Tuesday, April 16, 2013

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


Friday, March 22, 2013

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

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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).

Monday, February 18, 2013

Monday, December 31, 2012

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!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Dec 2: JK Snyder III at Capicons convention

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

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Keeping up with Cyborg Richard Thompson's treatment part 5

First message from Richard Thompson post-brain surgery!:

"Hey guys, you gotta ret this. It's delightful."

Okay, the latest is that RT is resting comfortably, more alert than you think - more for you tomorrow.

Thank you so much for the warm thoughts and kind words...he will see and hear all of it, I promise.

New Update: Richard Thompson was moved to his room, finally and had an otherwise uneventful night and a good breakfast this morning. Strength in the extremities is good, he's alert, his voice is still very soft and he can only speak in rhymes. The last part I made up.

If all continues to evolve smoothly, he will be, remarkably, released later today.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Keeping up with Cyborg Richard Thompson's treatment part 4

Nick Galifianakis wrote at about 5 pm:

Richard is doing well enough to be released from the recovery room but there isn't a room available for him yet in the neuro ICU.

His vitals are all good (although he keeps setting off the low-heart-rate alarm because he has the resting heartrate of a hibernating whale). He's hungry but they haven't signed off on him having solids yet. Ginger ale is the only treat.

He currently looks like a Buddhist monk.

Meanwhile, Amy Thompson says:

Richard is awake and looks a little bit like a very skinny Dalai Lama. One of the first things he told me (other than it was the weirdest thing he'd ever been through) was that the neurosurgeon told him he had a very active thalamus. We think that's a good thing.