Sparky
Awards 2001!
The
winners for 2001 are:
Gary
Larson, creator
of the Far Side comic panel
Lou Grant,
editorial cartoonist
Bill Melendez,
Peanuts animator
John Severin,
war and western comic book artist
The
museum will also grant two special Sparky Awards for special
service to the cartoon art community. The winners
of those awards are:
Will Eisner,
The Spirt creator and graphic novelist
Phil Frank,
Farley comic strip creator
The
recipients will receive their awards at a special
gala event
on Saturday, April 6, 2002. For information or tickets,
please call 415-227-8666 Ext.300.
The
museum will display examples of each winner's artwork,
Sparky Award Winners 2001 exhibit,
from February 16 - April 14,2002.
SPARKY
AWARD: COMIC STRIP OR PANEL
Gary Larson
Mr. Larson sold his first cartoons to the magazine Pacific
Search in 1976. By 1979, the Seattle Times was
publishing his weekly panel, Nature’s Way. Hoping
to expand, he traveled to San Francisco to try to sell the
panel to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle
wisely decided to take it, although they wanted it to be
a daily, not a weekly, cartoon and they wanted to rename
it The Far Side.
Mr.
Larson returned from his successful trip to find a letter
from the Seattle Times telling him that they were
dropping Nature’s Way. The Far Side went
on to become a nationally syndicated panel, appearing in
over 1,900 daily and Sunday newspapers. In 1995, Mr. Larson
decided to retire from the hectic world of daily cartooning.
In
1991 and 1994, Mr. Larson received the Reuben Award for
Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists
Society. The Far Side was also awarded the Max &
Moritz Prize for Best International Comic Strip/Panel by
the International Comic Salon. A favorite with scientists
everywhere, Mr. Larson has both a louse and a butterfly
named after him.
SPARKY
AWARD: EDITORIAL CARTOONS
Lou Grant
After working as a cartoonist in the army during World WarII,
Mr. Grant assisted Jimmy Hatlo with inking the syndicated
strip They’ll Do It Every Time and later drew
sports cartoons for the Milwaukee Sentinel.
From
1954 to 1986, Mr. Grant served as editorial cartoonist for
the Oakland Tribune. His cartoons were syndicated
by the Los Angeles Times and were often printed in
Time, Newsweek, and newspapers all over the
country. His beautifully rendered and insightful political
commentary made him a Bay Area favorite and won him many
awards including the National Headliners Award for Outstanding
Editorial Cartoonist in the United States.
Early
in his career, Mr. Grant worked as a writer for the radio
comedy Duffy’s Tavern. Years later, one of his
colleagues used his name for the gruff but loveable character
played by Ed Asner on the Mary Tyler Moore television
show. Mr. Grant died on September 7, 2001 at the age of
81.
SPARKY
AWARD: ANIMATION
Bill Melendez
Mr. Melendez began his career in animation at the Disney
studio in 1938. He worked as an animator on such classics
as Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, and
Dumbo. After leaving Disney, he animated Bugs
Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig for Leon
Schlesinger Cartoons, which later became Warner Brothers
Cartoons. Next, Mr. Melendez worked for the UPA studio on
its groundbreaking and highly stylized shorts including
Madeline and Gerald McBoing-Boing.
After
a 10-year stint directing industrial films and award-winning
television commercials, Mr. Melendez founded his own production
company, Bill Melendez Productions, in 1964. That same year,
he produced his first television special—A Charlie
Brown Christmas. The show was an instant critical and
popular success, winning both an Emmy Award and the prestigious
George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Children/Young
People’s program.
Mr.
Melendez went on to produce more than 75 Charlie Brown specials
and four feature-length movies as well as animating specials
featuring Jim Davis’ Garfield, Babar the
Elephant, and Cathy Guisewite’s Cathy. The
eight Emmys and numerous other awards he has received attest
to the significant contribution Melendez has made to the
field of animation.
SPARKY
AWARD: COMIC BOOK
John Severin
Comic book artist John Severin has been drawing professionally
since 1932, when he illustrated cartoons for a publication
called The Hobo News. In 1953, Mr. Severin started
working for EC Comics, producing beautifully rendered westerns
and war stories. He eventually became chief artist and editor
on the classic comic Two-Fisted Tales.
Following
EC’s demise, he worked for Stan Lee’s Atlas Comics,
a publishing house that eventually became Marvel Comics.
While at Marvel, Mr. Severin drew a wide variety of titles
including Sgt. Fury, Semper Fi’, and
The Incredible Hulk.
Mr.
Severin also produced remarkable humorous artwork. He was
one of four EC artists selected to illustrate Harvey Kurtzman’s
Mad magazine when it debuted. His realistic style
meshed well with Kurtzman’s irreverent scripts and
led to decades of additional humor work, primarily for Mad’s
chief competitor Cracked Magazine.
EXTRAORDINARY
SERVICE AWARD
Will Eisner
Mr. Eisner has been an innovator in the world of comics
for over 60 years. He began his comics career in the 1930s
and is best known for his popular creation, The Spirit,
which appeared in a 16-page newspaper supplement. While
still producing The Spirit, Mr. Eisner founded the
American Visuals Corporation, a commercial art company dedicated
to creating comics, cartoons, and illustrations for educational
and commercial purposes.
In
an attempt to further explore the medium of comics, Mr.
Eisner pioneered the graphic novel format beginning with
A Contract with God in 1978. His most recent graphic
novel, The Name of the Game, was published in January
of this year. Eisner also taught cartooning at the School
of Visual Arts in New York and is the author of two definitive
works examining the creative process, Comics and Sequential
Art and Graphic Storytelling.
The
Cartoon Art Museum chose Mr. Eisner to receive a special
Sparky Award for his extraordinary service to the comics
community and to the museum. Mr. Eisner serves as a member
of the museum’s Professional Advisory Board and recently
donated original artwork for the cover of the museum’s
anthology comic book Spark Generators.
EXTRAORDINARY
SERVICE AWARD
Phil Frank
Mr. Frank created the nationally syndicated comic strip
Travels with Farley from 1975 to 1985. In 1986, he decided
to draw the strip specifically for a local audience. Working
exclusively for the San Francisco Chronicle made
it possible for him to focus on Bay Area issues and to respond
quickly to current events, which the four to six week lead-time
of a syndicated strip does not allow. The result was Farley,
which has been a Bay Area favorite for more than a decade.
Farley
chronicles the peccadilloes of life in the Bay Area through
the eyes of the intrepid reporter Farley, his "pet"
Bruce, and characters such as His Willieness, Baba, the
Spiritual Advisor.
This
special Sparky Award to Phil Frank recognizes his extraordinary
service to the museum. Mr. Frank has been a loyal friend,
always willing to help with exclusive artwork, donations
and loans of art, special events, publicizing the museum.
We are grateful for supporters like Phil who make it possible
for the museum to fulfill its mission to serve the community.
Cartoon
Art Museum