Some people seem to be confused or just terribly misinformed as to how the process that results in the three nominations for the National Cartoonists Society’s two online comics divisions work. Much of this seems to stem from a few people jumping to conclusions because this year the three nominees for “Best Online Comic: Short Form” all ended up being from Universal Uclick’s GoComics website. Said assumptions ran the gamut from the NCS jury being lazy and not looking beyond a single source of online comics, to bias in voting for “syndicated” online work rather than independent work, to accusing members of the Online Comics Committee of nominating only their cronies. All of those assumptions are completely untrue, but since when has that ever stopped anyone on the Twitters or the Facebooks? Here is the process, in detail:

Part One: The Submissions- We start out by calling for submissions from any online comics creators who meet the criteria of the division. That criteria, by the way, is pretty much the same as all the other divisions. The submissions are received by the jury chairman. Some are (bizarrely) sent in as prints, which then need to be scanned and assembled into a PDF, others are sent via email as PDFs already. No checking on the eligibility is done at this stage, all submissions are welcome.

Part Two: The Online Comics Committee- When I first started to think about the best way to set this up, it was obvious to me the biggest challenge was finding the best work out there on the web and determining if it met the necessary eligibility criteria. I knew there would never be a time where the submissions we received would give us the kind of field we were looking for. People are busy, or don’t care about awards, or don’t even know about them. The internet is so vast and there are so many comics being produced online that finding the eligible gems would be like finding needles in haystacks… unless we could tap a group of people who are very plugged in to the webcomics world to help us out. To this end I put together the Online Comics Committee. I had to avoid asking webcomics creators as that would eliminate their comics from consideration, so I concentrated on finding people who were knowledgeable about the genre but had no horse in the race. This year our committee was the same as last year:

• Bill Amend- Creator of Foxtrot
• David Allan Duncan- Professor of Sequential Art Graduate Coordinator, Savannah College of Art and Design
• Andrew Farago-  Curator, Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco
• Michael Jantze- Professor of Sequential Art and Animation, Savannah College of Art and Design, Creator of The Norm
• Rick Marshall- Freelance Writer, Editor, and Producer, Time Inc., MTV News, IFC, Movies.com, Digital Trends, CBR
• Gary Tyrrell- Writer/Editor, Fleen.com

Basically the Online Comics Committee has three jobs:

1. Look at the submissions we have received and make recommendations as to if they meet the eligibility requirements- This is difficult to do as it’s not like we ask for tax returns to check and see if someone is making a living with their cartooning (like that would work). It’s mostly about professionalism with the comic… does it update regularly, and on a committed schedule? Do they have a strong readership and following? What is the comic’s reputation in the online comics world? Recommendations are all we ask from the committee.
2. Recommend comics that were not submitted by their creators for consideration- This is key. These folks know the webcomics world and can submit comics we’ve never heard of and may never have found on our own, but are representative of some of the great work being done online AND which they think meet the eligibility requirements.
3. Recommendations on how to make this work better next time- Everyone on the committee is great about suggesting ways to both streamline the process, and obtain the best field for the jury.

Part Three: The Jury- The jury chairman takes the submissions and recommendations from the Online Committee and organizes them for presentation to the jury. This year’s jury was made up of chairman Ed Steckley (storyboard artist, freelancer), Hilary Price (Rhymes with Orange), Sean Parks (freelance illustrator), John Hambrock (The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee), Michael Jantze and towards the end, myself. Ed spends time assembling individual PDFs of the submitted comics that contain only the name of the comic, the name of the creator and the 12 comics for consideration. The jury then goes through all the submissions and conducts multiple elimination rounds to narrow the field, eventually reaching a final five. Then the final five are voted on in order of preference, using a weighted points system so a first place vote is worth more points than a second, a second more than a third. etc. In the end the top three point totals are the nominees, with one being the winner.

That’s how it works. Here are some of the comments/assumptions I’ve seen online debunked:

You didn’t bother to look past GoComics: Read above. Not only did we look far past GoComics, of 26 comics in the original field only 6 appeared on GoComics. The vast majority were independent comics. Many were recommended to the jury by a bunch of people that know the webcomics world well. i.e. the Online Comics Committee.

