This was printed up as a USO Autograph Card for giving out on tour

Visting FOBs

NCS Osama Watch- No sighting. Pastis claiming 65% of any reward if we spot him

Originally each group was supposed to visit up to 6 forward operating bases (FOBs) over the three days we were spending in the Kandahar area, but due to the flight snafus we were only scheduled to visit two each. Considering how long it took us to actually GET to Afghanistan it was really too bad our time there was so short that we could’t visit more sites, but co-ordinating and promoting our visits were not easy to do, so we just made the best of the time we did get with the soldiers.

Jeff Keane and Stephan Pastis look thrilled to be back in a Black Hawk

Like our visit to Iraq last year, we flew helicopters from KAF to the various camps and FOBs. Some of our flights were in Blackhawks like in Iraq, but a number of them were in the much larger CH-47 Chinooks. These are twin rotor troop and cargo transport helicopters, and hold about 60 or so soldiers as well as room for palettes of supplies. One of the coolest moments of the trip was when we were on our way back from our first FOB visit in a Chinook, with the back door open and a rear gunner on it. We were being escorted by two Huey helicopters that criss-crossed about our larger helo… if I would have had “Ride of the Valkyries” cranking in my ear it would have been like something out of “Apocalypse Now”.

This is what Afghanistan looks like…

The helicopter flights over the Afghanistan landscape really showed how truly desolate this country is. With the exception of a few craggy hills, most of what I saw of Iraq was flat and sandy, with a fair amour of scrubby brush and vegetation. Afghanistan, at least the areas were flew over, are so lifeless it looks like it could be the moon. Looming, knife-edge mountains seem to violently burst from the endless dust with little or no foothills as warning. The earth seems to go on forever with almost no sign of a tree or plant growth whatsoever. Small villages made of mud huts scar the landscape here and there, and are the only sign of any life amid the sprawling arid miles. You can’t even really call what coats the earth here “sand”… it’s better described as a dust so fine it makes talcum powder seem like coffee grounds, and lies a foot deep in places. We got lucky with the weather, which was calm during our stay. I was told the ever-present haze can turn into a complete brown-out in the blink of an eye when a wind storm whips across the horizon.

A small Afghan village… (more…)

Now that we have left the area we are allowed to say our cartoonist’s USO tour spent three days in Afghanistan, specifically Kandahar and FOBs in the southern part of the country.

The picture was taken at the Kandahar Air Field prior to one of our trips to outlying camps to draw for the deployed troops. I thought maybe the soldiers might get a look at me in the gear and think I was Special Forces, but it turns out they thought I was Special Ed.

A full description of the trip is coming next week.

Another group of cartoonists are off soon (at an indisposed date and time… I’d tell you specifics but they are above your pay grade) to the middle east to draw for U.S. soldiers deployed “down range” i.e. in the war zone. This group includes Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) Mike Luckovich (Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) and myself.. clearly they have me along to make the coffee.

We’ll have a stop in Landstuhl, Germany to draw at the Regional Medical Center and the Ramstein AFB there before heading on to a new area of the war zone that the USO cartoonists tours have not yet seen. It should be an interesting adventure. I will blog all about it after we return… I’d tell you more but then I’d have to kill you…

I’ve been remiss in linking to the weekly “NCS Member Spotlight” over on the website of the National Cartoonists Society that gets posted every Thursday. Put together by NCS Member Leif Peng, these are short retrospectives of the work of some of the long standing members of the Society… well worth a look. This week’s Spotlight is on commercial/advertising cartoonist Roy Doty. Last week’s was on the legendary Jack Davis.

A week or two ago I attended the annual meeting of my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, which featured a bevy of guest speakers, panels and other great presentations. The featured speaker was Josh Cooley, who was co-sponsored by our chapter and the Kaneko art center. Josh is a story artist at Pixar who did a lot of work on “Cars”, “Ratatouille”, “UP” and the forthcoming “Cars 2″, and he did both a presentation of this work and conducted a workshop on “story art”… which is sort of like storyboarding but in Pixar’s case is a lot more central to the creation of the film. Josh is a great talent, an excellent speaker and a terrific guy.

