This morning I got a phone call from my friend, NYC illustrator Ed Steckley, who informed me my website was acting strangely. It was insisting on installing a program that his anti-virus software was jumping up and down and yelping about being a very naughty program. I couldn’t even open the website at all on my Mac.

A few e-mails to my excellent webhosts, A2Zhost.net, and it was discovered that someone hacked my blog this morning and inserted some Javascript code to require a browser to download some kind of virus, adware or spyware something or another. The folks at A2Z fixed it all up and we are once again online.

If you visited my website from about 8 am this morning until about 12:30 pm, and you clicked on any dialogue balloons asking for installing a program of some kind, please run an antivirus software scan on your computer right away. I don’t know how malicious that code was, but it isn’t something you want to have on your computer even if it is just a prank.

Apparently the hacker got access via one of my FTP accounts, which I have since deleted and probably will not use again. There are a lot of free or low cost large file transfer services that work very well from any computer that seem to be a safer solution than allowing anyone access to the files of you website. Better safe than sorry.

I apologize to anyone who is inconvenienced or ends up wasting any time as a result of this foolishness.

I forgot to mention one other good thing to come out of the Reuben weekend was that the NCS addressed the Orphan Works legislation at their annual business meeting on Saturday morning. Stu Rees, the NCS’s official unofficial lawyer to the membership, educated those at the meeting about the bill and what it could mean to them. It’s a larger problem for some of the long time cartoonists who have done tens of thousands of gag cartoons or illustrations over the years who could easily find their work being used without their consent or without the chance to negotiate a fair rate for it, as I’ve discussed here a lot.

Incidentally, congratulations to Stu for winning the NCS “Silver T-Square” award for his years of service to the profession of cartooning.

One revelation that Stu sprung on us was that is has appearently been revealed that Google is one of the primary forces behind the bill, and they are hiding behind the legitimate fronts of museums, archivists and independent filmmakers who actually have legitimate reasons for wanting to see a solution to real orphaned works and thier deterioration. Google, of course, only wants to make more money. One of the features of the latest Orphan Works bill is a study and the eventual establishment of “private databases” available to register work on and to search for work within to see if the copyright holder can be found. I wonder what internet search company would be first in line to establish just a database, and charge for including your work on it?

In other Orphan Works news, last week Lawrence Lessig, a major proponent of copyright law reduction that you would think would be very much in favor of something like the Orphan Works Act, published this article in the New York Times admonishing the bill and saying it should be dismissed. Lessig, a Standford professor of law and a person who would like to see copyrights basically abolished and everything become public domain after a very short time, calls the law “an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.” That one threw some people for a loop. Lessig is one person you’d think would be in favor of this type of legislation.

As archaic as a letter writing campaign seems, it is having some effect. Here is a response I recieved from one of my senators, Norm Coleman, from a letter I wrote to his office voicing my concerns:

Dear Mr. Richmond:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding S. 2913, which is commonly referred to as “orphan works legislation.” I share your concerns about the impact this law could have on the rights of an artist to his or her work and I appreciate hearing from you on this topic. Please know that I will closely monitor this issue.

As you may know, S. 2913 was introduced on April 24, 2008 by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-OH) and aims to provide a limitation on judicial remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works.

An orphan work is a copyrighted work of art where it is difficult or impossible to contact the holder of the copyright. On January 31st, 2006 the United States Copyright Office submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This report concluded that the treatment of orphan works under current copyright law results in problematic obstacles to successful identification and location of a copyright owner.

Under current law, a copyright is created automatically when the creative expression is fixed in tangible form. I understand you are concerned that a move away from this precedent could make it difficult for artists to obtain and maintain the rights to their own work. Please know that I will not support legislative efforts that weaken an artist’s ability to obtain and retain the rights to their work. Per your request, please know I will keep your views in mind should legislation in relation to orphan works reach the Senate floor for a vote in the 110th Congress.

Once again thank you for contacting me regarding this issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you or your family.

Sincerely,
Norm Coleman
United States Senate

Once again, here is a link to use to send form letters to your senate and congressional representatives about your concerns with the misguided Orphan Works Act. I would, however, urge you only to use them if you cannot find the time to write a personal letter to your elected officials. These form letter campaigns are only about numbers, whereas a personal letter makes a much stronger impression and might actually get read by someone other than some page in a blue dress.