Your jury was biased toward syndicate online properties: Impossible, as none of the jury members were told where these comics appear. The PDF packets did not include that information. I did not know the three nominees were all from GoComics until I Googled their comic so I could provide a link on the NCS webpage. We try and create as level a playing field as we can with the submissions under consideration, and judge them on the work itself not who’s website it appears on. This year’s three nominees got the most jury votes, with no consideration other than the comic work itself.

The Nomination Committee has their own agenda and are nominating their friends: There is no “nomination committee”. The Online Comics Committee nominates no one. They make educated recommendations on if the work submitted is eligible under our criteria, and recommend other work for consideration. Do they recommend other work that they favor? OF COURSE THEY DO. That’s the point, they are supposed to think that any work they recommend is top notch, so that would be their favorites. That’s why we have six committee members. Each recommend largely different comics, and they only become one of the field of many juried by a different group of people.

This is going backwards, based on the results. Something is broken here: This mostly stems again from the idea that because all the nominees are from GoComics, the results are somehow not representational of web comics, or not “real” webcomics, or somehow the results are not valid. All three nominees met with the criteria of eligibility. They were juried on an even playing field among 23 other online comics , 20 of which were independents. These three got the most votes. I’d point out that last year this exact same process with essentially the same jury came up with these nominations:

• Matthew Inman- The Oatmeal
  
• Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins- Penny Arcade
  
• Jon Rosenberg- Scenes from a Multiverse (won)
  

All three independents. Same process.

If anyone want to disagree or be disappointed in the nominees because you don’t like the work or like other work much better and think the jury was a bunch of idiots, that’s your right and opinion… welcome to the world of publicly recognizing some creative works over others. Nature of the beast. But it’s incredibly unfair to be dismissive of the results simply because these three nominees happen to be GoComics comics. One person who publicly disparaged the results of the nominations admitted to me he/she had never heard of the nominees or seen their comics. . . apparently it was only because they were from GoComics that he/she thought they were terrible choices since he/she had never seen one of the nominated comics. That is unfair and a disservice to the creators of these comics. Sorry, but the jury liked these three better than the other 23, independent or not. It’s supposed to be about the work, not who publishes them in either direction. Disagree with the results based on the work, not which server they sit on.

No process is perfect. We are always looking to improve things. I’d like to add several more people to the Online Comics Committee next year so we get a broader range of recommendations for submitted work. I’d like to enlist a jury that consists of cartoonists from other walks of the industry like animation, comic books, graphic novels, etc.

I’ll be turning the comments off on this post, as I’d rather avoid the usual bile and snark that too often masquerades as ‘constructive criticism’. My email link is here. I’d love constructive suggestions.

Clicky to embiggen…

I once again abused the faces of the guest speakers/special guests of the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards Weekend in the annual NCS Reuben brochure. This year the event will be held in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. The scene above is of one of their famous “inclines”, a kind of cable car/train that goes up the steep side of the surrounding bluffs and gives you a commanding view of the picturesque three rivers valley. The caricatured speakers/special guests are all depicting either famous Pittsburgh natives or representing movies that were filmed in Pittsburgh. Here’s a key:

1. Mo Willems in “The Silence of the Lambs” (filmed in Pittsburgh)- Speaker, Children’s book author/illustrator, animator, Multiple Caldecot, Emmy and Geisel winner.
2. Brad Anderson as Andy Warhol- Milton Caniff Recipient/Speaker, Creator of the syndicated comic strip  “Marmaduke”
3. Drew Friedman as Frank Gorshin: Speaker, Illustrator/cartoonist for MAD, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, National Lampoon, TIME, etc.
4. Terri Libenson as Mary Cassatt- Speaker, Creator of the syndicated comic strip “The Pajama Diaries”
5. Joe Wos as Mr. Rogers- Curator of Pittsburgh’s cartoon and comic art museum The Toonseum
6. Rob Rogers as Ben Roethlisberger- Speaker, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist
7. Jason Chatfield as Gene Kelly- Reuben Awards emcee and writer/artist on syndicated comic strip “Ginger Meggs”
8. Lee Salem in “The Dark Knight Rises” (filmed in Pittsburgh)- Recipient of the NCS Silver T-Square

The National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” is arguably the top honor a professional cartoonist can receive. The NCS first gave out the honor in 1946 to Milton Caniff, and in the 67 intervening years some of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the art form have received “The Reuben” (with the exception of a stumble last year, when they gave it to this clown.)

