I'm going to be honest for a moment. After I made the blog post on Monday asking for donations to help keep me alive, I had to go away and have a good cry. Having to ask you, the readers of this comic and people I don't even know, for money to help keep me afloat is one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. It's not a pride thing, you need to understand that. As a kid I was always taught by my Mum that you don't ask people for help. You just don't.

It's ridiculous, I know. But it's stuck with me - particularly where money is concerned.

But the amount of aid I have received so far is so staggering that... well, I've been crying again. I started off trying to respond to each individual donation personally to say "Thank you" but they came in at such a rate that I can't even being to get through them all now. It's ridiculous. This sort of thing just shouldn't happen.

I could say "Thank you" to everyone who has donated so far. In fact I will - thank you. From the bottom of my heart, from the pit of my stomach, and from the very depths of my bank account, thank you. But I still feel hollow just putting my hands out like this, just asking people to throw money at me. And for what? Your choice of desktop wallpapers? Wallpapers I didn't even draw? I can't keep doing that. I feel guilty enough as it is asking for the money.

So here's what I'm doing - I'm working on a short story. It's a prequel of sorts to the comic, showing Meaney and Llewellyn's respective paths into the Lead Service and how they came to meet and become... well, not friends obviously, but how they became joined at the hip, as it were. It's not finished yet, but hopefully it'll be finished before the end of the week. I've been writing as a screenplay but I imagine I'll shift over to a more narrative format once I've got enough of the story laid down.

Once it's ready I will email it out to every single person who has made a donation since this Monday, regardless of the amount you donated. No one else will see this story. Ever. This is just for people who make a donation to me during this rough period, as a token of gratitude.

You can still make a donation. That button isn't going anywhere any time soon. So if you want to be one of those people who gets to read this story you can click the PayPal button below. Again, it doesn't matter how much you decide to donate. As a rather big chain of supermarkets in the UK are keen on saying, every little helps.

Thank you again. You are all wonderful, beautiful people.