it's a sad truth of the American comics industry that older creators can find themselves in a pretty rough financial spot after suffering an unexpected medical emergency, but the bright side is that our community often comes together to help those in need. That appears to be the situation this week with 86-year-old artist Don Perlin, best known for his work at Marvel on titles like Defenders and Transformers, who underwent an operation to relieve bleeding in his brain and now faces a long recovery.

To help out, there's a GoFundMe campaign set up by Clfford Meth to benefit Perlin, with a goal of raising $15,000 to help cover the cost of his rehabilitation.

According to the campaign, Perlin is doing well with his recovery, but the actual procedure sounds pretty harrowing:

When artist DON PERLIN recently had surgery to stop bleeding in his head, I contacted him after the operation to see how I could help. He indicated that he was fine. But he wasn't. They discovered more bleeding and today, as Don described it, they removed a piece of his skull the size of a creditcard and then put in a Titanium plate. He's stuck in rehab now which his Medicare and insurance do not fully cover. So let's help this man.

The good news is that Perlin's friends and fans have already come together to raise over $9,000 in just 20 hours, which is a heartwarming show of generosity for a person in need.

We'd like to encourage you to donate, and if you'd like to go a step further, please consider donating to the Hero Initiative, a charitable organization created to help comic artists and writers in exactly this sort of situation, and an organization that Perlin himself has contributed to in the past.

Get well soon, Don!