This year’s nominees for the 2012 Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year” were just announced by the NCS. They are:

• Brian Crane
  

• Rick Kirkman
  

• Stephan Pastis
  

From the NCS Website:

Brian Crane is the creator of Pickles, a daily comic strip syndicated by the Washington Post Writer’s Group. Soon after Pickles’ debut in 1990, Brian “retired” as an art director for an advertising agency in Reno, Nevada, to devote his full attention to his comic strip. Although he often used cartoon figures in ads he designed, Pickles is his first syndicated comic strip. In 1995 and 2001, Pickles was nominated for Best Newspaper Comic Strip by the National Cartoonists Society, winning the coveted award in 2001. Pickles has topped comics polls across the nation again and again, and it appears in over 800 newspapers around the world. Brian lives near Reno with his wife, Diana. He’s the proud father of seven and grandfather of 11. This is his third nomination for the Reuben. Visit the Pickles website.

Rick Kirkman is the co-creator of the daily comic strip, Baby Blues, syndicated by King Features Syndicate. Prior to Baby Blues, Rick was a freelance humorous illustrator for national advertising and magazine clients. He and partner Jerry Scott initially based Baby Blues on Rick’s family. Creators Syndicate released the strip January 7, 1990. It now has 1200 newspaper clients in over 900 cities worldwide. The strip has been published in over 30 anthologies in the U.S., and many more in other languages, and became a TV series on the WB network. Baby Blues won Best Newspaper Comic Strip from the National Cartoonists Society in 1995. Rick lives with his wife, Sukey, in Arizona with a bunch of cats and dogs, and the kids are grown and having adventures of their own. You can visit the Baby Blues website here.

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine, syndicated by Universal Uclick. Stephan practiced law in the San Fransisco Bay area before following his love of cartooning and eventually seeing syndication with Pearls. Launched in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001,  the daily strip currently appears in 650 newspapers worldwide. The National Cartoonists Society awarded Pearls Before Swine the Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 and in 2006.  Stephan also recently released an interactive app called Only the Pearls. Stephan lives in northern California with his wife Staci and their two children. This is his fifth nomination for the Reuben award. Visit Stephan’s blog and the Pearls Before Swine website.

The official ballots have been issued to all full members of the National Cartoonists Society for voting to determine the winner. Congratulations to the nominees!

The winner of the 2012 “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” will be announced on May 25th at the annual NCS Reuben Awards dinner in Pittsburgh, PA.

My hearty congratulations to three very deserving cartoonists!

Today the National Cartoonists Society posted their annual call for submissions for the 2012 NCS Division Awards, and announced some changes to the awards field:

Advertising and Product Illustration- The former “Advertising Illustration” division has been expanded to include illustration for retail products. This would include things like cartoon art/humorous illustration for merchandise (posters, calendars, menus, apparel, etc.) as well as for retail packaging (kid’s meal boxes, toy packaging, etc.). It was always a gray area as to if that kind of work was acceptable, now it definitely is.

Animation Divisions- The TV Animation and Film Animation divisions are now more specific as to what form of work is accepted for consideration. Formerly, only examples of full animation were acceptable, regardless of what the person submitting the work actually did. Now, if you were a storyboard artist, you submit copies of the storyboards you worked on. Likewise with character designers, production artists, etc. Here are the details from the NCS website:

• Both animation categories are accepting submissions of individual artists’ work for consideration. Submissions maybe submitted by the artists themselves, or by the studios or other colleagues on the artists’ behalf. As will all divisions there is no charge for awards submissions.
• Production designers, art directors, character designers, layout artists, background painters, character painters, and all other still art creators must submit five to ten samples of their work from a single production for each application.
• Samples may be physical prints or as JPEG files on a CD-R. If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.
• Animators, storyboard artists, visual effects artists, and anyone else involved in creating moving or continuity art, please submit a reel of your work on a DVD or CD-R. (Storyboards will only be considered in animatic form.) If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.

