even a slim chance it can make him somewhat better, so he has to try. But of course the treatment is very expensive and Josh has no medical insurance.

So myself and my brother, Andrew Mangum (currently Josh’s inker on Frazetta’s Sorcerer) decided to arrange another benefit auction like the one they
did at Emerald City Con back in ‘08. This auction is different though because the last one was organized by Jay Fotos to help Josh pay his rising medical bills to fight the cancer, and this one is specifically to get the treatment he needs to be keep him around. I know there are a lot of fans and friends out there that want to help, so this auction series will be that opportunity. A wide variety of artists are contributing personal works and art from their collections just like last time, but this time it’s open to collectors, fans, and everyone else. as well anyone can donate if they want to help! We just ask that it be comic or comic art related.

I have set up a special “preview gallery” for all the items as they come in on my Comic Art Fans webpage.

You can see all of the artwork & items we will be auctioning there, as well as who donated it (unless they request to be anonymous) and all artists who donate their art will also have their websites listed if desired. Many packages of art are already on the way now and will be up soon, and the list of artists donating grows by the minute, so there is A LOT more art coming! Be sure to check back periodically to see what we’ll be listing!

To donate something to the auctions, just email me at madman1138@yahoo.com or through my Comic Art Fans gallery (where all the art is) with a scan or photo of the item and the item information and I will send you the mailing address to send the goods to. I only ask the items be shipped to me in advance because there will be a lot to organize and package, and simplicity dictates that only one location handle it all. This is shaping up to be quite an undertaking, so I have to keep it as easy as possible. All donations must be received no later than Friday, May 22nd 2009 in order to be included in the auctions, which will start listing to Ebay on Saturday May 23rd.

Josh will also be selling off all of his remaining artwork to help cover these costs, and I will be helping him with that as well. So if you would like to buy something of his now, please see the green “Art for sale-Josh Medors” gallery also on my Comic Art Fans.

I will update this gallery with more art as Josh sends me more scans, but pages are available from Frazetta’s Swamp Demon, Chucky, GI JOE, and more! All proceeds, after selling fees from all of this, will go to Josh to help him and his family in this dire time of need.

Because so many people have been asking about sending monetary donations directly to Josh as well, his Paypal email address is: jmedors3@columbus.rr.com

Sending $5 or $10 might not seem like much, but remember the water drops principle. A drop of water isn’t much, but enough drops eventually fill the bucket. Every bit counts here and time is of the essence. Now is the time to act!

Please be sure to also include your name and address with the payment email through Paypal when sending money, because Josh wants to try and do Thank You cards with little sketches to all who donate (and some of the other artists might help out with that for him, so you never know what you’ll get!)

Lastly, please only use his email address for Paypal payments and don’t deluge his inbox with questions and well wishes. Although appreciated, he won’t be able to reply to them.

Thank you for looking, and especially for helping! Together we CAN make a difference!

Dave Kopecki

The benefit auctions for artist Josh Medors are now live and on Ebay!

Starting at 9am PST, a new auction will list every minute until they are all
up. They will all start at $9.99 or less starting bids, and almost all without
reserves.

You can see them all as they list HERE.

Contributing artists include Frank Frazetta, Nat Jones, Tim Seeley, Mike
Allred, Josh Medors (of course), Ben Templesmith, Steve Kurth, Nick Bradshaw, Mark
Kidwell, Andrew Mangum, Ryan Winn, Richard Moore, Randy Kintz, Ken Haeser,
Buz Hassen, Colleen Doran, Phil Hester, John Stinsman, Russ Maheras, Matt
Martin, Rob Doria, and many more.

Because of the collectors who donated art, we also have great pieces by
artists who weren’t able to contribute themselves, like Dave Finch, Tyler Kirkham,
Khoi Pham, Jason Howard, John Romita Jr, Ethan Van Sciver,Georges Jeanty, Scott
Clark, Steve McNiven, and so many more! Plus, there was a huge number of largely
unknown and/or amateur artists who donated some great work, so there should
be great art for every price range! And with how much we’ll be listing, you
may get an unheard of deal on some of these goodies, on top of helping a good
cause.

Please take a look at the auctions on Ebay running all this week, and maybe
throw down a bid or two. The cause is noble, the art and selection is great, and
together we can make a difference!

Thanks for your time,
Dave Kopecki

PS from Colleen: GOOD LUCK JOSH!!!

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:

Comix4sight.

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

I drew and drew and drew and drew, and it looks like I didn’t accomplish very much the last couple of days. I don’t know how that happens, and I am a little down about it. I took in a lot of coffee to stay alert today, and now am too wired to sleep. I guess I should just keep drawing then. Maybe in a few more hours the pages will look like something got accomplished.

In the meantime, go read some links.

Rich Johnston is following the strange tale of a fraudster who has been passing himself off as various noted comics artists, taking advances on work, and running off with the dough. This scam has been going on for months and months. The story of Josh Hoopes started at Rich’s old Lying in the Gutters column, but is now continued at Bleeding Cool. (And if you missed my earlier post about fraudsters, go back and read it now.) LINK FIXED.