I’m really up against it right now, but here’s a poster illustration from last week, pencils, inks and color:

Click for a closer look

Click for a closer look

I’m currently killing myself on a MAD job due tomorrow, followed by the finals of the “Super Capers” movie job and then the web game design job. Then….. ?????

Click for a closer look

I ran across this partially completed ink drawing of “The X-Files” stars Robert Patrick and Gillian Anderson (this was when David Duchovny had left the show for his brilliant film career) from a number of years ago and thought, given the new movie coming out, it might be somewhat timely. I did the drawing just for testing out some new ink nibs and different kinds of ink when I was experimenting with different tools. You can see I used a sepia ink for some of it, which I found way too watery. In fact there are four different inks on this, and I also used several nibs and brushes as well. You can see where I duplicated outside lines and forms to test different tools and materials. It’s bluish because of the crappy RGB scan.

Another Reuben Awards in the books. This was our 10th time attending… The Lovely Anna and I have never missed one since I became a member in 1999.

Cartooning is a strange business and occupation… it’s one where you strive to communicate with the world through humor via words and images, yet most do it sitting alone at their drawing table with little or no interaction with others. It’s a solitary process and the feedback you get can be little to none.

That’s what makes the NCS such a great organization, and the Reubens such an important function to so many. It’s the one place where cartoonists can get together and interact. It’s awesome to be in the same room with some of the biggest names in cartooning, many of whom are personal heroes, and talk shop, sports, weather… you name it. I sometimes hear how new attendees feel “left out” or “low on the totem pole” at these events. I would be lying if I said there isn’t some clique mentality there… after all many of these people have been good friends for decades and it’s easy to feel left out when they are catching up with each other. However there is very little true exclusion going on. Most of the folks are friendly and it’s surprising how easy it can be to engage even the most recognizable names in polite conversation. There needs to be effort on the newcomers part… wallflowers who sit there waiting to be recognized are in for a long wait.

10 years ago The Lovely Anna and I attended out first Reubens in San Antonio. Mort Drucker was my sponsor (see this story for how that happened), but he did not attend as his mother became very ill right at that time. So we literally attended the weekend knowing no one whatsoever. Zero. Nada. I was a young(ish) freelancer with some comic book experience and a handful of small magazine and advertising clients. I was over a year away from my first MAD job. We were too shy and spent most of the weekend walking around staring at people and just trying to soak it all in. We were not wallflowers, however. It was easy to see that unless we were proactive and approached others to introduce ourselves we would leave the Reuben weekend still knowing no one. The first people we met were Jack and Dena Davis, who are so incredibly nice and genuine it’s almost hard to believe they are real. I brought some of my work along and showed it to MAD‘s book editor Charlie Kochman who showed it to Nick Meglin… who didn’t like it but Charlie encouraged me to send in more work. We also met other great people who like us were hardly of the Walker or Trudeau ilk, but just working cartoonists. Most members are just hard working cartoonists… there are only a few real superstars.

This is getting long, so suffice it to say that if you make the effort at an event like this, whether it be one of cartoonists, plumbers or brain surgeons, you will not feel left out.

This Reuben weekend was a lot of fun. Sadly I did not wear enough (okay… ANY) sunblock during our Habitat for Humanity project on Friday, and was so badly sunburned the rest of the weekend that I was somewhat limited in my activities. It was hot and humid, so walking around the French Quarter was a little painful. Getting slapped on the back and congratulated for my Reuben divisional win when in my rather tight-fitting tux on Saturday night was also not very pleasant… although I never let on to anyone I was seriously suffering under there.

Sunday there was another round of seminars from Mark Tatuli (Heart of the City and Lio) and Nancy Goldstein (Author of “Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist“)… both of which I had to miss due to an NCS Foundation meeting and more work on that MAD job. That evening we had a “second line parade” through the French Quarter followed by dinner at Broussard’s. Great fun, and it was a pleasure to get to see some old friends and great talents like Keelan and Barbie Parham, Ed and Heather Steckley, Steve and Heidi Silver and Eddie and Beth Pittman. It was also great getting to meet a lot of new people and thanks to all who introduced themselves and to whom I got a chance to talk.