This makes a lot more sense, as it is impossible to judge the work of a storyboard artist or a character designer from a segment of finished animation, which also involved the work of many others to achieve its final form.

Online Comics- Last year the NCS had a single division that was purposefully restricted to only daily strip formats as a way to test out their process. This year they are expanding it into two divisions, Long Form and Short Form.

Online Comics: Short Form- Unlike last year, this division includes daily strip, single panel, Sunday strip, or partial/single page formats. Short form comics should be able to stand alone as a single narrative, even if it is part of a longer storyline like an adventure strip. They can be full page comics, like a “Life in Hell”, but if so they should be single page narratives that do not serialize their storylines.

Online Comics: Long Form- These would be ongoing narratives told in full page formats. Basically an online comic book or graphic novel, where the story is fully serialized.

Like last year, the NCS will have a screening/nomination committee of independent, online comics experts that will help determine if the submitted work meet the criteria for consideration:

• Must be web only publication (any syndication/third party publication in print should submit to proper print division above)
• Must have shown consistent timely publication over the course of the 2012 calendar year (weekly, bi-weekly, multiple times a week, daily, etc.)
• Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning/comic art in order to meet the requirement that they be eligible for professional NCS membership

Great news. The NCS is moving forward in the digital age. If your work is eligible for submission, I hope you’ll send it in.

From the NCS Website:

The National Cartoonists Society is starting it’s annual call for entries for consideration for their NCS Divisional Awards recognizing excellence in professional cartooning. As always, you DO NOT have to be a member of the NCS to have your work considered for a divisional award… all that is required is that the work be eligible as detailed below.

NEW THIS YEAR:

- There are now two divisions for Online Comics, Short Form and Long Form. See below for details.

- The Advertising Illustration division has been expanded to Advertising and Product Illustration, which will include not only cartooning for advertising but also for retail products like posters, toy/product packaging, etc.

Below you will find a list of the juries which will judge the categories, the jury chair and the address to which you will send your entry. As always, NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED, with the exception of the Online Comics divisions, which allows emailed PDF submissions. Below is a short recap of several rules and guidelines, which govern the awards:

Please remember only recent work can be considered. This means work published between the dates of December 1, 2011 and December 31, 2012.

Please submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published. Online Comics should provide links for verification of first publication date.

If your syndicated cartoon runs in both strip and panel format you can submit to one of those divisions, not both (your choice).

Your submissions must be submitted to their respective locations by February 6, 2013.

List of Juries and Submission Addresses:

Cartoonists are invited to submit their work (or the work of another professional) no later than February 6, 2013, for consideration for one or more of the following Division Awards:

• NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION- Submit up to 6 samples of 2012 published work to: Todd Clark, NCS Great Northwest Chapter, P.O. Box 8264-2264, Boise, ID 83707-2264 (TCtoonz@yahoo.com)
• GAG CARTOONS- Submit up to 12 samples of 2012 published work to: Brian Walker, NCS Connecticut Chapter, 34 Old Forge Rd, Wilton, CT 06897 (hiandlois1@aol.com)
• GREETING CARDS- Submit up to 6 samples of 2012 published work to: Tom Stemmle, NCS New Jersey Chapter, 184 Richards Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (tomstem@optonline.net)
• NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS- Submit up to 12 samples of 2012 published work to: Polly Keener, NCS Great Lakes Chapter, 400 W. Fairlawn Blvd., Akron, OH 44313-4510 (pollytoon@aol.com)
• NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS- Submit up to 12 samples of 2012 published work to: Andrew Farago, NCS Northern California Chapter, 2923 King Street, Berkeley, CA, 94703 (andrewfarago@hotmail.com)
• MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION- Submit up to 6 samples of 2012 published work to: Mark Parisi, NCS New England Chapter, 16 Slayton Rd., Melrose, MA 02176 (markparisi@aol.com)
• BOOK ILLUSTRATION- Send up to 6 samples of 2012 published work to: Graham Nolan, NCS Upstate New York Chapter, 162 Godfrey Ter, East Aurora, NY, 14052 (graham@grahamnolan.com)
• EDITORIAL CARTOONS- Submit up to 20 samples of 2012 published work to: Mike Cope, NCS Canadian Chapter, 46 Church Street, Stoney Creek, ON, L8E 2X8, CANADA (mikecope@copetoons.com) NOTE: Allow for extra delivery time to this jury from the U.S.
• ADVERTISING and PRODUCT ILLUSTRATION- Submit up to 6 samples of 2012 published and marketed work to: Doug Bratton, 17 Crestmont Drive, Dover, NJ, 07801 (bratcartoonist1@aol.com)
• COMIC BOOKS- Submit up to 3 samples of 2012 published work to: Bill Morrison, 786 Twillin Ct., Simi Valley, CA 93065 (roswell2@earthlink.net)
• GRAPHIC NOVELS- Submit graphic novel published in 2012 to: James Strum, P.O. Box 125, White River Jct., VT, 05001 (sturm@cartoonstudies.org)
• ANIMATION DIVISIONS
  • Both animation categories are accepting submissions of individual artists’ work for consideration. Submissions maybe submitted by the artists themselves, or by the studios or other colleagues on the artists’ behalf. As will all divisions there is no charge for awards submissions.
  • Production designers, art directors, character designers, layout artists, background painters, character painters, and all other still art creators must submit five to ten samples of their work from a single production for each application.
  • Samples may be physical prints or as JPEG files on a CD-R. If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.
  • Animators, storyboard artists, visual effects artists, and anyone else involved in creating moving or continuity art, please submit a reel of your work on a DVD or CD-R. (Storyboards will only be considered in animatic form.) If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.
• TELEVISION ANIMATION- All entries must be work created for episodes of a television series that aired for the first time during the 2012 calendar year. Submit one or more samples as explained above to: Chad Frye, 518 E. Cypress Ave. #C, Burbank, CA 91501 (chad@chadfrye.com)
• FEATURE ANIMATION- All entries must be work created for a fully animated feature length movie released theatrically in the 2012 calendar year. Submit one or more samples as explained above to: David Folkman, NCS Los Angeles Chapter, 3625 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 287, Westlake Village CA 91362 (folkmanart@aol.com)
• ON-LINE COMICS DIVISIONS- All Online Comics submissions must adhere to the following:
  • Must be web only publication (any syndication/third party publication in print should submit to proper print division above)
  • Must have shown consistent timely publication over the course of the 2012 calendar year (weekly, bi-weekly, multiple times a week, daily, etc.
  • Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning/comic art in order to meet the requirement that they be eligible for professional NCS membership
• ON-LINE COMICS:- SHORT FORM- Additional specific requirements:
  • Can be strip, single panel, single or partial page format
  • Must be mainly self-contained gag, story, or narrative in each short comic, even if also part of ongoing narrative
  • Must document date of first posting/release of each submitted comic
  • Submit 12 samples, submitted via mail or as PDF with bio/entry form to: Ed Steckley, NCS National Representative, 43-07 39th Place, Apt. 3-F Sunnyside, NY 11104 (ed@edsteckley.com)
• ON-LINE COMICS- LONG FORM- Additional specific requirements:
  • Can be posted in single or multiple page format
  • Must be ongoing narrative in serial form i.e. continuing comic book/graphic novel storyline
  • Must document date of first posting/release of each episode/page/segment
  • Minimum monthly release schedule
  • Submit 12 samples, submitted via mail or as PDF with bio/entry form to: Tom Richmond, NCS President, 3421 East Burnsville Pkwy, Burnsville, MN 55337 (tom@tomrichmond.com

Submissions should include an entry form and bio sheet.

All winners will be announced at the 67th Annual Reuben Awards Dinner in Pittsburgh, PA, on May 25th, 2013.

From the NCS Website:

Brad Anderson, the creator of the comic strip Marmaduke, will be honored with the National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 NCS Reuben Award Weekend, held this year in Pittsburgh, PA on May 24th-26th. Brad’s amazing career spans 60 years and includes cartoons for many magazines and publications in addition to Marmaduke, which is syndicated by Universal Uclick. In 2010 Marmaduke became a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox, featuring a computer animated Marmaduke alongside live actors.

