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Cartoonist Dustin Harbin Asks for Help – Comics Industry Answers

Dustin Harbin is an American cartoonist, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and a regular at comic conventions including TCAF, where he hosted the Doug Wright Awards. He has just opened a GoFundMe appeal to help with his mouting healthcare bills as a result of a bicycle accident. He writes,

I was recently in a bicycle accident which resulted in me landing–by all evidence, directly on the mouth–face first on the asphalt. I'm not sure what happened, because the fall was hard enough to erase my memory of it occurring. I just woke up in a pool of blood and teeth, and into a long period of healing and reconstruction.

The major injuries I sustained were almost entirely to my face: my upper maxillary bone (basically my upper jaw) was completely detached from my skull, necessitating surgery to reattach. My bridge–basically my two front upper teeth–was knocked completely out, and one lower tooth was knocked out, with a second likely to follow in the coming weeks.

The good news: I am fine. I am alive, I'm not blinded, no apparent brain damage, and as of this writing, with my stitches out and the nerve pain in my hands and elbows down to manageable levels, you wouldn't know I'd been hurt unless I opened my mouth or tried to speak. I'm on a liquid diet for six weeks while my bones knit back together, but a small army of close friends have filled my house with blenders and smoothie supplies and love and kindness, so on that front I'm doing well.

Getting teeth replaced is not easy, and walking around with a big gap in your face while you figure out what to do is no fun, but it's doable. I've done it before, in fact: the reason I had a bridge in the first place is knocking my front teeth out when I was 13, in almost exactly the same way. Bicycles are canceled for me.

But paying for it… it's going to be a lot. I, like many artists, have no insurance, not to mention no money, no savings, et cetera. I just looked at the bill from the hospital, and it's blood-curdlingly large. But the immediate bills I need to prepare for are the dentist and oral surgeon. Costs include oral surgery, reconstruction, and followups, bridge replacement, and replacing 1-2 teeth entirely. I'm not sure what this will total up to, but I'm guessing more–maybe much more–than $25,000, so I'm starting there.

It irks me to no end to have to go hat-in-hand to pay for these injuries. The profession I've chosen is not great for emergencies. And I know that many of us need help, and many people will have better reasons for that need than I do. But if you can donate any amount, large or small, I will appreciate it very much. If you know me at all, you know that losing teeth is a big deal for me, and looking at this straight-on is incredibly uncomfortable. But as they say–can't go around it, gotta go through it.

With a $75,000 goal, he has so far raised $40,000 from almost 600 people, showing the love. That includes an anonymous $5000 donation, a $1000 donation from Kathryn Immonen, as well as donations from comic book figures Raina Telgemeier, Shelton Drum, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Chip Mosher, Jordie Bellaire, Cliff Chiang, James Lucas Jones, Ron Wimberley, Jason Latour, Christopher Butcher, Tom Spurgeon, Cully Hamner, Becky Cloonan, Keith Knight and more.

Can you join them?

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