The brother of Rocket Racoon co-creator Bill Mantlo is raising funds to have the one-time Marvel creative moved from an assisted-living facility.
While Michael Mantlo admits that his brother is paid enough to get by for his role in creating the popular Guardians of the Galaxy character voiced by Bradley Cooper, he's seeking $100,000 on the crowdfunding site to move his brother into his home and carry on his care.
Bill Mantlo has been in a nursing home since being injured in a car accident nearly three decades ago. Mantlo suffered a traumatic brain injury and needs care due to his reduced cognitive function. Michael said that he's spent the last decade attempting to bring Bill into his home, and the results have nearly bankrupted him.
“I have been attempting to bring my brother home from the nursing home he has been placed in for the last 10 years,” wrote Michael Mantlo on the campaign page. “It has been a difficult struggle, filled with numerous pitfalls and obstacles, but I gave my word to him that I would do everything in my power to make it happen so that he could live out the rest of his life with dignity, and peace. It has become painfully obvious to me in the last few months that the powers that be will not let that happen.”
Mantlo admitted that the financial trouble was fully his own after attempts to move Bill in with him.
“My brother remains stable, and thanks to the compensation he has, and will continue to receive for the outstanding work he did, he is in no financial peril,” Mantlo told potential donors. “As for me, being retired and living on a fixed income, this ordeal has become a financial nightmare. I have nearly bankrupted myself. I have been playing credit card roulette in order to finance everything I’ve done, and now it has overwhelmed me. I am nearly $100,000 in debt, and the piper is demanding payment.”
Michael has raised nearly $60,000 in less than two weeks. His campaign comes in the midst of a conversation about the way that the Disney-Marvel movie-making megalith compensates its employees. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders questioned the fact that a significant portion of Disney's employees are in financially dire situation while movies like Avengers: Endgame continue to rake in billions.
