Joss Whedon

UPDATE: SAM LOEB SCHOLARSHIP FUND HITS $72,000

Jeph Loeb issues a personal letter thanking all those involved for making the Sam Loeb Scholarship Fund an incredible success Posted August 7, 2006 4:45 PM

Over the weekend, the comic community rallied around writer Jeph Loeb as an art auction was held at Wizard World Chicago to benefit a scholarship fund in honor of his son Sam, who passed away after a long battle with cancer. All of the pieces of artwork from Superman/Batman #26, a page each done by a different artist and a two-page splash panel by Jim Lee, were auctioned off at the show with all of the benefits going to the Sam Loeb Scholarship Fund.

The attendance and donations exceeded Loeb’s wildest dreams, topping $72,000 as of Monday. As a result, we turn this space over to Jeph so he can directly address all of the fans and members of the comic community that made this such a successful event:

Everyone: As many of you know, some of you remember, and otherwise, welcome

This past weekend in Chicago at the Wizard World Convention we auctioned off all of the artwork from Superman/Batman #26 with 100 percent of it going to the Sam Loeb College Scholarship Fund.

My co-host Erica Durance (“Smallville’s” Lois Lane) came to the event on her own dime and donated her substantial appearance fee. Needless to say, she was amazing. Fun. Clever. Upbeat. And more than a tablespoon of sexy. She was great!

And the results?

The night before I had told folks I expected to raise about $25,000.00. If you tickled me and made me give you my out-of-my-mind number, I would have said $40,000.00.

WHEN THE DUST SETTLED...The final tally was $72,050.00!!!

That’s seven scholarships!

Amazing.

None of this would have been possible without:

• The Good People at Wizard Magazine-in particular Fred Pierce and Brian Cunningham

• Our friends at DC Comics-especially Paul Levitz, Terri Cunningham, Jack Mahan, Dan DiDio and Eddie Berganza

• Everyone at “Smallville” -with a special nod to Al Gough

• Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg, my partners at The Empath Magic Treehouse

• Everyone at “Lost”-Damon, you rock.

• Everyone at “Heroes” -You are my heroes. Tim K -your cape is ready.

• The Good People at ACTOR-Jim McLauchlin who showed us the way

• Jim McCann at Marvel Comics who put together the entire auction presentation and held my hand through the insanity

• Dave Mandell who actually ran the entire operation and I was paralyzed without his help

• Erica-We love you!

• Everyone who attended and was amazingly generous with their bids

• And most of all to The 26-the artists, writers, letterers, designers, printers, colorists, editors-all of whom came to far more than 26 in number-that made Superman/Batman #26 possible.

THANK YOU ALL.

For those of you who are still interested in making a donation, you can still check out

www.samloeb4.org

which will show you the beautiful artwork that was sold and give you more info on making a donation.

This was a very long road-and far from over-but it’s nice writing to you all with some very, very good news.

Be well, hug your kids, and at sometime today smile!

We found, as Sam would say, "The Funny."

Jeph, Christine & Audrey Loeb