Help Carl Continue His Necromunda Hobby

I joined the Necromunda community about two years ago. One of the first things I discovered -- besides a welcoming and most excellent community in general -- was the posters of Carl Johnston. They showed up *everywhere*. It was clear people loved his work and anytime anyone asked the community about posters for their terrain, Carl's work was the first thing people suggested.

In addition to his wonderful posters, Carl has contributed his artwork to projects like the community projects Book of Life, and the Book of the Sump, an excellent community project if ever there was one.

Carl has been unable to work for the past year or so due to disability, so the only funds he has to support his Necromunda hobby are what he gets from selling t-shirts and other items with his artwork on them online.

I'd like to change that.

I'm hoping the Necromunda community at large can chip in $5 or $10 (or more!) to help Carl buy some plastic and continue his hobby.

If you're not in a place to help out a fellow Necromunder, I totally get that. But if $5 or $10 isn't a big deal to you, then I'd love it if we could make Carl's year and make sure he's set up for a good while.

Here's Carl on what's been going on the last few years:

As Necromunda was being rereleased in 2017 I was coming of the back of a long period of poor health from a condition called cluster headaches and was now grappling with a new diagnosis of ME/CFS after a suspected lymes/bartonella co-infection, antibiotic treatment was either too late or just not effective, my health started to decline in many ways, I went from an active and out going individual to being a slow and withdrawn one, suffer with aches and pains and constant low energy and fatigue. I fought against this decline at work by pushing my self hard for a couple of years but in the end I had to step down managing the shop I had worked in for well over a decade.

Then Covid and the lock downs came along and that’s when things really changed, I picked back up on miniatures big time emerging my self in it rekindle my love of traditional art and the hobby, producing my first draft of the Book of Life supplement which was kindly received by the community and my first posters sheets for the community.

It then became a goal of mine to produce as much free Necromunda content for the community as I could, but soon this was interrupted by the effects of catching covid at the start of the pandemic, it really took its toll and I had to put the breaks on a lot. I started having much more serious symptoms and my fatigue increased four fold leaving me often bed or sofa bound. I was pushed at work to reduce my hours to just two days that I still kept missing with illness.

The stress of losing my career and repeated illnesses of kidney stones, IBS, cluster headaches and then ME/CFS along now with long covid, broke me mentally and I really struggled to continue. I tried to pour enthusiasm into my art and my hobby but found it hard to continue large projects. I had started up multiple supplements and had plans for YouTube and wider social media (I still do) but my physical and mental health wasn’t allowing it.

I thank you the community greatly though, the take off of my Instagram (even if it’s small my real world standards) and becoming known in the community for my posters and for creating the hashtag #everymodelsanecromundamodel really helped me carry on, getting involved with the wider community from helping my new friends at Sump City Radio with moderating there amazing fb community to producing artwork for multiple community supplements like Sump Hulk, House Bhareth and Sump Sea. I tried to build community spirit and be a positive beacon in the community, it was by helping everyone I met foster this community that I had grown to love that I knew it could help me heal. So I continued to make art and poster sheets, many many posters sheets, drew community members miniatures, lent my art to news letters, campaigns and videos which inspired me to start a yearly art event off the back of #Inktober called #nectober which I pitched to Sumpcity radio as a community project, a Necromunda fan art celebration meant to grow the community portfolio of Necromunda art, that has now run for several years and produced some simply amazing art and more importantly had a lot different people dipping their creative toes into the art scene.

I am really proud of what has happened with my community work, being told by people that I had inspired them create their community content has really blown me away but there is another side to my work where I know I’ve let some people down by not being well enough to make art and I’ve let my self down some what by not achieving and making all the things I wanted for the community but I hope with time I can still continue some of those things if a bit slower.

Regardless I just really want to say: Thank you to everyone, thank you to people that have commissioned work and bought T-shirts and art prints, doubly to a few special community members who will know you they are that really carried me through, you have all been the only reason I have been able to keep up with the hobby and buy the books and some of the miniatures and more importantly you helped me rebuild my life. So thank you.

Underhive Art // Carl_R_Johnston

I hope my community work can continue.