Peggy Burns said it first and best:

"Talk about a rare opportunity! It seems that Mr. Ware has graciously donated a piece of original artwork from the acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, to benefit the Intercultural Montessori Language School in Oak Park, Illinois. And not only that, Chris will sign and personalize it to the lucky winning bidder. The ebay auction is going on for nine days and right now it is already at $809."

Up to $1,525 now!

Zak Sally's Kickstarter project for his self-published, self-printed edition of Sammy the Mouse Vol. 1, collecting the first 3 Ignatz Series issues, has met its funding goal with plenty of time to spare! You still have 16 days to put in your pledge, and you'll be guaranteed a copy of the book and some great pledge incentives at various funding levels. Happy news!

This Stan Sakai Usagi Yojimbo/Wolverine mashup sketch cover is on auction to benefit the Inkwell Awards, and — how perfect is this — the Japanese American National Museum is having an exhibit and benefit sale of customized Labbit toys this summer for the Year of the Rabbit and Stan (recently honored by the museum) has contributed the adorable customized Usagi Labbit below.

You have hopefully read the first 3 issues of Zak Sally's astounding Ignatz Series comic Sammy the Mouse. Or maybe you've been "trade-waiting." Either way, you'll want to get in on the Kickstarter campaign for Zak's self-published, self-printed collection of those 3 issues. Yeah, we'd also like it if you buy the 3 issues from us. But this is the beauty of creators' rights and the DIY spirit! And you know that since the collection is coming straight from Zak it's going to be a beautiful product made with love. A twelve buck pledge gets you the book — jeez that's reasonable! — and there's spiffy pledge bonuses at the higher levels. The video above brings a god damn tear to my eye.

Hey, why don't you ask Zak all about it at TCAF?

This 42" x 36" Jim Woodring drawing, created with his giant pen at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, is being auctioned (along with other artworks) to benefit SKYDIVE, a local artist run center. (Via Marc Bell.)

Paul Hornschemeier hasn't even started his Life with Mr. Dangerous book tour and already he's hit a significant bump in the road, losing some key support at his other publisher. So now he's doing it DIY-style, raising funds via a sale in his online shop and just plain begging. He explains it all here. One of his tour stops is at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on June 18, so we definitely appreciate anything you can do!

Some great news: Dash Shaw and his producing and creative partners for their in-development animated feature film The Ruined Cast have hit the fundraising goal they set for themselves on Kickstarter with several days remaining before the deadline! There's still time to contribute: "Exceeding our goal will allow us to go even deeper into the dark pre-production and production phases — create even more backgrounds, maybe even cast and record all of the dialogue for the film. We will put any funds raised to good and thrifty use." Plus you'll get in on the pledge incentives, which include postcards, prints, or being drawn into the movie.

Tim Hensley and Richard Sala are among the artists donating artwork to "Kenji's Light of Hope," an online art sale beginning today with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the Igari Music Therapy Research Center, supporting their mission to provide music therapy to individuals with developmental disabilities and the elderly in the quake-stricken area of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The sale "is dedicated to Kenji, a young man with Down syndrome, who is a keen percussionist at Igari MTRC. Kenji's home was badly flooded during the tsunami, and he was rescued with his family after 3 days. Let's ensure that he's able to play the sound block again on all the samba and Latin tunes that he loves!" Tim has donated original Wally Gropius artwork, and Richard has donated the print "Midnight" pictured above. Two great artists, one wonderful cause!

You can help Dash Shaw make his animated feature film The Ruined Cast and receive some great pledge gifts (including having your likeness drawn as an "extra" and having a private movie screening with co-producer/filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell if you're a richie-pants) by contributing funds via Kickstarter. Why does Dash need to raise money this way? So he can raise more money. He explains:

"We’re raising the resources to get the project in its best shape to present to production financiers. We’re making a movie that's difficult to compare to another, so the burden of proof is on us to illustrate it first. This takes funding for materials, production space and labor. We’ll be able to acquire the equipment and supplies to start creating elements of the film. As the teaser suggests, the movie will be painstakingly animated by hand — it requires paints for backgrounds, lots and lots of paper, lots of pens, scanners, and cameras to capture 'live' paintings. Your contributions will allow us to lay the groundwork to bring this to life."

Co-producer Howard Gertler says "Whether or not you can contribute, Dash, John, [co-producer] Biljana [Labovic] and I would love for you just to get to know the project better — it's only the beginning of the journey for a visionary film that's been a joy and honor to be working on." The video teaser and much more information can be seen on the Kickstarter page.

If you have the means please consider making a purchase or donation to Hans Rickheit as he searches for a new job after his place of employment shut down. He has plenty of stunning original pages for sale or you can buy a book or even just slide him a few bucks for his acclaimed free webcomic Ectopiary. See all your options listed and linked here. Yep, we're all getting rich off of comics, boy howdy.