About Brad Anderson (an excerpt from an America Profile article from 2010):

Putting pen to paper, cartoonist Brad Anderson, 86, sketches the playful pooch he’s created for 56 (now 59) years, starting with the big dog’s pointed ears, elongated nose, sloppy grin and cheerful eyes before tackling his sizeable torso and long, clumsy legs.

“Marmaduke is very expressive and very active, and he’s always doing something funny or ridiculous or crazy,” says Anderson, adding accent lines that suggest a dog in motion. “He’s always jumping over the couch, chasing after a cat. In the car, he wants to take over and drive.”

Working in his home in Montgomery, Texas (pop. 489), Anderson chronicles the amusing antics of the awkward but loveable Great Dane, creating six single-panel comics and one Sunday strip each week to add to his collection of 20,000 Marmaduke-inspired comics, two dozen books, a 1970s animated TV show and a new feature film.

Universal Uclick distributes Marmaduke to more than 500 newspapers in 10 countries. Every day, people can read Marmaduke and expect to get a little chuckle.

These days, nobody chuckles more than Anderson, who never dreamed he’d still be drawing the canine character that he introduced to the comics pages in 1954. “Every day, I go to work still enjoying the challenge of creating expression and body language,” he says. “It’s never a burden, never a job. It’s just fun.”

Born in 1924 and raised in Portland, N.Y., Anderson nurtured his artistic talent whenever he wasn’t helping his mother garden or his dad in the family’s farm machine business. “My mother said I started drawing before I could talk,” recalls Anderson, whose first words included a repeated request for a “pentil” and whose first vivid memory was using a pencil to draw on the sidewalk at his grandparents’ house.

During high school, he sold his first cartoon to Flying Aces, an aviation magazine. The $3 paycheck was enough to buy a hamburger, a milkshake and a ticket to the movies, where silent films of the day featured visual action and written gag lines—the same approach he’s used for decades in Marmaduke.

After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Anderson married his high school sweetheart, Barbara, and studied art at Syracuse University on the GI Bill, graduating in 1951 and eventually working for a public relations company in Utica, N.Y. All the while, he sold cartoons to Collier’s Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. Commanding payments of $100 and up for his drawings, he became a full-time freelance cartoonist and, while featuring a shaggy dog in a farm magazine series, came upon the idea of a dog as the center of a family comic strip.

“I didn’t want to do another shaggy dog, though, because I had no interest in drawing all that floppy hair,” Anderson recalls. “I wanted a short-haired dog similar to this big boxer that my mother and stepfather had at the time. He was kind of a funny, clownish dog that I used as a model, but I wanted an even bigger dog.”

He initially drew Marmaduke as a large, menacing animal but soon realized that an unfriendly dog wouldn’t win friends. “I took away the scowl and began to give him more body movement and expression, and the whole drawing changed. He became a very happy dog,” he says.

Anderson developed Marmaduke while working five to seven days a week at home in Vista, Calif….

About the Milton Caniff Award:

THE MILTON CANIFF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD is awarded by unanimous vote of the NCS Board of Directors. It is given for a lifetime of outstanding and accomplished work to a cartoonist who has not previously won a Reuben. It is considered one of the highest honors the Society can bestow.

Congratulations to Brad! This is a great honor, and his contributions to American pop-culture and cartooning cannot be overstated.

One of the things I’ve wanted to do as the president of the National Cartoonists Society was to improve the organizations’ web presence in the form of an active blog with news, features and other posts of interest to anyone who has an interest in cartooning. For that, I need NCS members who are willing to give their time and efforts to creating that content. This isn’t necessarily very easy to come by. When webcomics creator and publisher John Lotshaw  approached me at a recent Reuben weekend to volunteer to do just that, I wasn’t going to let him off the hook.

I’m pleased to announce a new series of articles on the NCS website by John that will chronicle the development and launch of a new comic on the web. The posts will cover the full creative process, from conception to launch, and follow the comic through promotion and monetization efforts. It’s intended to give the readers of comics an look behind the scenes, as well as give the veterans the chance to add their two cents as the process goes along.

