Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Please Help Keep Faithmouse Online

If you've been a fan of this cartoon anytime during the past seven years, a time frame which encompasses both this current blog and the Geocities and faithmouse.com sites which preceded it, you know I don't discuss personal finances or ask for money. The first and last time I ever did so was for the First Annual Blogs4Life conference last January in Washington, D.C., which I personally attended with the help of some online sponsors. I drew Pro-Life Neverborn cartoons for supporting individuals and blogs, which I signed and distributed both at the conference and the following March For Life. Before attending the conference I ran these same cartoons both on this site and as the 'live' image which I send out to the many faithmouse affiliates which display one of the six URL's for the daily cartoon. I also added these completed cartoons to my page of Pro-Life cartoons (ranked #1 on Google and in many other search engines). This turned out to be a good deal for everyone, and I still very much appreciate the support.

The fool who has drawn faithmouse for the past seven years is in debt and needs to find a second job just to keep his head above water. It has come to this, a week where I clearly see that I can't make my bills, to admit that I've pushed my own personal resources as far as they will go and can't afford to draw the cartoon any longer. My wife has foolishly stood by me in my quest to develop the cartoon and make it a success, and now after many years of sleepless nights I'm in danger of ruining us both.

The cartoon is very heavily in debt. It's an amount which has accumulated during seven years of pouring everything I have into the cartoon, of paying for and doing whatever is necessary without hesitation to keep the cartoon alive. If you consider the impact this cartoon has had, of the many sites which regularly post and discuss this primarily Pro-Life cartoon, it's an amount of money which wouldn't seem outrageous for any start-up operation or media enterprise to expend. However, faithmouse isn't a media conglomerate; it's just one cartoonist with a computer in his bedroom , a drawing pad under his arm wherever he goes, and a quixotic belief in the merits of an ongoing artistic project.

I know that I sometimes surprise my own fanbase with my cartoons and choice of subject matter and my willingness to post on sites which are anything but conservative. Whatever my methods, I hope you can see they've been successful. Links and references to what is primarily a Pro-Life cartoon continue to grow, far beyond the Pro-Life community. Faithmouse is the only Pro-Life and Pro-Christian editorial cartoon which is given the time of day in the secular online world, mainly for its artistic and entertainment value. I've always maintained that faithmouse needs to be a fluid personal and artistic expression before attempting to being anything else, otherwise it's just another soapbox. The world is already crammed with soapboxes.

Fans of this cartoon may also be surprised to know that I've never submitted faithmouse for syndication. I've always felt that syndicates would have a built-in bias against a Christian, Catholic, Pro-Life cartoon, so I've instead focused on improving my own skills and popularizing the cartoon online. Again, I believe my efforts have been successful, but there's only so much a vast media enterprise of one can do.

I'm a believer in faithmouse; I hope that you, as a fellow believer, will consider helping to keep this cartoon alive. Free Republic regularly holds freeper drives for larger amounts of money a few times a year and is successful at raising those funds, so perhaps this will work for faithmouse as well.

Except for some customized cartoons, original artwork, and mention on the faithmouse blog, I can't really offer anyone anything of value in return for their donations. However, you will be helping to keep a well exposed Pro-Life and Pro-Christian cartoon online. I have many more chapters in mind for this cartoon; I hope you'll help me to create them.

I understand that most of my visitors probably don't have the resources to support this project. I kindly ask our online family to pour the resource of pray into this cartoon. God will do something, I'm certain.

In the meantime, except for finishing the most recent cartoon, faithmouse will now pause.


Thank you, and God bless,
Dan Lacey
New Market Township, Minnesota
faithmouse (at) yahoo (dot) com

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