Are there [good/optimal] parallel comparison sorts?
(answering my own question)

1. $\:$ Yes

2. $\:$ No

Reference:

Tight Comparison Bounds On The Complexity Of Parallel Sorting

by Yossi Azar , Uzi Vishkin (1987)

publisher: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

retrieved from http://archive.org/details/tightcomparisonb00azar (June 17, 2012)