John’s first entry has been posted on reuben.org, which gives a lot of backstory about John, how he got into cartooning and what he’s done in the industry thus far. He explains what his feature will be about and where he hopes to take it from there. His plan is to post at least weekly. He’ll be diving into the deep end and talking about development of the premise and characters with the second post, and then he’ll start doing character development from there.

I think this is going to be a fun series and readers are going get a lot out of seeing the creative process in “real time”. I guess it’s kind of like a reality show for cartoonists… John says he hopes he won’t become “the Honey Boo Boo of the NCS… ”.

If you are interested, go read it.

Next month I will be one of several cartoonists who will visit Boise, Idaho in support of the Wyakin Warriors Foundation, an organization that helps severely injured veterans for life after their service to our country through education, professional training, job placement and more. Started by NCS member Jeff Bacon, who has been the driving force behind the USO trips many cartoonists have participated in over the last 5 years, the WW Foundation is a fantastic initiative and deserving of everyone’s support. There will be an online silent auction for all the cartoons and other stuff dontated by the cartoonists… I will give you more information on that as it becomes available. Here is the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2012
CONTACT:
Jeff Bacon (208) 841-6318
bacon@wyakin.org

Nation’s Top Cartoonists to Visit Boise December 1st to Benefit Wounded Warriors

Award winning cartoonists will headline the first annual Guardian Ball at the Boise Centre, benefitting severely wounded, injured and ill veterans in the Wyakin Warrior Foundation.

WHAT:

A black tie gala will be held on December 1, 2012 to benefit severely wounded and injured veterans attending classes at Boise State University and College of Western Idaho as members of the Wyakin Warrior Foundation.   The event will feature remarks by Governor Otter, introduction of the wounded and injured veterans in the Wyakin Warrior Foundation, full dinner, live music and a live auction.  Cartoonists will provide original art, name placement in nationally syndicated cartoons, caricatures, and a multimedia presentation.  Tables with the Wyakin Warriors and cartoonists are available.  Tickets are on sale now (www.wyakin.org).

WHO:

• Governor Butch Otter
• Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine)
• Jeff Keane (The Family Circus)
• Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm)
• Michael Ramirez (Investors Business Daily – Ed. Cartoonist)
• Ray Alma of MAD Magazine
• Chad Carpenter (Tundra)
• Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues)
• Ed Steckley (MAD Magazine)
• Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine)
• Bruce Higdon (Army cartoonist/caricaturist, Punderstatements)
• T Lewis (Over the Hedge)
• Steve Moore (In the Bleachers)
• Todd Clark (Lola)
• Mason Mastroianni (B.C.)
• Dave Coverly (Speed Bump)

Master of Ceremonies:  Kevin Miller (KIDO)
Auction/raffle host:  Nate Shelman (KBOI)

WHEN:        December 1, 2012 (6-10pm)
WHERE:    Boise Centre
WHY:    Since World War II, cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society have traveled all over the world to visit wounded troops being treated at military and VA hospitals.  These trips inspired the creation of the Idaho-based Wyakin Warrior Foundation, arguably the most comprehensive education, mentoring and professional development program in the nation for severely wounded and injured veterans.

Among the cartoonists headlining the event are two Pulitzer Prize winners (Mike Peters and Michael Ramirez).  The others draw some of the most beloved cartoons in the world.  Attendees will be able to meet the cartoonists and bid on their art – many of the cartoonist will write the name of the winning bidder into their strips and give them the original art.

All proceeds will be used for the mentoring, professional development and educational support of severely wounded and injured veterans attending Boise State University and College of Western Idaho as members of the Wyakin Warrior Foundation.

About the Wyakin Warrior Foundation

The Wyakin Warrior Foundation provides one of the most comprehensive education, mentoring, professional development, networking and job placement programs in the country for severely wounded and injured veterans.
Our students are veterans who have suffered catastrophic injuries while serving their country.  Our goal is to prepare them for success in their chosen professions through academic support, professional training, and a mentoring program so robust that it was mentioned as a successful model by the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.*  The USO has named the organization “best in class” in the nation for the education, professional development and assimilation of severely wounded veterans.