Impersonating comics creators is not new (it’s happened to me) but Josh Hoopes excels at this scam. You can see his face here.

Publishing companies should always do an internet search and contact creators directly before contracting with them. Almost every creator has an internet presence and it is not difficult to contact them or their official representatives.

How this dude managed to convince people he was a penniless Art Adams looking for dough, I cannot fathom. I know what Adams’s original art goes for! Man, all he has to do is a pinup or two, and he’s set! No need for Adams to be working for chump change for small publishers!

Also at Bleeding Cool, the latest on the bizarre tale of Rick Olney, who does not appear to be any closer to paying the people he owes than years ago when he originally incurred his debts to artists and writers.

For some bizarre reason, I got the weirdest mail from Olney (whom I do not personally know) about my Very Bad Publishers posts. Olney convinced himself the posts were about him and his family. Here is the entire text of the letter which came in some time ago:

Colleen,
You made a remark about my father being a ‘bad’ businessman. My father was NEVER a bad businessman. He actually had a great business and had much more than you could ever realize or be willing to give him credit for. It was not until after his brain bleed and subsequent operation saving his life back in 1995 that his life began a slow decline. Your idiotic comments about my family are something you should be proud of. I’m going to tell you once, knock it off. Talk about your worldly theories about me all you like but leave my parents out of your crap slinging. I realize that you can’t help yourself It must be tough living a life of estrogen driven, dysfunctional personality psychosis, with overtones of jealousy and insecurity.

R

I have never worked with Olney, never known anyone in his family, and have not made comments about his family business, about which I know nothing. The Very Bad Publisher posts are clearly about my time at a company called Starblaze. I have no Earthly idea why this ridiculous Olney person would assume any of this material was directed at him, but then, this is not the first time some random nutter assumed I was speaking to them through the internet.

And me – jealous of Olney? Dude, what is he sniffing?

Olney followed up his bizarre email with another, alluding to the death of my cat last summer. Presumably, my talking dirt about his bad businessman father (which I did not do) resulted in the karmic backlash of the death of a 16-year-old cat.

I think my cat died of old age. He was 16 after all. And, of course, I said absolutely nothing about Olney’s father, his business, or anything else about the guy. I’ve never worked with him, Olney, or had any direct contact with anyone in his family whatsoever.

And what kind of karmic hoodoo kills an innocent animal over a blog post? Man, that’s messed up.

I used to try to be subtle on my internet postings, not naming too many names so as not to embarrass people from my past, while still writing candidly about my experiences.

It’s a wasted effort. There’s nothing I can do about Teh Crazy who thinks I am sending them secret messages through the computer, and ruining their poor little careers with my dispatches to the Sekrit Comic Book Industry Cabal.

There’s a couple more nutters out there who conflate the most tenuous connection (I spoke to them on the phone, I answered email, they met me at a show) in order to give them an ontological argument for why their lives suck: “Colleen was supposed to HELP my CAREER and now she won’t even talk to me except via SEKRIT MESSAGES on the INTERWUBZ.” Oh yeah, and I am STALKING them and out to GET them and a total HATER.

Jesus Christ. File right next to Olney and his weird karmic theory about my cat.

Fortunately, I don’t seem to have too many problems with Teh Crazy. I am not worried about this Olney person, either. But I thought you’d appreciate a direct illustration of the cognitive disconnect that occasionally darkens the corners of my happy life down on the farm.

The good news is, this sort of thing is extremely rare. With thousands of readers, I feel blessed that I have so few problems.

Count on fingers of one hand, have fingers left over.

Life is good. Really.

And I am happy to bring it to your attention so you can know what to look out for. When it comes to Very Bad Publishers, I don’t think you’re going to beat Rick Olney’s Tightlip. Do click the link and read.

There’s a part of me that feels a little better knowing I am not the only person who had to deal with a VERY bad Very Bad Publisher, while at the same time, I feel terrible for the creators who got rooked.

It’s never personal. Remember that. When you get involved with one of these creeps, or when you have some internet nutter railing about the Sekrit Cabal, just remember it happens to everybody in the bizz – well, the real pros anyway, as opposed to the resume-inflating wishtheywere’s who are sure the Sekrit Cabal stands between them and the riches and fame they deserve.

You did nothing to deserve Teh Crazy, and Neil Gaiman gets 437% more of this crap than you ever will.

And he seems OK.

In happier news, our good buddy Tom Stillwell has a new collection of his comic called Honor Brigade, and I have contributed a pinup. You can order Honor Brigade HERE

Also, Tom will be making a print of my pinup of Mystery Girl. The pinup will be available at Wizard World Chicago and ALL proceeds will go toward the medical costs of John Ostrander. If he makes this available via mail for some of the readers here, I will be sure to post the info. EDIT: See it here.

OK, now I have to work for 3 more hours to get this caffeine out of my system. Wish me luck.

c

PS: More trouble with the Dabel Brothers. Don’t really know much about that lot.

PPS: We are NOT hosted by Wordpress, even though this blog uses Wordpress software. If you want to post, you have to register here. Sorry about that.