After the weekend Josh and I exchanged emails and agreed to do a swap of original drawings (sucker!). Above is what I did for him, based on his gag idea. I got an email from him the other day saying he had received it, and that once he stops retching he’ll draw something for me in return. I am looking forward to getting an original Josh Cooley drawing in the mail whenever he has some down time from working on Oscar-winning blockbuster films (!!). Seriously, what an awesome place to work.

You have to love who you get a chance to meet in this profession!

This past weekend I attended the annual meeting of my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society AKA the North Central Chapter In Omaha, Nebraska. We were treated to beautiful fall weather, great speakers and events and great company.

The speakers, meeting and events all took place in the Old Market area of downtown Omaha, a charming series of bricked streets brimming with local restaurants, pubs, shops and galleries. The event was organized by Omaha World Herald editorial cartoonist and chapter member Jeff Koterba and hosted by KANEKO. KANEKO is a combination gallery, museum studio and educational facility and is self described as “an open space for open minds that nurtures and promotes creativity in the arts, sciences, and philosophy.” It features art shows, workshops, lectures and performances to advance the arts and creativity in all forms. Jeff, along with the KANEKO folks, did an enormous amount of work to put this all together and it was a fantastic event.

The weekend started out with the “Cartoonists in the Classroom” program, where a dozen attending cartoonists were taken to one or more local high schools to talk with art classes about their work and cartooning in general. I participated in this, talking with students at Burke and Millard West High Schools on Friday afternoon. According to KANEKO the program was well received and a great success.

Josh Cooley- Image courtesy of KANEKO

Our guest speaker was Josh Cooley, a story artist and director at Pixar Animation Studios who’s credits include work on “Cars”, “Ratatouille”, “UP” and the forthcoming “Cars 2″. He also directed several of the “UP” shorts called “UPisodes” and the Up extra feature “George and A.J.”. Josh did a presentation on Friday, a workshop on Saturday morning and participated in a panel discussion that afternoon. His work is superb and listening to the process that he and Pixar go through to create their brilliant films was riveting. His talk included a virtual tour of Pixar’s animation studios, which incidentally I would kill (or at least badly maim) to get to see in person, an explanation of what it is he does and examples of the process from rough ideas and story boards on through to the finished results we all enjoy on the silver screen. Josh was an entertaining speaker and it was great fun to get to hear him and take part in his workshop. As is typical when artists of his accomplishments attend something like this, everybody wanted a piece of him so I only got the briefest of chances to meet and chat with him personally. He seems like a great guy and we all appreciated his willingness to come to the midwest and share his time and work with us. I wish I had some pictures to share of this talks, but part of the deal when having a Pixar artist give a presentation is that absolutely no photos, videos or recording of any kind is allowed. Certain parts of me are still smarting from the full body cavity search they gave us prior to Josh’s talk… cartoonist Bucky Jones seemed not to mind it however, as I noticed him sneak back into line for a second helping.

Other speakers and events included:

Cartooning in the New Economy- a panel on the business side of cartooning during this trying economic time and amid the changing climate of publishing. Moderated by John Hambrock (creator of the comic strip The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee) and featuring gag cartoonist Dave Carpenter, editorial cartoonist Ed Fischer, illustrator Buck Jones and editorial cartoonist/illustrator Tom Kerr, the panel discussed how cartoonists have changed with the times to keep on earning a living.

Drawing in the House of Saddam- Cartoonist Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) and I gave a presentation on the cartoonist’s tour to Germany, Kuwait and Iraq last fall which we both were a part of.

Rick Kirkman and I talking about the Iraq Trip- Photo by Cedric Hohnstadt

Sketching As Story- Moderated by Jeff Koterba and featuring Chris Browne (cartoonist on Hagar the Horrible) Josh Cooley, illustrator/animator Cedric Hohnstadt and cartoonist/illustrator/animator/you-name-it Glenn McCoy (The Duplex, The Flying McCoys), this panel discussed how storytelling is incorporated into their work and how they go about it.

