When tragedy strikes it seems the comic book industry always reaches out to help those in need in one way or another, and following the devastation that hurricane Sandy left in her wake, the industry banded together to establish the Art For Sandy Relief. The initiative was created by Marvel Sales Coordinator Jim Viscardi and Disney digital designer Rich Ginter. The two friends and former co-workers wanted to do what they could to help their hometown, and they knew that comic art was always good for raising a little bit of money. The two gents spoke in a recent interview with Robot6 about how everything came together and what their goals are, ultimately.
This relief effort came out of just my urge to want to be back in New York helping out. I have been in contact with many friends and family, and saw the photos of the all devastation over the past week. I felt helpless because I could not offer any assistance, so I tried to do what I thought would be best and that is to help raise money.
I sat down on Friday night put together a few graphics, set up an email address, twitter and the facebook page. I put the word out on the @art4sandyrelief twitter and my own personal one, James Viscardi, is a friend and a colleague when I was at Marvel, immediately text me saying “I want to help” and I knew I could use it. Aside from the two of us there are those who have kindly started to pledge their donations to us and help spread the word.
A lot of art has already been donated by several artists (a page out of FEAR AGENT and another donated by Paolo Rivera, posted below). According to Rich, the money they raise through monetary donations as well as through the sale of donated art pieces will go to the Steven Siller Tunnels to Towers Hurricane Relief effort; a local charity that works primarily in the New York/New Jersey area where the bulk of the damage from Hurricane Sandy was seen. If you are interested in donating to the relief effort, send an email to artforsandyrelief@gmail.com or visit the official Art For Sandy Facebook and Twitter page.
== TEASER ==
Source: Robot6