Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Michigan-based artist Scott Rosema provided pencil and ink work on titles such as Marvel’s X-Men Adventures, Valiant’s Solar: Man of the Atom, DC’s Tiny Toons and many, many more. A pro for almost 30 years, read his first-person testimonial on how your donations have benefited him directly.

I’m not usually one to have my problems out on my sleeve; especially considering, as an artist, I would need an incredibly long sleeve to do so. Plus, I’m terribly independent-minded and tenacious as a rhino. I regard most problems I face as either something to be muscled through or thought through to the solution, particularly with my art.

And with my art, it honestly has never occurred to me that some sort of problem would or could come along that I couldn’t solve in some way or another, not in any real sense. Now, I’m not stupid or naive so I have always been aware of the possibility of insurmountable problems happening, but it’s always been something of a distant possibility, a lightning-striking sort of thing.

Late last year, it was if Thor or Storm had my number.

Out of the blue, I developed a fast-growing, sight-robbing cataract in my right eye with a lesser one in my left eye.

"By spring," the eye doctor said, "you’ll probably, for all intents and purposes, not be able to see very well at all."

What the…???!!??

"You won’t be able to drive, read or, unfortunately, draw."

WHAT….??????

"You’ll be able to make out basic shapes but that’s about it."

Now just wait a minute!! I draw for a living!! What the ….?!?

"That’s the bad news; the good news is…"

I could use some!

"…your condition, though very fast developing, can be fixed with surgery."

Really? That’s sounds better.

But not until it gets much worse. Probably right up until it gets the worst."

So, I’ve got to wait until it gets much worse before we can make it better. What can I do or expect in the meantime?

"Not much; you’ll have a harder and harder time drawing, and you’ll probably get severe headaches from your changing vision. Plus, the operation costs are in the thousands of dollars."

So there I was…my sight slowly slipping away because of a problem that was keeping me from earning the money I needed to fix the problem.

I think the British call that a sticky wicket.

Well, I could only weather the effects of the cataract until the surgery. Hey, you take life’s lumps as you get ’em, right? But, I didn’t nearly have the money needed for the surgery. And no health insurance.

So, what to do?

Thanks to my agent Scott Kress, who suggested The Hero Initiative as a possible source of help.

"But," I said, "…isn’t that just for the retired comic art veterans? I’m no spring chicken but I’m far from retirement age…"

"If you can’t see," he said, "…you’ll never become a retired comic art veteran."

Wham.

So, after a few calls and some figuring, the INCREDIBLE folks at Hero Initiative were able to cover most of the expenses for the operation and my vision is nearly back to 100 percent.

But if it weren’t for Hero Initiative, I very well might have been selling pencils out of a cup instead of drawing with them.

Being an artist and doing art for a living has its ups and downs and none of us are guaranteed an easy road of it. It’s something we love doing and lots of things can get in the way…and some things just can’t be helped.

But for the things that can be helped, the things that a charitable mind and a loving heart and a giving hand can change, then those things CAN be helped. Those roadblocks can be moved, those snags can smoothed along, and something close to what I now would call miraculous can be achieved.

In August 2007, I noticed a slight blurriness in my vision. By November, it grew into a cloudy fuzziness. By January ’08 it was like having a gauze bandage over my eyes. And by late February, thanks to Hero Initiative, I was able to afford the surgery that’s brought my sight back from a damned scary place.

Drawing, doing art, creating comic art is my life. You can believe that that statement has a new definition for me.

And Hero Initiative has provided that definition.

Please give as much as you can, as often as you can. They really are heroes.