This week’s comic explosion over who was guest drawing Pearls Before Swine and then the confirmation that it was none other than Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson wasn’t a fly-by-night collaboration. The two cartoonists, Bill and Pearls creator Stephan Pastis hatched this idea with a philanthropic intent of auctioning off the three strips through Team Cul de Sac. The proceeds would go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease research. The three original strips will be on display during HeroesCon June 20th-22.
Team Cul de Sac founder Chris Sparks met with Bill earlier this week and was present to watch Bill see his cartooning in the paper for the first time since he retired in 1995.
Bill sent me an email a few months ago telling me he had a TCDS secret, and then a few weeks ago he told me the news about the new strips. He?d wanted to wait until we were visiting Richard to see my head explode in person over the news but knew I needed my head to prepare for the auction. I had the great privilege of having breakfast with Bill on June 4th and handing him the morning paper. I watched him read his first newspaper work in 19 years. I don?t think he?d mind me saying he was grinning from ear to ear. I know I was. And I am sure that was better than seeing my head explode.
Below are the three strips that will be auctioned off:
What a fabulous thing to do for Parkinson’s! I hope they sell for at least $25,000 each. With original C & H strips bringing in over 100 K it seems possible.
I thought the painting of Petey auctioned as part of the last team Cul de Sac initiative should have fetched a much higher price than it did.
They should be able to generate a fair sum for these; the story has been everywhere. Our local paper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, did a front page story in today’s paper. Pastis lives in Santa Rosa, the only place in the world (as far as I know) where the airport is named after a cartoonist. Guess which one.
Brian Fies?
Paige Braddock?
Dale Messick?