Fans of the late 2000AD comic creator Ian Gibson, who died earlier this week, have donated thousands of pounds to a GoFundMe fundraiser launched by his family, for his eventual headstone.
Ian’s son Luke John Gibson launched the GoFundMe to raise money for a headstone, Ian himself leaving this world for new adventures “not a rich man at the end of his life”, most of the money he had left will be going towards covering basic funeral costs, with a tiny bit set aside to help his friends and family.
Ian is perhaps best known as an artist on 2000AD, for his work on strips such as “Robohunter”, and as co-creator of “The Ballad of Halo Jones”. He also created a graphic novel adventure, “Lifeboat”, the first volume of that project published earlier this year by The77 Publications, plans in place to continue the tale with Ian’s full permission.
“I feel like my dad deserves something more special,” Luke explains on the GoFundMe. ”We are planning to have a custom tombstone as per his last wishes, to be in the shape of his tool of choice a pencil and the quote ‘He left his mark’ or ‘I drew stuff’, both to his style of humour that he would have wanted. This is likely to cost around £3000.
We have been quoted all in the funeral is going to cost about £5000, for a total of around £8000 base cost. I have a few thousand to put towards this, and I would be greatly honoured by anyone willing to donate to this GoFundMe, to raise the rest… I would like to give my dad a send off that he would be proud of and I’m really hoping that we can do it together.”
As of this morning, over £7000 has been donated by Ian’s fans worldwide, and his fellow comic creators, Luke thanking them all and promising that whatever is accrued beyond the initial £5000 goal he will ensure “that it goes towards making my Dad’s send off the best it can be, whatever that entails, be it a more elaborate ceremony or a better headstone/memorial to enshrine his epitaph upon.
“I’m actually crying, you are all amazing,” he wrote on Facebook last night.
Luke says he also wants to make a donation towards helping those who also have the rare and debilitating disease that took Ian from us, MDS, which currently has no cure.
“I am simply blown away by the generosity shown, it’s barely been five hours and we have suppassed our goal already.
“Dad, I hope with all my heart you’re somewhere seeing this, and I hope you can see how truly loved you were/are. I will be forever grateful to those who have helped make this happen.
“I hope that together we can give you the send off you deserve and that so many want you to have. I love you dad.”
• Read the downthetubes tribute to Ian Gibson here
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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