I had an inserted gallery of pictures previously, but that didn’t work out so well, so here are the full pics:

Me and The Lovely Anna at dinner Thursday

Jack Davis and me at the pre-awards cocktail party

Anna and Nick Meglin

Jeff Keane at the Reuben awards ceremony

Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship winner Juana Medina

Mike Peters gets “Super” to help Daryl Cagle open a winner’s envelope

Mort Gerberg accepts his Reuben for Gag Cartoons

My good friend Steve Silver gets a Reuben for TV Animation

Nobody understands a damn thing Sergio says, but they ask him to present every year anyway…

The charming Sandra Boynton accepts the Milton Caniff lifetime achievement award

Jack Davis presents the Reuben for Advertising Illustration

Me accepting the Advertising Illustration Reuben

Al Jaffee wins the Reuben for “Cartoonist of the Year”

Nick Meglin, Sergio Aragones, Bill Gallo, Al Jaffee, Jack Davis and Sam Viviano

Me and Steve showing off the hardware

The loveliest ladies in the NCS: Anna, Heather Steckley, Barbie Parham and Heidi Silver

Legends Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee

Al and Ed Steckley

Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo. I’m Ace.

The Steckleys

The Tatuli family

I had intended a nice, involved wrap up of the Reuben weekend today with lots of pictures both from the awards dinner Saturday and the various events on Sunday, but it wasn’t until this morning that I realized I did not bring the proper data cable along to transfer pictures from The Lovely Anna‘s camera to my laptop. Since I left my own camera at the room that makes me SOL until I get back home to the studio. Look for that post tomorrow.

Here’s one more pic from my camera from Saturday’s event. Suffice it to say the Reubens were again a great time and a greatly awaited opportunity to get together with the people you admire and respect in this crazy industry and for a weekend at least feel like you are a part of it all.

The great Al Jaffee and a humble fan

There were seminars on Saturday by the irrepressible Mort Gerberg and the adorable Sandra Boynton, but I had to miss them both as I was busy inking a MAD job all afternoon. I did get to get dressed up and go to the awards ceremony that evening, though!

Al Jaffee and Mel Lazarus

First off, the winner of the Reuben for “Cartoonist of the Year”: Al Jaffee. Al is such a great guy and such an inspirational talent. Even though this award is really supposed to recognize the achievements of the past year’s work of a cartoonist, in this case it was really more of a lifetime achievement award… no argument from me there. Is that fair? I guess that is a legitimate question. The other nominee’s for the Reuben, Dave Coverly and Dan Piraro, do outstanding work and there is no doubt they will stand on that stage in the very near future and accept that award. It may not be exactly right, but the Reuben has often gone to a cartoonist who is either never won one, is retiring, is near the end of their career or is just plain been overlooked for a long time. Will Eisner, Jack Davis, Matt Groening and other recent recipients fall into that category. In Al’s case it was that way (even though he still does great work regularly), but members were free to vote for whomever they wished to so it’s really always up to them to decide who they want it to go to. I am very happy for Al, and I will be equally happy for Dave and Dan when they inevitably are similarly honored.

This is a necessarily short post. Here are a complete list of winners and some pictures from the evening:

Book Illustration

• Sandra Boynton – “Blue Moo”

TV Animation

• Stephen Silver – Character Design – “Kim Possible”

Greeting Cards

• Dave Mowder

Newspaper Comic Strips

• Jim Meddick – “Monty”

Editorial Cartoon

• Bill Schorr

Magazine Illustration

• Daryll Collins

Newspaper Illustration

• Sean Kelly

Feature Animation

• David Silverman – Director – “The Simpson’s Movie”

Gag Cartoon

• Mort Gerberg

Comic Book

• Shaun Tan – “The Arrival”

Advertising Illustration

• Tom Richmond

Newspaper Panel

• Chad Carpenter – “Tundra”

One out of two for me… I was thrilled to recieve the divisional Reuben for Advertising Illustration… presented by the great Jack Davis. That was thrilling to say the least. Here are some pictures. More to come later:

Joyce and Al Jaffee, me, Dena and Jack Davis

Sergio Aragones critiques Sam Viviano as he does a sketch

The mega-talented Sandra Boynton

Sam and Sergio ham it up

It was an early morning yesterday when about 85 NCS members gathered in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton and boarded two buses to travel to our Habitat for Humanity project. NCS President Jeff Keane really wanted to make this outing a part of the Reubens to give attendees a chance to lend a hand to some of the people who are still struggling terribly from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area. There was a great response and despite the early hour and the long bus ride to the sites we worked on, the enthusiasm was very evident.

