Artwork by Patrick McDonnell

The nominees for the divisional awards from the National Cartoonists Society are officially announced:

TELEVISION ANIMATION

• Kevin Deters – “Walt Disney Prep and Landing”
• Mike Gray – “The Infinite Goliath”
• Seth McFarlane – “Family Guy”

FEATURE ANIMATION

• Ronnie del Carmen – Storyboard Artist – “Up”
• Tomm Moore – Director – “The Secret of Kells”
• Barry Reynolds – Character Designer – “The Secret of Kells”

NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION

• Bob Rich
• Tom Richmond
• Robert Sanchuk

GAG CARTOONS

• Glenn McCoy
• VG Myers
• Dave Whamond

GREETING CARDS

• Glenn McCoy
• Kieran Meehan
• Debbie Tomassi

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS

• John Hambrock – “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee”
• Wiley Miller – “Non Sequitur”
• Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman – “Zits”

NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS

• Dave Blazek – “Loose Parts”
• Tony Carillo – “FMinus”
• Hilary Price – “Rhymes with Orange”

MAGAZINE FEATURE/ MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION

• Ray Alma
• Anton Emdin
• Tom Richmond

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

• Lou Brooks – “Twimericks”
• Tom Richmond – “Bo Confidential”
• Dave Whamond – “My Think-A-Ma-Jink”

EDITORIAL CARTOONS

• Nick Anderson
• Rob Rogers
• John Sherffius

ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION

• Steve Brodner
• Randall Enos
• Mort Gerberg

COMIC BOOKS

• Terry Moore – “Echo”
• Paul Pope – “Strange Adventures”
• JH Williams – “Detective Comics”

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• David Mazzucchelli – “Asterios Polyp”
• Seth – “George Sprott”
• David Small – “Stitches”

As previously announced, the nominees for The Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year” are:

• Stephen Pastis
• Dan Piraro
• Richard Thompson

The winners will be announced at the 64th annual Reuben Awards on May 295th.

I am overwhelmed (and in fact in deep disbelief) to see that I am nominated in three different categories this year… surely there will be some sort of “hanging chad” controversy over it. Any nomination is of course a huge honor, and I am suitably humbled. Congratulations to all the nominees! You can see the list complete with links to images from many of the artists at the NCS website.

The nominees for the National Cartoonists Society’s highest honor, The Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year have been released to members for their vote. The nominees are:

• Stephen Pastis
• Dan Piraro
• Richard Thompson

Stephen Pastis is the creator of the popular comic strip Pearls Before Swine. Dan Piraro is the mastermind behind the syndicated daily panel cartoon Bizarro, and Richard Thompson writes and draws the syndicated strip Cul de Sac. This is Pastis’s second time on this list, Piraro’s eighth and the first for Thompson.

Nominees for the NCS divisional award categories will be announced sometime in March.

It’s that time of year again! The National Cartoonists Society will hold their annual Reuben Awards Weekend on May 28-30th, this year in Jersey City, New Jersey. The NCS just released the details of how to submit work for consideration in the various divisional award categories. Just a reminder… you do NOT have to me an NCS member to have your work be eligible. The only requirements is the work be in published sometime between December 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. Submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published.

From the NCS Website:

It’s time to prepare your entry for the National Cartoonists Society Division Awards.

Below, you will see the list of the juries which will judge the categories, the jury chair and the address to which you will send your entry.

Please remember only recent work can be considered. This means work published between the dates of December 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. Please submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published. Members of the National Cartoonists Society and nonmembers may submit.

Each entry must be accompanied by a completed ENTRY FORM and a BIO SHEET.

The winners will be announced at the 64th Annual Reuben Awards Dinner on May 29, 2010.

Cartoonists are invited to submit their work (or the work of anyone else) no later than February 6, 2010, for consideration for one or more of the following Division Awards:

TELEVISION ANIMATION Submit one or more samples in VHS or DVD format of aired or exhibited work that was released in the year 2009 to: Brian Walker, NCS Connecticut Chapter, 34 Old Forge Rd., Wilton, CT 06897-3707 (hiandlois1@aol.com)

FEATURE ANIMATION Submit one or more samples in VHS or DVD format of aired or exhibited work that was released in the year 2009 to: David Folkman, NCS Los Angeles Chapter, 6171 W. Century Blvd. #160, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (folkmanart@aol.com)

NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION Submit 6 samples of published work to: Jack Pittman, NCS Southeast Chapter, 1740 Brooks Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27607-6618 (jack@jackpittman.net)

GAG CARTOONS Submit 12 samples of published work to: Tom Stemmle, NCS New Jersey Chapter, 184 Richards Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (tomstem@optonline.net)

