Comic-Con has announced that the 2020 recipients of the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award are Hero Initiative, Creators4Comics, and Comic Book United Fund.

The official presentation will be at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Ceremony during Comic-Con@Home on Friday, July 24, 2020, at 7 PT. Bob Clampett’s daughter, Ruth Clampett, will do the presentation.

The recipients are chosen by the Comic-Con committee, who selects a recipient for ongoing humanitarian efforts and additional recipients for work they have done over the previous year.

Hero Initiative, which has been helping comic creators in financial need for over 20 years, is the recipient for ongoing charity efforts. Two organizations were chosen for recent fundraising efforts to help comic shops, both under the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc). Creators4Comics helped comic shops affected by the COVID shutdown by raising money in original art auctions and Comic Book United Fund provided economic relief for comic book retailers.

“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,” Jim McLauchlin said on behalf of the Hero Initiative. “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.”

“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,” Creators4Comics co-founders Gwenda Bond, Kami Garcia, and Sam Humphries said jointly. “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.”

“We are humbled and honored to accept the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award on behalf of Comic Book 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,” David Steward II, Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group Chairman said. “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 Comic Book United Fund partners, for this inspiring award.”

“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,” Pam French, Executive Director, Binc Foundation said. “Receiving this award on behalf of you, our donors, volunteers, and all those who have ever advocated for Binc and the Comic Book 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.”

The Humanitarian Award is presented in animator Bob Clampett’s name. Clampett was the creator of the TV series Beany and Cecil, designer of characters like Porky Pig and Tweety Bird, and director of 84 Warner Bros. cartoons. He was a regular guest at Comic-Con in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, then after his death in ’84, the humanitarian award was created to honor those people in comics and the popular arts who have worked to help others.