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Moustaches. Men’s health. Prostate cancer. Awareness…Movember.

These are the key terms associated with the Movember movement that is sweeping the world in an effort to raise awareness on men’s health issues. How? By growing a moustache throughout the month of November! So what does this have to do with comics? Well, Dark Horse’s head publicity guy, Jim Gibbons, is a vocal proponent of the movement, and a good friend of ours here at ComicAttack.net. Jim has recruited 7 Dark Horse employees to Mo-it-up with him throughout the month, and we’d like to help him add more recruits to his posse!

The official Movember site goes into more detail about the month long event, “Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st [it’s ok to start late] clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.  The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men.  Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.” Check out the Movember USA introduction video:

Movember has been going on since 2003, when the movement began in Melbourne, Australia. The idea was to bring the moustache back as a joke while simultaneously reminding everyone about the serious issues regarding men’s health. Even though no money was raised that first year, the Mo Bros realized the potential their efforts had, and taking cues from the women around them and all that they had done for breast cancer, they went to make Movember global. So far their work has found great success each year, and most recently in 2009, 255,755 Mo Bros and Sistas raised $43 million U.S. equivalent dollars for the various beneficiary partners around the world!

This year all funds donated in the U.S. will benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

You can join Jim’s Movember team (and donate funds) by clicking here. Check out his Mo Space page here, and follow the growth of Jim’s ‘stache over at his personal blog, EnemyofPeanuts.com. To donate funds directly, go here, and then here to visit the homepage of the Movember movement!

It’s estimated that 627,000 people have participated in Movember since 2003. Make it 627,001.

It’s not too late to start growing guys! I’ll see you on the streets.

Andy Liegl
andy@comicattack.net