Okay, folks. The comic blogging and jokes will resume in a bit, got something serious to talk about right now.
I live at home, and I work for my dad. Our shop isn’t doing very well right now and we’re going into summer, the slowest season for bicycling in Florida. We’ve been in debt for a while because of the business, my mum and dad’s respective medical bills, the second mortgage, etc, but it’s all coming to a head.
If we don’t come up with $6200 by July 9th, we lose the house.
We’ve lived here since 1997, almost 20 years. I know for a fact that we can’t go to family for financial assistance, and if my dad declares bankruptcy, there’s a good chance he’ll lose the business. $6200 won’t get us out of debt, or make the shop liven up, but it’ll make sure we’ve got a place to live.
I’m going to put together a list of comics, books, and figures I’m selling to hopefully pull in a few hundred dollars. I’ve also been told that I should make a GoFundMe, but I’m going to have to discuss that with my parents first…and then probably do it anyway.
We have three dogs, two cats, and both my parents have health problems (a permanently pinched nerve in his shoulder and heart arrhythmia for dad, arthritis, extreme joint pain, and high blood pressure for mum), not to mention that we’ve only had one car for the past two months. My family cannot be homeless right now.
You always see posts and stories about people dealing with impending homelessness and think, well, surely that won’t happen to me. I spent my high school years working at a homeless shelter. I’ve seen friends have houses go into foreclosure. My best friend chose pride over help and was homeless for several weeks until her health problems landed her in the hospital, and I cannot see the same thing happen to my parents, or to me.
The people of this community have been generous before, and I don’t doubt they’ll be generous again. Expect to see an updated post with more information later tonight. As it is, my current PayPal address is touch_of_grey37@hotmail.com.
Thank you to anyone willing to lend a hand.
In extremely annoying news of the day, DC will be publishing split-page ads in their books starting in June. Half of the page will be sponsored content, which means the two half-pages will likely be combined in TPB versions. Either way, it is a bummer that creatives are being asked to adjust the flow of their stories like this. The layout of panels and the building suspense that accounts for each turn of the page is what moves a story along. This is certainly a bit of a change for them, and of course it’s an obnoxious interruption for readers. It’s not the end of the world, but it is rather irksome.
Wow. They’re mixing ads into the page layout now? That really sucks. And it’s hideous.
A Beautiful Monster 