$11,006 going to the American Red Cross to help the people of Japan. Better news: no more auction updates.
Thank you to everyone involved, Rebekah Isaacs, Eric Canete, Rick Remender, Humberto Ramos, Jewel Staite, Jo Chen and Mindy Lee for their donations, and Jason Schachter for dealing with the headaches. You guys are awesome.
Thanks also to everyone who helped promote this, with retweets and facebook updates, mentions in blogs and podcasts, you guys took a little time out to do a whole lot of good. You guys are awesomer!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Hiccup
We apologize.
We had to cancel the second round of auction items due to a hiccup which we didn't foresee from the last round of auctions.
Missionfish, the organization through which we donate the money to the American Red Cross via eBay, is looking for 100% of the sales of each item in the auction, which would be fine on paper, and is what we said we would do.
None of us are doing this to make any money whatsoever.
Unfortunately they do not take into account the 3.5% cut off the final sale price that Paypal takes when they accept the money before they forward it to Missionfish.
Jason has spent the last 24 hours trying to get a hold of the people at Missionfish and they have been uncooperative to say the least. I can understand where they're coming from, but from a principle's standpoint I do not see why they don't see where we're coming from.
To say the least we're a little upset at the way things are turning out. We're being asked to pay money out of pocket to make up the 3.5% for the right to donate the money to Missionfish, which is the only way you can do charitable donations through eBay directly.
Because of the generosity of the bidders and donaters in the last round, and $5855 in sales for the eBay items, we're having to pay over $200 for the PRIVILEGE of donating it directly to the American Red Cross.
We're probably just going to restart the auctions of this next round and say that we're donating 96.5% of the sale to charity. Please know that this is why, and the 3.5% isn't to pay for strippers or anything.
Thank you.
We had to cancel the second round of auction items due to a hiccup which we didn't foresee from the last round of auctions.
Missionfish, the organization through which we donate the money to the American Red Cross via eBay, is looking for 100% of the sales of each item in the auction, which would be fine on paper, and is what we said we would do.
None of us are doing this to make any money whatsoever.
Unfortunately they do not take into account the 3.5% cut off the final sale price that Paypal takes when they accept the money before they forward it to Missionfish.
Jason has spent the last 24 hours trying to get a hold of the people at Missionfish and they have been uncooperative to say the least. I can understand where they're coming from, but from a principle's standpoint I do not see why they don't see where we're coming from.
To say the least we're a little upset at the way things are turning out. We're being asked to pay money out of pocket to make up the 3.5% for the right to donate the money to Missionfish, which is the only way you can do charitable donations through eBay directly.
Because of the generosity of the bidders and donaters in the last round, and $5855 in sales for the eBay items, we're having to pay over $200 for the PRIVILEGE of donating it directly to the American Red Cross.
We're probably just going to restart the auctions of this next round and say that we're donating 96.5% of the sale to charity. Please know that this is why, and the 3.5% isn't to pay for strippers or anything.
Thank you.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The auction
Hi.
If you're new, this auction is to benefit The American Red Cross, in helping the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. They still need our help over there, and this is just me and a few good (emphasis on good) friends in the comic industry's attempt to help out. Some of them had already helped, and a lot of people I asked donations from had already helped out by raising money and awareness to the cause. I was only late in getting my butt in gear because a) I'm really self-absorbed and if it doesn't involve me, I don't usually care about it, and b) my mom was late in telling me to do my part, so really it's all her fault.
Anyway.
I got quite a few donations of some really cool stuff, which I'll go into later. However, it kind of defeated the purpose of my original idea of combining all of the items into one big lot, given that, in order to get the maximum amount of donation dollars possible (oh yeah, 100% of the proceeds go straight to the cause) the winning bidder would have to be the biggest fan of too many varied genres, so I followed the advice of many and separated them into many different lots. I think a lot of prospective bidders also preferred that.
So I'm officially stupid.
I wanted to first of all thank all those who graciously made donations,
Eric Canete
Jo Chen and Jewel Staite
Kurt Wagner
Rebekah Isaacs
Humberto Ramos
Rick Remender
as well as my art dealer Jason Schachter, who is actually the one setting up the auction on ebay and had to catalog and scan everything.
He's also telling me we're going to do a promotion where if you mention the auction when purchasing any interior page I drew on his Essential Sequential art website we donate 50% of the sale to The American Red Cross as well, plus you get a 20% discount on the pages you buy. So thanks for that, Jason. Maybe run it by me before you decide on stuff like that next time.
This isn't everything though. There's still a few items like my X-Men #204 cover and Uncanny X-Men 495 cover, as well as a few awesome things still coming in that haven't been scanned in yet, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. We're going to be splitting the auction into two parts, with the first part starting EVENING of SUNDAY the 24th of APRIL.
