It's like the Hurricane Relief Telethon every day of the year! *squeal*

from the Biggest Webcomic Loser.

I don't think anyone's picked up this story yet, so hopefully when I see it going up on a lot of websites in the next few days I can attribute it to people reading my blog and get a slight ego boost. Then again, someone I probably don't read has probably already mentioned it, and I'm just another voice in the crowd. (Edit: Yep, Comixpedia beat me to it. They're on the proverbial ball, over there)

No matter. The news must be heralded from every hilltop anyways. Because this is pretty dang cool.

I think most people know by now that the life of a webcomic artist is a sedentary one, at best. Not only are you doing a great deal of drawing, which by nature requires you to sit down at a desk for long periods of time, but you're also doing all your work on the computer, which means even more sitting down while you format everything to be displayed on the web, and being a part of the community means more sitting down in front of the computer and watching a screen.

So, in a nutshell, being a webcomicker does not encourage a great deal of activity. And, because it's much easier to eat some chips or a candy bar while you are drawing or mouse-jockeying than to have a salad in front of you (which requires a plate, a fork, probably some napkins...), there is not a whole lot of encouragement to eat healthier foods (and let's not even talk about the food choices when you go to cons).

So, all told, the webcomicking community is a veritable breeding ground for overweight people. I myself tip the scales at 325 on a good day, so I'm an active member of the obese club.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Honestly, I've seen the statistics, and I know it's just plain not healthy to be so overweight. Your risk for heart attack and diabetes shoot through the roof. I've been blessed with good genes, so my blood pressure and blood sugar levels are actually at very good levels, but my obesity has already claimed my gall bladder, and that was a very painful time in my life, let me tell you.

But it doesn't have to be that way. And that's the rallying cry that began Biggest Webcomic Loser. Philippe Gaboury came up with the idea, knowing that he personally had a fair chunk of change to unload and noticing that a lot of other creators suffered from similar problems, he figured, "Why not get the webcomic community together and support each other on this?" Just like when the webcomic community came together for the Hurricane Relief Telethon, only on a somewhat smaller and significantly longer scale.

And so he set it up. And now it's become something awesome. Not only is it webcomickers getting together and supporting each other in their goals of losing weight, but they're collecting pledges, and all the money goes to charity (UNICEF, to be exact). So the more weight that gets lost, the more money UNICEF gets. And, to top it all off, there's going to be daily comics by participants chronicling their losses and giving encouragement and laughs. Like I said, just like the Hurricane relief telethon, but for a longer time.

In a word: awesome.

I missed out on participating in the Hurricane Relief Telethon because I couldn't get my act together. Well, I'm not missing out on this one. I'm joining up today, to lose weight, get healthy, and help my fellow webcomickers achieve the same goals.

I don't care if I'm the biggest loser. In a competition like this, everyone wins. (Yeah, I know, it's a corny line. But it's true!)