Comics creator Josel Nicolas uses his art to raise money for his parents

It's not a secret that most of art is a labor of love. This is particularly true for comics creator Josel Nicolas, whose work is fueled by passion...which is a nice way of saying that money trickles rather than flows, but he loves what he does.

This is a reality for most comics creators and while intermittent fees from freelancing pay the bills, life sometimes catches up and bigger responsibilities make the "starving artist" situation more dire.

Earlier this year, Nicolas' mother had an eye operation and, more recently, his father underwent heart surgery. His family is pooling together resources to cover the expenses and for his part, Nicolas is raising funds with art.

The entire proceeds from the third printing of his book "Windmills" will go to paying his parents medical bills. Nicolas began working on the serialized comedic comic book 2009 and he tells GMA News Online that the project was initially inspired by his father's battle with sickness.

"Honestly one of the biggest goals I have in 'Windmills' is to talk about sickness. I feel like my father falling ill has shaped my life greatly. He had a freak car accident when I was young and afterwards we discovered a pretty big benign tumor, which we had removed, but it left him without balance and with some speech problems (he sounds like he's angry all the time and forgets words)," Nicolas shared in an interview via Facebook chat. "Although I have yet to actually write more about my dad's illnesses, it does show up intermittently in some issues."

"I have been taking care of him on and off since I was 10. I'm actually pretty used to holding his hand and walking him around, taking him to the toilet, et cetera," Nicolas continued. "He never really full recovered, but he's soldiered on since then and we'd gotten used to him being an old man, but last year was pretty rough medical bills wise when he was hospitalized for impacted feces."

Work was steady at the time and Nicolas was able to help out more, but this year proved to be less stable.

"Freelancing isn't always so secure. I just want to make it clear also that my father is out of the hospital now, we have paid the bill. My sister's footing more for it for now, pero hahabol ako," Nicolas shared.

The fundraiser, Nicolas said, felt like the only way he could publish and give back to his parents at the same time. Doing comics full time takes guts, commitment, discipline, and sheer love for the medium, of which Nicolas has plenty.

"It's very fulfilling, and tiring...with that said I hate it. I do a lot of government and private jobs that I don't slap my name on just so its not confused with my personal work," Nicolas said. "And with that said I love the medium, it teaches you so much on how to see things, how to write things down. It's labor intensive and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Plus it can be very functional at times. I love that part about it, that it's an extremely capable medium that's very humble. Puwede siyang maging Parokya ni Edgar song covered by Radiohead or puwede naman siyang Limp Bizkit na nagcover ng Beethoven," he added.

On that note, Nicolas accepts that "Windmills" might not appeal to everyone, but he wouldn't want to have created it any other way.

"It's my love letter to the medium, and especially to life. Even if it can be depressing I honestly think the book is a comedy and it only wants to celebrate how crappy and great life can be," he said.

Members of the local comics community have responded to the fundraiser positively — a testament to the quality of Nicolas' work and his character.

[Read: Filipino artists AJ Bernardo, Josel Nicolas earn praise for work in Czech comic book]

"I just want to say that there are a lot of good people out there that have helped out. Central Books being so encouraging with self publishing gave me a discount to help with the book," he added. "The past two print runs have been of terrific quality and I don't think I could have ever pushed through if it weren't for Adam David recommending their services to me a couple of years ago."

Follow Windmills and Josel Nicolas' work on the official Windmills Facebook page. Windmills is also available to read online for free. — RSJ, GMA News