Our group received a brief safety talk at the Habitat for Humanity work center, and then we left for our individual sites. They split us up among three different sites, all homes that were being built on the sites of ones that were destroyed or ruined and then demolished in the disaster. The area were went to was called St. Bernard, part of the ninth ward where some of the worst devastation occurred. The experience was terrific. It was hard work and later in the afternoon it got very hot and humid, but we got a lot done on our site including completing the roofing and a lot of the siding of the home we were assigned to.

Our worksite upon arrival

Cartoonists on the roof!

I got enlisted to haul 80 lb packs of shingles to the rooftop

Measure twice, cut once!

The Lovely Anna hard at work

Doing a little siding after the roof was done

Mike Peters keeps a grip for safety

Me doing a doodle for one of the Habitat crew

The gang after a long day of hard work

Part of the ninth ward. These empty areas were all houses once

Dirty, scratched and exhausted, we had a log bus ride home where we went down into the ninth ward as saw the destruction. Houses were marked with spray painted “X”‘s that had information in the spaces including how many bodies were found there. It was sobering to be sure.

We arrived back at the hotel trailing dirt behind us, and received a very moving shock. At least 80 employees of the Ritz Carlton hotel were lining the lobby applauding us as we walked down the hallway. This was not a prepared thing… we had no idea it was going to happen. These people were genuinely thankful we spent a small part of our weekend dong the little we did. It sent a chill up my spine.

It was all fun and games after that. Here are some pics from the cocktail party and karaoke madness:

The Lovely Anna and myself

Jeff Keane, me, Mark Parisi

Sergio Aragones, Mort Gerberg, Nick Meglin, Grant Geissman, Linda Maloof, Lydia Geissman

Myself and the great Sergio

Nick Meglin, Grant Geissman, Linda Maloof

Rob Smith Jr and Eddie Pittman talk shop

Eddie Pittman, Rick Stromoski, Danna Gauntner and Daryl Cagle

Sam Viviano and his backup singers

Heidi Silver, me, John Martz and Steve Silver

The Lovely Anna and I arrived in New Orleans yesterday afternoon… amid dark skies and thunderstorms. The weather doesn’t look too promising for the weekend. Hopefully there will be plenty of gaps in the downpours so we can see some of the city.

Not much to report on “Day 0″. We had dinner reservations at a terrific restaurant called Cuvee just a few blocks away, where we meet up with Orlando caricaturist Keelan Parham and his wife Barbie as well as NYC illustrator Ed Steckley and his wife Heather… long time friends. After dinner we had a drink at the hotel bar and got a chance to chat with some of the Usual Suspects including current NCS president and “Family Circus” cartoonist Jeff Keane, animators Steve Silver and Eddie Pittman, “Lio” and “Heart of the City”‘s Mark Tatulli, “Foxtrot”‘s Bill Amend, L.A. illustrator Chad Frye and some fellow MAD men like Sam Viviano, Nick Meglin and Kevin Pope. With Al Jaffee nominated for the big award this year, there is a fair MAD contingent of the Usual Gang of Idiots including Sergio Aragones and Jack and Dena Davis.

Today we will be doing the Habitat for Humanity project all day, so I will report on that tomorrow along with plenty of pictures of the traditional Friday night cocktail party. In the meantime, here is a list of the contents of the NCS “goodie bag” we received with registration… always full o’ fun stuff.

This year’s bag includes a copy of John Read‘s “Stay Tooned” magazine #1, Mort Walker‘s “The Best of Times” Family Fun magazine, “Hogan’s Alley“, Daryl Cagle‘s “The Best Political Cartoons of 2008” book, a copy of MAD, assorting inserts, the official 2008 Reuben T-shirt and of course the terrific official Reuben Journal.