Team Cul de Sac panel at Comic-Con

I have the official news that we will have aTeam Cul de Sac Panel at Comic-Con, Saturday, 7/20/13 Times will be announced closer to the date.

Team Cul de Sac Join Chris Sparks, editor and organizer of the Eisner Award Nominated Team Cul de Sac: Cartoonists Draw the Line at Parkinson's book. Joining him are several contributors who will talk about the creation of this amazing original cartoon art book that was done in tribute to Richard Thompson, Reuben Award winner and the creator of the comic strip "Cul de Sac." The book features art from dozens of cartoonists in print and web, including the first original art published in 16 years by Bill Watterson of "Calvin and Hobbes" fame, and has helped raise over $105,000 towards Parkinsons research through the Michael J Fox Foundation. Panelists scheduled to appear: Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate), Mark Tatulli (Lio), Lucas Turnbloom (Imagine This), Andrew Farago, (Curator, Cartoon Art Museum), Shaenon Garrity (Skin Horse, Narbonic), Jenni Holm, (Baby Mouse) an Eisner Award nominee. Session moderated by Tom Racine (Tall Tale Radio podcast).

Drink and Draw at Heroescon

So I have been friends with Shelton Drum for many years. Over the years I have seen his Heroescon grow into one of the biggest and best comic conventions in the country.

Five years ago at heroescon I met someone who has changed my life...for the better. He is Richard Thompson. From the first time we met until this very moment our friendship and admiration has grown for each other.
Richard gave us one of the best comic strips ever, Cul de Sac and I became one of his biggest fanboys. Four years ago Richard found out He had Parkinsons. He has tackled it like he does with everything else, a laugh and missing the deadline as long as he could with Parkinsons.
We might not haveCul de Sac to laugh to everyday but we do have something else to turn our attention to. That is finding a cure for Parkinsons. In 2010 Richard and i started Team Cul de Sac. We asked artists to donate art using Richards characters and we auctioned the art off and even had a nice coffee table book made. We might not have a cure yet but we have raised some make dough for the Michael J Fox Foundation.Most of the almost 110k was made last year and we hope to add to that total this year.

This is where Heroescon has stepped in. For the last two years we have had a drink and draw for a few hours on Friday night after the con. Each year we have raised around 1400 bucks for our efforts.
Well this year Heroescon wanted to step that up a drop. With the wonderful help of Heather, Seth, Rico and the main man Shelton Drum we are having a big party this year. ( more details will be added very soon about the time and place) I do know it is Friday night after the show.



Heather and Seth asked me to help them round up some folks to donate art. So I have.

First off we have:

A signed hard cover of Maus with a sketch in the book by the legend himself Art Spiegelman!

Oh but that was not enough I wanted to make a real splash so I asked our wonderful friend

Bill Watterson to sign some copies of Team Cul de Sac for us to Auction off this year. He did and then to help out that little bit more. Bill has signed some Complete Calvin and Hobbes softcovers for us.

We will be auctioning off one of the TCDS books and one of the Complete Calvin and Hobbes off at Heroescon. This is one of the rarest cartooning signatures EVER!!!!!!!

But there is more!!! Now for the art!

Ron Ferdinad sent us this Dennis the Menace!

Terri Liberson sent us an original Pajama Diaries original!

http://pajamadiaries.com/

An original Lio Sketch by Mark Tatulli

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

A Mutts original sketch by Patrick McDonnell

http://muttscomics.com/default.aspx

A Zits sketch by Jim Borgman!!!

http://zitscomics.com/

This is just a sample...

We have a sketch from Lincoln Peirce of Big Nate fame!

A Sketch from Dan Piraro!

A sketch from Brian Bassett of Red and Rover fame!

A sketch from Bill Holbrock of Kevin and Kell fame!

Young Childrens book legend Mo Willems gave us a Pigeon sketch!

John Hambrock gave us a cool the brilliant mind of edison lee sketch!

Plus we have all of the amazing art up for grabs at the Drink and Draw!!!

More to come!

yeah and you can donate using this link below!

http://www2.michaeljfox.org/site/TR/TeamFox/TeamFox?team_id=3700&pg=team&fr_id=1300

A big thanks to everyone at Heroescon helping us out!
Chris

Bill Watterson signing a few books for TCDS

Hi everyone, Chris Sparks here with some cool news!
Bill Watterson will be signing 5 Team Cul de Sac books and 5 Complete Calvin and Hobbes softcovers for Team Cul de Sac to sell to help raise money for the Michael J Fox Foundation. 
One of each will be sold/auctioned at Heroescon this year.
More news with details soon.

Thank you to Bill Watterson in helping us out!

T/Y to Shelton Drum,Seth Peagler,Heather Mobley Peagler,Rico Renzi and everybody at http://www.heroesonline.com/ for their support.

We will also have a copy of each book at Baltimore Comic-Con to sell. 
Thank you Mark Nathan and Bradford Tree for all of their support at the Baltimorecon.

Team Cul de Sac nominated for an Eisner award!!!!!!!!!!

Hi its Chris again!
Wow! What an Honor to be nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book:
Team Cul De Sac: Cartoonists Draw the Line at Parkinson’s, edited by Chris Sparks (Andrews McMeel)! 

Congrats to all of the contributors from Team Cul de Sac and a big shout out to Richard Thompson. We love ya! http://www.comic-con.org/awards/will-eisner-comic-industry-award-nominees-2013

Between all of the Fundraising(donations,art auction of the book art, books, drink and draw at Heroescon,signed books by Richard Thompson and Bill Watterson, T-shirts, prints, matching donations etc...
We have raised over $110,000

I want to say more but I am speechless! Besides Stay tuned for more ways to give and maybe get a cool piece of art. 

