Marc Makes Comics and Tommy Donbavand

Some posts take longer than others to write,  I'm still working on the second part of the Sports in 2000AD story, and its taken a whole lot longer than I expected.  In the meantime there are number of things I intended to write about that have been sitting waiting so lets try to catch up here.
 

Friend of Splank! and one of the most talented cartoonists about, Marc Jackson is also one of the most inventive creators when it comes to taking advantage of the net and new mechanisms for connecting with his customers.  You may have seen Marc's work in the Beano, where his vegetarian-friendly comic "Lenny the Lettuce" ran for nine weeks in 2014.  His full-page "Ka-Punch" strip appears in each Comic World Magazine and he is a regular in the on-line comic Aces Weekly.  He self-publishes his own comics and I've reviewed them, very favourably, a couple of times before in the pages of Splank!  Marc has also been instrumental in setting up the Macc-Pow Comic festival in Macclefield which I'm hoping to attend next year.

He is currently making use of another form of on-going funding via the Patreon system.  For a subscription of $2 a month you get the chance to read an exclusive on-line comic, "Cat Stevens", the story of a cat who lives in Stoopyville City with his human 'parents'.  There is a diner owned by a duck and a Policeman who is too busy to put on his pants.   Sounds like another surreal winner from Marc, one that I'm going to be signing up for myself.

Check out the links below for more on Marc and his comics.

Marc Makes Comics Facebook Page

Marc's Patreon page.

There hasn't been an update on Tommy Donbavand on his Blog for a while, Tommy is a writer of books for children and has written scripts for the Bash Street Kids, Calamity James and Gnasher and Gnipper for Beano.  Those of you with kids may have seen the BBC TV, Stop Motion animation show based on his Scream Street series.  He has been suffering from throat cancer along with complications from lung problems which pre-dated the cancer.  As with many writers, much of his income comes from working with schools and young people.  Much, if not all of that has stopped and there is great pressure on Tommy and his family.

A slide of Tommy's BSK - nicked from his web-site

The Tommy V Cancer web-page has a number of ways in which you can help Tommy either through direct donations, or by buying a few of his books.  I got an e-mail from Tommy earlier this week about a donation I made in return for a comic strip which Nigel Parkinson, gentleman, scholar and Dennis the Menace artist, is drawing for an upcoming Splank! project.   

I'm hoping this means Tommy is feeling a bit better, but whatever the case is, he will still need help for a while to come.  Please take a wee look at his web-page and see if there is anything you can do.  Perhaps buy a few of his books for kids you know.   The life of a writer or a cartoonist can be a precarious one and I hope that we, the fans of comics, are prepared to help the people who provide us with our regular fixes of adventure or laughter when they need it.