The need is great.  To date, well over 40,000 troops have been seriously hurt in the combat zone since September 11, 2001.  Some are forced to leave the service right away because of their injuries, but eventually they all come home.  When they do, they face unemployment rates surpassing 30% (and getting worse) for veterans 18-24 years old.  Severely disabled veterans often drop out of the workforce completely – at three times the rate of any other veteran group.   If they choose to attend college, well over half of them will drop out during the first year of school.

Eleven veterans are in the program now, and the number of students will more than double in 2013.

The Foundation is a volunteer and veteran led organization, and relies on a large number of volunteers for its operations.  It is based in the Treasure Valley.  The Executive Director is Jeff Bacon, CAPT, USN (ret).

I did this spot illustration for the tour and a postcard we gave away. Each artist
had their own card. Believe it or not a few sailors didn’t get the joke.

The National Cartoonists Society has a long tradition supporting the men and women serving our country in the U.S. military. In fact, the NCS originally formed from a group of cartoonists who did chalk talks for US troops during World War II, and continued to visit active military personnel during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Several years ago the NCS and the USO once again teamed up to renew this tradition of sending groups of cartoonists out on tours to meet and draw for the men and women in the military both here in the States and deployed overseas. I’ve been lucky enough to be included in several of these trips. Click the following links to read about my exploits in Washington D.C., Germany, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also please read this post about NCS member and retired navy captain Jeff Bacon, who is the driving force behind the renewal of this practice, and without whom none of these amazing trips would have been possible.

I just returned from another of these trips, and while the ones to D.C and Landstuhl to draw wounded warriors and those to the active war zones in the middle east were incredible experiences, I really think this one tops them all. Our destination: Land bases in the Persian Gulf and then four days at sea on the legendary aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Our group consisted of Jeff Bacon (creator of the Navy themed comic strip Broadside), Dave Coverly (creator of the daily syndicated panel Speed Bump and 2009 Reuben Award Winner aka NCS “Cartoonist of the Year”), Jeff Keane (cartoonist on the daily syndicated panel The Family Circus, originally created by his late father Bil Keane), Rick Kirkman (co-creator/cartoonist of the daily syndicated comic strip Baby Blues), Sam Viviano (long-time artist for and current art director of MAD Magazine) and myself. We were accompanied by our USO guide Jeremy Wilcox and USO photographer Mike Clifton. It’s important to find the right mix of cartoonists to do one of these trips—not just having artists who’s strip or publication is pretty recognizable and well-known, but also those who are dedicated to the purpose at hand: drawing for and meeting the soldiers or sailors. It’s incredibly interesting to see these places we visit and the bases/ships we spend time on, but that should be a distant second in importance to spending time with the troops. Everyone in this group had that attitude, and while we appreciated getting to see a lot of cool things, we enjoyed our time with the sailors and airwing personnel the most. My fellow cartoonists met with and drew hundreds and hundreds of men and women who are all making great sacrifices in being away from home, friends and family, as well and being in harm’s way and doing a dangerous job all to serve our country. I know I speak for our entire group when I say it was our honor and privilege to be able to meet, talk with and draw for these brave folks, and I hope we left them with a feeling of the gratitude of our nation for their efforts . . . and a smile or laugh to go along with their drawing. All of them seemed so grateful for our making the long trek to be there with them, but the honor and pleasure was all ours.

Over the next few days, I will post the stories of our experiences on the tour. The bases were great, but the time we spend on the Enterprise was truly awe-inspiring. Unfortunately there are some things I will not be able to be specific about due to USO and Department of Defense security rules. Things like specifically where we stayed and the names and location of the bases there, or the exact location of the Enterprise. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.

It’s customary for the recipient of the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award to do the cover of the post-Reubens newsletter/magazine The Cartoon!st. I was so honored this past May, so here is my cover illustration with self-inflicted caricature and oft-repeated gag of me curling the Reuben statue. The Cartoon!st is a terrific publication, available for only NCS members (if you are not a member—sorry!). The issue contains a fantastic Reuben wrap-up article by member Ed Black. I got mine in the mail today, so I figure it’s in the wild and ok for me to post the cover art . . . but maybe I should have asked the NCS president first . . .

Nah.