Is there anything more depressing than reading about yet another of your favourite comic book writers or artists, somebody responsible for a whole string of classic, critically acclaimed superhero series —Grimjack, Hawkworld, Suicide Squad, The Spectre, having to chose between going blind or going bankrupt. This time it’s John Ostrander, who has written some of my all time favourite “dark” superhero
comics, a few of which I mentioned above. He’s a victim of the US healthcare system, under which health insurance is unpayable for anybody but the most fortunate, certainly not for self-employed freelancers like the overwhelming majority of comics professionals since the 1930ties. No health insurance, no pension rights, paid peanuts for work that sometimes earned their publishers millions, so many of them, like Ostrander, find that in later life their savings inadequate to pay their medical bills. His friends and colleagues have come together to set up a trust to help him — you can donate via Paypal through adriane (at) comicmix.com — but as James Nicoll says, it’s hardly enough when so many others are struggling too — and some of them don’t have this circle of support.
And of course, people like Ostrander, who have a certain amount of fame, no matter in how small a circle are lucky duckies compared to millions of people working everyday jobs who also can’t afford health insurance and have to rely solely on their family and friends, or do without the health care they need. That’s why you need a proper, government subsidised healtcare system, in which health care is available to anybody no matter their financial status.