If you haven’t heard all the news pouring out of the US news channels you are either living under a rock or read the story about the Mosque stampede first. For those who read Digital Strips before the news Katrina (a category 4 hurricane) swept over Florida and slammed into New Orleans with enough force to break the dykes holding back Lake Pontchartrain from a city that is below the lake’s level. For the non-physics majors out there that means the lake proceed to correct this little problem by flooding the entire city causing uncounted loss of life and over $20 billion in damage. The web comic community, in it’s infinite ability to reach out and care for others, has started a telethon hosted by Blank Label Comics to help those caught in this devastation. If we can raise $34,000 to help save our favorite convention we can certainly do better to help tens of thousands of newly homeless people. The press release follows:

WEBCOMICS TELETHON BENEFITING HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIMS

Blank Label Comics is hosting a webcomic telethon to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. It will be held the week of Sept. 12 at www.webcomictelethon.com. Actual dates are to be announced later. Brad Guigar, who has organized previous webcomics telethons benefitting MDA (http://mda.altbrand.com/01mda.shtml), is organizing the event.

All of the revenue generated from site advertising, donations, and proceeds from merchandise bought through the site will be donated to the Red Cross to help in disaster relief. The site will be updated several times during the course of the telethon with new comics, encouraging readers to come back often to see the new strips and donate money when their favorites are displayed.

If you’d like to participate, please do the following:

(1) Contact Brad Guigar at bguigar@yahoo.com and tell him you will be participating. This will help us plan the event.

(2) Do a comic. Now. It doesn’t have to be about hurricanes or disasters or the importance of charity… but those themes are appreciated. The final should be no wider than 600 pixels. Any depth is fine. Do not include a large title, in the image… that will be included in a text line under your comic, linked back to your site.

(3) Send your comic to bguigar@yahoo.com. GIF, PNG and JPEG are all acceptable formats. In your e-mail,include your name(s), the title of your strip, and your URL.

(4) Spread the word. Watch www.webcomictelethon.com for banners and buttons to use to start alerting your readers. Blog about it. Post it on your sites. Get the word out.