If you contributing artist or a professonal cartoonist, please consider voting for us for the Eisner Award and Harvey Nominations.

Here is what Richard Thompson had to say about all of this!

http://richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/2013/04/eisner-awards.html

photo:
Jennifer Elliott(my wife) Michael J Fox and Chris

Awards time of the year. Go VOTE for TCDS

Just a reminder to all of the contributors, professionals and fans. I have sent TCDS off to the Eisner awards for nomination consideration. We should know about if we were nominated in about a month. Also, if you are a contributor or a professional who loved our book vote for us to be nominated for the Harvey awards. Information on that follows:

Remember folks, if you contributed to Team cul de sac then please nominated your book for the Harvey awards. Please vote for us! If we get nominated then lets get the word out to vote for us in the finals! I have no shame do I?
I just Nominated Team Cul de Sac for:

Best Anthology: Team Cul de Sac/Andrews McMeel

Special Award for Humor in Comics Chris Sparks/Team Cul de Sac

Special Award for Excellence In Presentation:Team Cul de Sac/Andrews McMeel
and 

Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation :Team Cul de Sac/Andrews McMeel
(for Michael Cavnas Story on Richard Thompson)

http://www.harveyawards.org/2013-nomination-ballot/?utm_source=Pro2+2013+Harvey+Nom+Ballot&utm_campaign=Harvey+2013+Nom+Pro&utm_medium=email

TCDS discussed in year-end podcast

2012 Year-End Roundtable with Joe McCulloch, Bill Kartalopoulos and Tom Spurgeon.

By Robin McConnell

Inkstuds February 12, 2013

http://www.inkstuds.org/2012-year-end-roundtable-with-joe-mcculloch-bill-kartalopoulos-and-tom-spurgeon/

http://www.inkstuds.org/wp-content/podcast/130211_2012_Year-End_Roundtable.mp3

The discussion begins about Team Cul de Sac begins at 1 hour 31 minutes, and Spurgeon picks one illustration by Chris Schweizer to focus on. He also focuses on the possibility of self-promotion (ie being in a book with Richard Thompson), but when we were putting it together, it was more of a jam (albeit one-sided).

TCDS contributor Dave McDonald profiled

Cartoonist helps kids learn history by creating comics [Dave McDonald].
 By Rob Novit
Aiken Standard February 17, 2013
http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20130216/AIK0101/130219630/1031/cartoonist-helps-kids-learn-history-by-creating-comics

Reflecting on 2012

Chris Sparks here,with only hours left in 2012, I wanted to send a note thanking  the contributors, auction winners, book buyers, donors, cheerleaders,all of the fine folks at the Michael J Fox Foundation, anyone I forgot to mention and of course Richard Thompson.

From that moment, the wheels were turning and with Richards blessing Team Cul de Sac started in 2010 with a donation to Team Fox for $50.00 from me to start Team Cul de Sac.

In 2011, we sold prints signed by Richard, TCDS t-shirts and had a drink and draw evening at Heroescon . We raised over four thousand dollars.

This year we had many ways to raise money for Michael J Fox Foundation. We had a wonderful auction, the book was released, a drink and draw and Heroescon, donations from Sparking Design who donated money from book sales from our website, the TCDS fanzine, we even had a few signed copies by Richard, Bill and Nick. Also a bunch of folks donated money to Team Cul de Sac.

My favorite moments for Team Cul de Sac in 2012:

Opening the advance copies of the book in May!  This was a very satisfying moment seeing everything coming together.

Meeting or receiving emails from friends, family members and folks with Parkinson’s. Their love and friendship made this journey so meaningful.

Sneak peak of the book to the contributors and other cartoonists and the NCS awards in Las Vegas.

I signed the first copy of Team Cul de Sac to Michael J Fox and I attended the MJFF Gala in NYC. A special thank you goes to Katy Robbins Reitz for all of her hard work at Team Fox.

Engineering a Bill Watterson and Richard Thompson gathering. Without a doubt, two of the greatest cartoonists to spill ink on paper. Fun times for all.

I had my first book signing with Richard and having over ten other TCDS contributors at One More Page in Arlington VA.

Watching the end of the auction unfold and amazed by the money we made!

Having Jennifer my wife, Emily my daughter and my business partner Jamie, at the book signing at Politics and Prose in Washington DC.

Being a guest at Heroescon (plus drink and draw for Team Cul de Sac) and being a guest at Baltimorecon and the Harvey Awards. FUN times and great support from so many people!

Meeting contributors throughout the year and knowing we will have made over $100.000 with the matching funds this year.  

Thank you to everyone who made this year a success and raising awareness for Parkinson’s research. Big thanks to Craig,Katy,Mike(s),Nick Bill and Richard. 

Much love and admiration,

Chris

Stay tuned to our blog and facebook page for news on upcoming news!

Dec 2: JK Snyder III at Capicons convention

Baltimore artist John K Snyder III is appearing at Capicons on December 2.

• 2148 Gallows Road
• Dunn Loring, Virginia 22027

http://capicons.com


John did a lovely page in the Team Cul de Sac book, so you should buy a copy and have him sign it. He's appearing on behalf of Hero Initiative charity.

TCDS made the Comics Reporter Shopping Guide

Thank you to Tom For picking our TCDS book in his shopping guide for the holidays!http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/the_comics_reporters_black_friday_holiday_shopping_guide_2012actualpublish/

Also, don't forget to order from Chris at http://sparkingdesign.com/order-team-cul-de-sac-book/