Situation Regarding Stephen Perry

Site Discussion Team Discussion
1

Hi guys,

I wanted to talk to all of you regarding an email I received today from Stephen Perry.

Dear Nick,

I am so sorry to ask this of you, but I am begging everyone and anyone for some help. Since you interviewed me … I got cancer, my wife left, I lost my job, went homeless, and now am very sick, trying to survive and take care of my five year old son, with nothing, no resources, no food, money or medical help. We were homeless in my van, which has now broken down, but my brother in law has let us stay in an empty house he owns (but is in foreclosure.)
Some comics friends have helped a little (we got electric turned on, and water turned on) and please check out these links for the sad and stupid and awful pitiful situation I am in.

I am begging, I guess, for any help you might be able to give. Maybe you could post this on tcats org and maybesome others might help us.

I know this is shameless begging, and it’s pitiful, but Leo (my son) and I are very destitute, hungry. I am also quite sick these last couple days … (it goes in and out of feeling okay and being incapacitated.)

THE BIG DIFFERENCE IS THAT I HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT … and instead of anything being snail mailed to me, if you care to help at all or anyone else does … I would need it done through PAYPAL.

my paypal address is: sandramaples48@yahoo.com. (I am sandramaples48!, I have the debit card, and anythuing emailed to sandramaples48@yahoo.com gives me immediate access to it.)

I know it is shameless and pitiful … and i KNOW i AM BEGGING. I just want to get my son to saftey, get us safe, perhaps even to my hometown, for the last months I might have.
We are very, very destitute … hungry, eating at churches once a day, can’t put gas in the car, or even get the stupid $60 part that will get it running.

I beg you nick … will you please help? And if you could post it … along with the paypal address (sandramaples48) maybe someone over there in my family’s home country might help us a little too. Thank you, thank you and bless you if you can send anything … a little, a bunch … anything. Even 10 bucks would be a fortune to us now. We were homeless from July 22nd to Aug. 15th. It’s hard to deal with sick … and hope we (Leo & !) DON’T HAVE TO AGAIN.

STEVE PERRY

steve perry
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/08/comics-a-m-the-comics-internet-in-two-minutes-3/ – scroll down to ‘creators’

http://likebeingreadtofromdictionaries.blogspot.com/

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/missed_it_helping_steve_perry/

http://www.lordshaper.com/?p=694&cpage=1#comment-1083

http://rocarts.com/sabrecat/2009/08/21/thundercats-appeal/

http://likebeingreadtofromdictionaries.blogspot.com/2009/09/thundercats-writer-could-use-your-help.html

http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4527

I spoke to Chris (He-Fan) about it and he suggested posting it on the forums first - I’m perfectly happy to do that. Whilst it’s a sad situation and I’m sorry it seems to be so dire for him, I don’t exactly feel comfortable with it all (just the email and the request for donations).

So I want everyone to have their say and try and come to a decision before we do anything. Either PM me or post your thoughts on here.

2

Maybe we could suggest Stephen post it in the forums and those of us on the team who feel so inclined can vouch for Stephen and his work on ThunderCats. It should go up in the ‘Other Talk’ category, not in the main forum sections.

I feel for the guy, but don’t want to turn the forums or the main page into a charitable web organization. Those who enjoyed Stephens contributions can decide whether or not they’d like to help, I’d prefer we avoid an official TCL.org push to help. This should be voluntary.

Personally I’ll be shooting the guy 20 bucks because I talked to him too and he was kind enough to donate his time to the site.

3

Chris here…

Further to my PM, just to add that I agree with the main thrust of this post. There may come a point as a website that we may have to ask folks if they would like to make a donation to ThunderCats Lair, but I dislike begging for money (something that www.he-man.org have done, raising thousands of dollars and frankly as far as I’m concerned showing nothing for it at the present time), and so really wouldn’t want to on someone’s behalf, whoever they are.

I would say that IMO I don’t think it would be a problem if you, Nick, were to post it up on the forums yourself (rather than ask Stephen Perry to sign up and do it himself), and I also don’t think it would be a problem if it were in the Cartoon & Comics Forum (which is where I’d instinctively put it, as Stephen was a writer on the cartoon show) - but, to reiterate what I said in my PM, I wouldn’t put it up on the front page. Somehow, at the risk of sounding hard hearted, I’m just not comfortable with doing that.

