Am I wrong to worry about real life interfering with OotS? Is it "entitlement?"

[Jason]

Authors don't really owe their readers anything. If they make commitments to their fandom then it would be nice if they fulfilled those commitments, but it's not a legal contract or anything.
It is a bit ghoulish to ask an author "hey, have you thought about who will finish your story if you get hit by a bus tomorrow?" It's not really a fan's place to ask this. If an author has serious health concerns, it's up to him or her to tell his or her fans "yes, I have contingencies in place." Or even, "no, I won't trust this to anyone else. If I die, the work will never be completed, sorry."

Is it entitlement to think an author does owe you something, as a fan? I guess that depends on what you mean by "entitlement". Telling George R.R. Martin that he should have a panic button installed to alert the internet forums that he's having a health issue is a good example of going too far, I think.

I think its very easy for fans to feel like they know an author when they really don't know them at all, only their work. I hope the authors that I have met at cons (Terry Pratchett, Alan Dean Foster, Brandon Sanderson, and Timothy Zahn to name a few) have all appreciated my telling them that I enjoyed their work. I was making a distinct effort to not fanboy too much over them when I met them face-to-face.

You can always support the author of a work by buying it. The .pdfs and print books all include stuff that's not on the webcomic. I think buying an author's work is probably almost as appreciated as reading it.