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The Art For Sandy benefit auction we mentioned the other day is now live. (That’s a Paolo Rivera piece above.) This is a benefit organized by Disney’s Rich Ginter with help from Marvel’s Jim Viscardi to help the devastated areas of Staten Island. Native Staten Islander—and surely its Comics Laureate—Evan Dorkin updates his own status and talks about the situation:

We’re doing okay, thanks very much to everyone who wrote or sent us a note on Twitter. We went to a friend’s house yesterday to warm up and recharge the dumb phone and send out some e-mails to let friends and family know we were okay. We saw video of the damage on Staten Island and elsewhere and it was terrible. A friend of a friend checked on us yesterday, he lost an elderly family member. It’s unreal. I grew up in one of the evacuation areas that was hit hard and I knew it was going to be bad over there, that area used to get water damage in bad rains, let alone a hurricane storm surge. It was worse than I ever imagined. Ships washed ashore, cars tossed around, houses and people swept away. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life here. Just awful.

I’ve been watching the news reports, and it’s pretty heartbreaking. And as someone who was without heat for six days, I can tell you the situation is desperate for many people. Please consider a donation to Art For Sandy, or to the Red Cross to help the many people who have lost their homes.

Artist J.K. Woodward , a familiar face from many a convention and barcon, is among those who lost everything. He has prints for sale and more information on his blog.