Red Cross Charity Comic Launched

Available now from lulu.com is a downloadable book, Floods, created to raise funds for the Red Cross. Initiated by Adam R. Grose, publisher of Clown Press, and with the help of John Freeman, a wide selection of writers and artists have come together to create this book.

Creators include Ben Womack, Simon Spurrier, Simon Mackie, David Hailwood, Tom Millsom, Nick Miller and others, and features a special drabble -- a 100 word story -- by Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell.

It was Adam who came up with the project last year after parts of Britain were hit by disastrous bad weather. Since then, of course, many places across the globe have suffered devastation from floods and other terrible weather, including Bangladesh, southern Africa and, only this month, Burma.

Adam was moved to try and inspire the comics community to create a collection of one page strips and raise funds for flood relief.

"The UK experienced some of the most horrendous weather, with a month's worth of rain falling in 24 hours," Adam explains. "During this time, many of our fellow citizens experienced flooding, unknown to many of us.

"I decided to put together a comic to help raise awareness of our changing world, the environment and the increasing floods and disasters, that seem ever increasing since the turn of the millennium.

"The book will help raise money for the Red Cross and victims of the floods. Hopefully, this will be available the world over and help to bring more awareness to our world community."

Some of the strips have also been adapted for the ROK Comics mobile format, as a means of promoting the project, with profits from sales going to the Floods cause. (John Freeman has kindly agreed to do the adaptation work for any creators who would like to see their "Floods" strip in this format. (Contact him if you'd like to do a mobile "Floods" strip, but basically you need to come up with a ten frame strip, each frame 480 x 480 pixel in size, 18 point lettering with a "floods" theme or link).

Adam hopes to add to the existing book with more strips so if you would like to contribute a strip to an expanded edition of the book -- which may eventually see real world publication -- get in touch with him via the Clown Press web site.

• The ROK "Floods" comics can be viewed at www.rokcomics.com/floods.php
• Buy the Floods book from lulu.com