AT FRIDAY NIGHT’S 25th annual Eisner Awards, Chris Sparks has won the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, it was announced during the ceremony hosted by San Diego Comic-Con.
Sparks launched the TeamCul de Sac project — which raises money to fight Parkinson’s research — after learning that Arlington-based “Cul de Sac” creator Richard Thompson, a longtime Post contributor, had the disease.
“I am very honored and proud of Team Cul de Sac,” Sparks tells Comic Riffs minutes after winning the award. “This just shows how we can pull together and make a difference, one cartoon at a time.
Gathering one cartoon at a time, Sparks edited the 2012 anthology “Team Cul de Sac: Cartoonists Draw the Line at Parkinson’s” (Andrews McMeel), which itself was nominated for an Eisner Award. The charity book featured works for more than 100 top cartoonists — including “Calvin and Hobbes” creator Bill Watterson’s first public art in more than 15 years — and, coordinated with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, has raised more than $100,000 for Parkinson’s research. (Full disclosure: Comic Riffs wrote the book’s main text — a profile of Thompson.)
(Note: The full list of Eisner winners is to come.)
PETEY OTTERLOOP: Bill Watterson’s first public art in 15-plus years: A contribution to the Team Cul de Sac book edited by Chris Sparks. (BILL WATTERSON / courtesy of Team Cul de Sac & Andrews McMeel /.)
