2020 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award Recipients Announced

Comic-Con International is proud to announce that the 2020 recipients for the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award are Hero Initiative, creators4comics, and Comicbook United Fund. The official presentation will be part of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Ceremony, which will go live at Comic-Con@Home on Friday, July 24 at 7:00 PM PDT. Bob Clampett’s daughter, Ruth Clampett, will being doing the presentation.

Each year’s recipients are chosen by the Comic-Con committee. The committee selects one recipient for its ongoing humanitarian efforts and additional recipients for work they have done over the previous year.

The 2020 recipient for its ongoing charity efforts is the Hero Initiative, which has been helping comics creators in financial need for over 20 years. Two organizations were chosen for their recent fundraising activities to help out comic book stores. Both are under the auspices of Binc (Book Industry Charitable Foundation): Creators4Comics, helping comics shops affected by the COVID shutdown by raising money through auctions of original art; and Comicbook United Fund, providing economic relief for comicbook retailers.

Here are the responses of these three organizations and Binc on learning that they were chosen for the award:

Hero Initiative

“Hero Initiative is honored to receive the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award for 2020. Now more than ever, organizations such as Hero Initiative, which helps comic book creators in medical and financial need, are desperately needed. We continue to focus on this mission, and continually build for the future. Hero Initiative would not exist without the widespread support and assistance of creators, fans, and publishers all over the world. We share this award with them. We are grateful, humbled, and very appreciative of the recognition.”

Jim McLauchlin, on behalf of the Hero Initiative

Creators4Comics

“Creators4Comics would like to thank the Comic-Con committee and the Clampett family for this very special honor. We are forever grateful to Marieke Nijkamp, Constance Eza, Brian Michael Bendis, and Phil Jimenez for their invaluable behind-the-scenes assistance. Our partners at Binc were with us at every step, and worked to get funding out the door to comics shops as quickly as possible. Finally, thank you to our incredible community. Thousands of creators and fans around the world came together to save our stores in their hour of need. We will forever be astonished and grateful for their generosity and hope.”

Creators4Comics co-founders Gwenda Bond, Kami Garcia, and Sam Humphries

Comicbook United Fund

“We are humbled and honored to accept the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award on behalf of Comicbook United Fund, which was created in partnership with our friends at Binc and DC. Supporting comic shops and their employees in need during these fraught times has been as important a mission as any creative endeavor, and we will do everything we can to see these retailers not just survive, but thrive beyond this pandemic. The supportive actions from others donating to the fund took my breath away and magnificently reinforces the breadth of love for the comic industry and community at large. As I continue to say, the comic industry is as vibrant, strong-willed and resilient as any, and will indeed gain strength and flourish. The comic shops across the country and their devoted teams will continue to be the bedrock of the comic universe. On behalf of the entire Oni-Lion Forge Publishing team, a heartfelt thank you to an equally resilient, and very much missed Comic-Con, and to our Comicbook United Fund partners, for this inspiring award.”

David Steward II, Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group Chairman

Binc

“The Binc Foundation is honored to accept Comic-Con’s Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. On behalf of each of the comic retailers your support allowed us to help, we thank this comic community for valuing the care of one another in times of crisis. We are grateful to Oni-Lion Forge, Polarity, DC, and the Creators4Comics team, for their leadership and quick action at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when direct market retailers needed them most. Receiving this award on behalf of you, our donors, volunteers, and all those who have ever advocated for Binc and the Comicbook United Fund is a point of pride for us. The comic community's embracement of the Binc Foundation has changed lives. With your continued support, we will be a place retailers can call for help for years to come. We are proud to share this recognition with all those who make this work possible.”

Pam French, Executive Director, Binc Foundation