The second half of the Comix 4 Sight art auction to benefit comics writer John Ostrander began with the sale of big ticket items and ended with the gratitude of a man among friends.

After a long fight with glaucoma, Ostrander recently underwent a surgery to save his sight, one that wasn't completely covered by his health insurance. With the help from his friends and fans in the comics community, an art auction held at this past weekend's Chicago Comic-Con helped offset Ostrander's expenses.

The items for action included donated artwork from artists like Mike Grell, Dave Sims, Neal Adams, Gene Ha, Sergio Aragones, Mark Bagley, Jim Lee, Paul Chadwick. Francis Manapaul and many more. Bidding started at anywhere between $50-300 with nearly every item clearing a few initial bids, and many being sold past the thousand dollar mark.Ostrander himself threatened steal Chadwick's original "Concrete" watercolor piece, pretending to run away with it from the room. Among the items that fetched the most were an extremely rare Miracle Man statue and Joe and Andy Kubert's Batman vs. Hawkman collaboration.

The evening closed with Ostrander taking the podium to thank those in attendance.

"Back when I was an actor many generations ago, if you went to a friend's play and the play was lousy, and even worse if the friend was lousy, you'd go back afterwards and there were a couple of phrases I knew that I could say safely. Things like 'Boy, that was something,' or 'I've never seen anything like that' or my favorite, 'There are no words," said Ostrander."

"There are no words that could possibly convey what this means to me. I can't find the words and that's scary for a writer," said Ostrander, who then thanked the event's organizers, including Mike Gold, Adriane Nash and Gail Simone. "A response like this you don't earn, it's given. So I thank you all for what you've given of your time, your interest and your goodwill. So just, thank you," said Ostrander.

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