Cartoonists in Minnesota

Last weekend the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society had our annual fall meeting here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Here’s a VERY brief rundown of the events:

Friday 10/14: In conjunction with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, we brought Stephan Pastis, the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pearls Before Swine, to the Twin Cities to do a lecture and hang out with us. I know Stephan fairly well… riding together in a Blackhawk above the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan will do that for you, so it was great fun to have him with us. His evening lecture was standing-room only. We followed with a panel discussion on the future of cartooning featuring Stephan, me, , chapter treasurer and editorial cartoonist/freelance illustrator Paul Fell, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee creator John Hambrock, freelance illustrator James Hunganski and Ballard Street creator Jerry Van Amerongen.

It’s a packed house for Stephan’s talk

Stephan had them rolling in the aisles…

Saturday 10/15: After our boring business meeting, NCC members manned a booth at the Minnesota FallCon Comic Book Show including the above listed panelists as well as chapter chairman and “Martians” cartoonist Mike Edhlom, freelance illustrator and designer Cedric Hohnstadt, and cartoonist Phil Juliano. We sold books and signed stuff. That night we had a chapter dinner at O’Gara’s in St. Paul, part of which was formerly the barber shop of Charles Schulz‘s father. Earlier we took a little tour of St. Paul and saw a few other Sparky sights, including his childhood home on Macalester St.

At FallCon, from foreground: Stephan, Paul, Me, John and Cedric

John Hambrock signs for a fan

James Hungaski does some caricatures

From Left: John, Stephan, cartoonist Joe Engesser, me, Mike and Jerry

Paul Fell was awarded the NCS Tim Rosenthal award for outstanding service to a local chapter. Well deserved. Congratulations Paul.

A great time as always.