Take care… :slight_smile:

4

What a strange situation… we are sure this is the person in question right? :eek: I’ve been out of the loop so not even sure who Stephen Perry actually is…

To me this just seems really odd… sorry if I sound like a jerk but it does…

I feel that telling folks they can donate to a guy who is destitute who worked on Thundercats isn’t something that a respectable website does.

If this is all true, then I do feel sorry, but I’m afraid it’s not the way to go about things. I was once near poor, literally having about £10 in the bank.

What did I do??? I got a crappy 10 hour a week bar job that paid my rent and left me with a bit of money for myself. It wasn’t ideal due to the amount of hours, but it paid my way.

I feel that for anyone to sort themselves out, they need to help themselves first. I dunno how sending this guy $10 will help him in the long run?

Just my take…

5

I actually take your point. I interviewed Stephen Perry for the website a while back - he’s a writer for some ThunderCats episodes.

I think Chris was right in saying that posting it on the forums and allowing people to make up their own mind was the way to go - not the front page but via the forums. As you said, we’d only be legitimising it and it’s not something a respectable website does if we ask for ‘donations’. I can only speak for myself, really, and I do believe it’s a genuine plea but posting it via the forums is probably the only way to go.

6

Just re-read and noticed the part about the cancer :frowning:

That is a lot different to my scenario! :frowning:

It’s a toughy really…and not as cut and dried as I thought upon first reading it…

Guess I’m just shocked it would come down to this for a writer from the show and find it hard to believe :o

7

Chris here…

To be honest, Neil, if not for the cancer part I’d agree with you - and, I have to say my initial reaction when I read this was that it was a hoax, but seemingly not. :frowning:

I think we’ve done it the right way - I wouldn’t be comfortable with posting it on the front page, but by mentioning it in the forums (which are a bit more “informal”) we’ve acknowledged it and so on the flipside of the argument don’t look like hard-hearted *******s who’ve just ignored Stephen’s plight. :frowning:

Oh and just so you know, Neil, like Nick says, Stephen Perry was one of the better writers of the cartoon - here’s a list of all the episodes he wrote: http://www.thundercatslair.org/cartoon/about/articles/writers.html#stephenperry . It can be hard to keep track of who’s who I agree, unless of course you’re a sad anorak like me, LOL! :smiley:

Great to see you back on the team forum, my friend, and great to catch up again last night - Facebook Chat rocks! :thumbsup:

Take care… :slight_smile:

8

I also find it hard to believe. One part tells me this is all a plot to get free money but at the same time this could very well be real. I just cant picture someone going through such a situation especially with a 5 year old. I did donate and hope that it turns out ok for him.

9

Yeah I support all the decisions made thus far and of course support Nick 100% for being put into this position originally.

I hope everything works out for this guy :frowning:

Manny great to see you back! How you been? :slight_smile:

10

Dude you wouldnt believe it…Ill just do a quick run down:12 hour days, College, Family, and trying at the same time to keep up with daily Ebay coin sales as well as daily shipments…you know all part of a small side thing i got going on with selling coins on Ebay. Ill be gone in a few weeks for about 2 weeks staying at a vacation home on the North Sea and Ill be on my way to Australia in January as part of a trip i won via a website where i purchase coins (as well as gold and silver for investment).

Busy life these days…

Anyways check out the post that the website made about me winning the trip…
http://apmexdealer.blogspot.com/search/label/Bonzer%20Trip

Family is doing great and Dawn has her first two teeth…she looks just like daddy or so people say.

11

How lucky was that! :o Congrats! :slight_smile:

Good to know all is good your end :thumbsup:

12

Wow Manny that is so awesome. You are going to love Australia I lived there for a year and a bit. Love that country. You going to visit the Perth Mint?

13

Yup i just got an email from the marketing director at APMEX that the CEO of Perth Mint has agreed to let us do a “behind the scenes” tour. We’ll get to walk all the secure areas of the mint and watch the whole process of minting. Lots of gold and silver…one of the rooms where they melt the gold has gold dust from decades of melting encrusted on the walls so we will get to see that as well. Problem with visiting the secure areas is that there will be no pictures or anything and we have to wear closed toe shoes on top of tight security. But hey i cant complain…

We’ll spend a day in Rottnest island as well so that should be neat with no cars running on the island. Almost paradise…