Stay tuned!
If you're new, this auction is to benefit The American Red Cross, in helping the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. They still need our help over there, and this is just me and a few good (emphasis on good) friends in the comic industry's attempt to help out. Some of them had already helped, and a lot of people I asked donations from had already helped out by raising money and awareness to the cause. I was only late in getting my butt in gear because a) I'm really self-absorbed and if it doesn't involve me, I don't usually care about it, and b) my mom was late in telling me to do my part, so really it's all her fault.
Anyway.
I got quite a few donations of some really cool stuff, which I'll go into later. However, it kind of defeated the purpose of my original idea of combining all of the items into one big lot, given that, in order to get the maximum amount of donation dollars possible (oh yeah, 100% of the proceeds go straight to the cause) the winning bidder would have to be the biggest fan of too many varied genres, so I followed the advice of many and separated them into many different lots. I think a lot of prospective bidders also preferred that.
So I'm officially stupid.
I wanted to first of all thank all those who graciously made donations,
Eric Canete
Jo Chen and Jewel Staite
Kurt Wagner
Rebekah Isaacs
Humberto Ramos
Rick Remender
as well as my art dealer Jason Schachter, who is actually the one setting up the auction on ebay and had to catalog and scan everything.
He's also telling me we're going to do a promotion where if you mention the auction when purchasing any interior page I drew on his Essential Sequential art website we donate 50% of the sale to The American Red Cross as well, plus you get a 20% discount on the pages you buy. So thanks for that, Jason. Maybe run it by me before you decide on stuff like that next time.
This isn't everything though. There's still a few items like my X-Men #204 cover and Uncanny X-Men 495 cover, as well as a few awesome things still coming in that haven't been scanned in yet, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. We're going to be splitting the auction into two parts, with the first part starting EVENING of SUNDAY the 24th of APRIL.
Stay tuned!
Remender the Titan
Yeah, I'm sorry about the title. But it's 4:30 in the morning and I've been at my desk all day and all night.
Anyway.
I have to admit that I'd originally had my doubts about this storyline. I'm a huge fan of the incredible Garth Ennis Max run, so the idea of The Punisher becoming a Frankenstein's Monster-type thing really did not appeal to me. But way too many people were recommending it to me so I buckled and finally bought it.
Holy frig.
Okay, if you're familiar with Rick's writing, he has this uncanny ability to slip "holy crap" moments into a story without drawing too much attention to it, which could take a reader out of the story. He does a perfect balancing act of making the really incredible also believable in the context of the story, and that's the whole awesomeness of this book. It's a definitely MARVEL story while being completely true to the character of Frank Castle as the Punisher, which starts off with a "I can't believe they did that" moment gorgeously rendered by John Romita Jr. and plunges him face-first into the world of the Marvel Monsters. As a re-animated cyborg.
But you can bet your sweet a$$ it's still a Frank Castle story.
So in short, I loved it. And here, you'll have the opportunity to get a signed copy of the beautiful hardcover edition. You will not want to take this baby into the bathroom. Nope, this is the kind of BOOK book that you read in the study, in your robe, while carefully sipping on a champagne flute of Mountain Dew.
It's Frank Castle as Frankenstein's Monster. And it totally makes sense. You'll love it too, I promise you.
Yum-berto
Humberto Ramos generously donated this great page from his recent Amazing Spider-Man issue signalling the introduction of the new VENOM. A great example of Ramos's signature dynamic action and superheroic proportions, depicting the historic moment where Flash Thompson actually becomes interesting!
Yes, I was bullied in school, why do you ask?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Inside the Mind of Rebekah Isaacs
This donated collection from the insanely talented Rebekah Isaacs is a real treat.
First of all, I'm a huge fan of her artwork. As a person, she's truly evil, but the darkness of her heart and soul is more than made up for by her exquisite sense of craftsmanship in her art, from the masterful grasp of anatomy translating into the uncanny ability to convey body language both naturally and expressively, to her sense of design and being able to balance intricate detail with organic placement of open spaces on the page, all while being an exceptional graphic storyteller.
Included in this auction is a wonderful and impressive double page promotional piece showcasing the entire DV8 team. However, for me, just as impressive from Rebekah's donation would be her behind the scenes stuff which she also included.
These character designs, along with a full issue's worth of layouts for DV8 issue 8, allow you to take a look behind the curtains and see a true artist's thought processes in developing great characters with personalities and physical idiosyncracies, and using those characters as pieces visually acting out the story in a comic book. A must have for any fan of the medium, or any aspiring comic book artist, or any fan of the awesome Rebekah Isaacs.
But seriously, I hear she eats children or something.
Check out her artwork HERE, and follow her blog HERE.
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