GREETING CARDS Submit 6 samples of published work to: Brian Kelly, NCS Chicago Chapter, 6N784 Colonel Bennett Lane, St. Charles, IL 60175 (ragstandman@msn.com)

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS Submit 12 samples of published work to: Mike Edholm, NCS North Central Chapter, 2108 Sandstone Road, Lincoln, NE 08512 (medholm1@mac.com)

NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS Submit 12 samples of published work to: Patricia Storms, NCS Canadian Chapter, 65 Bernice Crescent, Toronto, Ontario CANADA M6N 1W7 (gpstorms@rogers.com)

MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION Submit 6 samples of published work to: Adrian Sinnott, NCS Long Island Chapter, 27 East 24th Street, Huntington Station, NY 11746-3701 (acsinnott@adriansinnott.com)

BOOK ILLUSTRATION Send up to 6 samples of published work to: Rob Smith, Jr., NCS Florida Chapter, PO Box 540103, Orlando, FL 32854-0103 (ncs@robsmithjr.com)

EDITORIAL CARTOONS Submit 12-20 samples of published work to: Mark Parisi, NCS New England Chapter, 16 Slayton Rd., Melrose, MA 02176 (markparisi@aol.com)

ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION Submit 4 samples of published and marketed work to: David Coulson, NCS Pittsburgh Chapter, 6425 Wilkins Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (ndavid.coulson@gmail.com)

COMIC BOOKS Submit 3 samples of published work to: Doug Bratton, NCS Metro Chapter, 17 Crestmont Drive, Dover, NJ07801 (bratcartoonist1@aol.com)

GRAPHIC NOVELS Submit book published in 2009 to: Mike Lynch, NCS National Representative, 61 Nutes Road, Milton, NH 03851-4800 (mike@mikelynchcartoons.com)

Once again: Each entry must be accompanied by a completed ENTRY FORM and a BIO SHEET.

The submission deadline is February 6, 2010.

Busy, busy, busy already in the new year. Above is a small spot illustration I did for On Patrol magazine of USO president and CEO Sloan Gibson. On Patrol is the magazine of the USO, and the Winter issue features coverage of the USO sponsored NCS cartoonist’s trip to Germany, Kuwait and Iraq back in October. The website linked above is not yet updated to include the winter issue’s content, but the magazine features a great cover by Michael Ramirez, some pictures of us in action (I mean drawing… not the kind of action the people we drew are used to) and an article that is mostly made up of a “journal” of the trip written by me. Most of my contributions to the article are by way of revised versions of my blog posts on the trip: See Prelude, Washington DC/Germany, Kuwait, Iraq.

I might as well take the opportunity to once again thank the USO for sponsoring our trip to the Middle-East. In a year that featured a ridiculous amount of traveling and speaking for me, including trips to England, Colombia, and Australia, the USO trip was really something special.

Arriving at the airport in Kuwait City, I was prepared for some major culture shock. Traveling in Europe is one thing… usually you can figure out the meaning of things like signs based on the common nature of the Latin based languages, and they all use the same basic alphabetical charters which at least look familiar. Arabic, on the other hand, is totally indecipherable to one with no knowledge of the language. Every time I saw something written in Arabic I had the impulse to turn it upside down.

The Kuwait Airport

My fears were groundless. Almost every sign is Kuwait, especially road and direction signs, had English translations below. There was no shortage of western influences, either. The airport food court had a Burger King, McDonalds, and money other familiar fast food restaurants… and of course a Starbucks. (more…)

The 2009 NCS Cartoonist USO Tour band members:

Our 8 day USO tour began at a Washington DC area hotel on Wednesday, October 14th where most of our band met, had a quick dinner and talked about our upcoming odyssey. As usual I had a job I had to finish up that kept me working in the hotel room until 4 a.m., so I was already exhausted when we boarded a USO bus on Thursday morning to go to the Bathesda Naval Hospital and then to Walter Reed for our first visits with wounded soldiers. This part of the trip was familiar to us, as we had done the same thing almost exactly a year earlier.

Thursday, October 15th:

The Band at Bathesda Naval Hospital

Bathesda is best known as the primary center for brain related injuries, but they treat almost any kind of injury from damaged limbs from explosions to gunshot wounds. Touring these wards is particularly heart wrenching. We visit the soldiers right in their hospital rooms and they are in various stages of recovery and treatment. Sometimes they are very cognizant and lucid, and other times they are so deep under pain medication that they are hard to communicate with. Most of the soldiers we visited with were surrounded by their family members and were in the midst of or almost done with their treatments.
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