Richmond Illustration Inc.

San Diego Con Auction for Worthy Cause

July 20th, 2007 | Posted in News

As previously stated I am afraid I cannot make the San Diego Comic Con again this year. I’m a little depressed about that if for no other reason that it’s a blast to hang out with a bunch of talented cartoonists at the National Cartoonist Society‘s booth.

Speaking of which, this year the charity part of the NCS, The NCS Foundation, will be holding a silent auction to raise funds for it’s various activities. The Foundation is a fairly new part of the NCS, and is actually it’s own 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (for legal reasons). It administers the formerly privately handled Milt Gross Fund, which helps cartoonists who are experiencing financial hardships, as well as providing scholarships for those studying cartooning in college and donating money to other worthy causes like the Ohio State Cartoon Research Library, etc. Like all good non-profits fundraising is always a concern. This year at the San Diego Comic Con the Foundation will hold a silent auction with lots of original art from NCS members up for grabs.

This is very different from the usual menagerie of comic art being peddled at the con, which tends to fall into two categories: 1. comic book pages featuring scantily clad women with impossibly big breasts and 2. Self published sketchbooks featuring scantily clad women with impossibly big breasts. Some of the artwork in this auction is from some pretty big names in the cartooning industry (and at least one hack from MAD). Here is some specifics from fundraising committee chairman (and terrific cartoonist himself) Chad Frye:

The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) will be hosting an original art silent auction at it’s booth at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International July 25-29. All the money raised will go to the NCS Foundation, the non-profit charitable arm of the NCS that helps support cartooning by way of funding things such as museums, special cartooning seminars, art student scholarships, and even helping fellow cartoonists in need through the Milt Gross Fund (a fund that is part of the NCS Foundation).

Many NCS members have donated art to this cause, members such as Jack Davis, Ray Billingsley, Bill Morrison, Dan Spiegle, Tom Richmond, Stephen Silver, Chad Frye, Garry Trudeau, Rick Kirkman, Jeff & Bil Keane, C.F. Payne, Eric Goldberg, Joe Kubert, T. Lewis, Terry Moore, Dan Piraro, Patrick McDonnell, and Mort Walker.

Drop by the NCS booth and place your bids! Items will be ending at various times throughout the duration of the Con!

You heard the man! Drop by the NCS booth, located somewhere in the ten square miles of the convention center (look it up in the directory!) and go place a bid on some nice cartoon art. Just to give you and idea of what to look forward to, here are some of the pieces in the auction (used with the artists permission). Click each for a closer look:

Ray Billingsley