The Sketching as Story Panel and the back of Buck Jone’s head…

We were then in for a special treat… the exhibit One Fine Sunday in the Funny pages, curated by “Stay Tooned” editor and publisher John Read was hanging in the Bemis Gallery just down the street, and the crowd sauntered over there to enjoy the show. You can read the details about the exhibit here but in short it is a collection of about 250 comic strips that all appeared in newspapers on the SAME Sunday, April 11th, 2010. I was greatly looking forward to seeing the show, and it was every bit as great as I expected.

Some pics from the exhibit:

A “Pearls Before Swine” Original

Doonesbury!

This one made me laugh out loud…

Edison Lee!

Rick Kirkman and a fan…

We also squeezed in a chapter meeting somewhere there, which included judging the 2010 Toon-Ed Award which featured some gret work in comics, comic strips, animation, editorial cartooning and illustration.

Judging the Toon Ed Award- Photo by Scott Holmes

Of course we also had a great time hanging out with other cartoonists, talking shop and eating and drinking ourselves silly. Great fun for all and a great job by Kaneko, Jeff Koterba, all the guest speakers, John Read and of course our Fearless leader, chapter chairman Mike Edholm.

For the last few NCS Reubens the awards program has kicked off with a short video… often featuring Jeff Keane (The Family Circus) in drag. This year featured not one, not two but THREE videos. The first features Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Jeff Keane (The Family Circus and current NCS President), Jerry Scott (Baby Blues, Zits), Bill Hinds (Tank McNamara, Cleats), Mark Tatulli (Lio, Heart of the City), Sean Parkes (humorous illustrator) and Tom Gammill (screenwriter and The Doozies):

The second is a video by the incomparable Tom Gammill, detailing his quest to find a good seat at the Reuben dinner. It also features Jenny Robb (OSU Billy Ireleand Cartoon Library), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy), Kim Scott (wife of Jerry Scott), Sally and Mell Lazarus (Momma and Miss Peach), Jennie Schulz and Stephan Pastis again.

The last video is the story of how Tom ended up being emcee of the Reubens, and features Jeff and Melinda Keane, and segues into footage from the actual award ceremony.

Funny stuff. Mark actually did sing “Oh, What a beautiful Mornin’” from Oklahoma at the Friday night Karaoke party to set up that gag.

As usual, the Reuben Awards weekend was a blast thanks to the hard work of NCS President Jeff Keane, awards show coordinator Steve McGarry, emcee Tom Gammill, all the speakers, presenters and many others too numerous to list. It’s great fun getting to hang out with so many of the giants of the cartooning world, but it’s easy for those attendees who’s greatest challenge is dragging themselves out of bed after a late late night to forget how much time, effort and energy go into giving us that time. A huge thanks you to Jeff and everyone who worked so hard to make the weekend so much fun.

Here are a few pictures from the 2010 Reubens:

The Lovey Anna and me at Southside Seaport

Me, Steve Brodner and Hilary Price with the hardware

Me with John and Anne Hambrock

MAD men Sam Viviano, me, Ray Alma and Nick Meglin

The legendary Mell Lazarus

Adrian Sinnott and Stephen Silver

Eddie Pittman waits in anticipation for Ed Steckley to sneeze all over
his unsuspecting wife Heather

Me and  Magazine division winner Ray Alma

The 64th annual Reuben Awards from the National Cartoonists Society are history. It was a great evening as usual. Master of Ceremonies Tom Gammill was brilliant and there were two hilarious films that opened the show that were fantastic.

Here are the results of the awards and the

The Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year”:

• Dan Piraro

TELEVISION ANIMATION

• Seth McFarlane – “Family Guy”

FEATURE ANIMATION

• Ronnie del Carmen – Storyboard Artist – “Up”

NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION

• Tom Richmond

GAG CARTOONS

• Glenn McCoy

GREETING CARDS

• Debbie Tomassi

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS

• Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman – “Zits”

NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS

• Hilary Price – “Rhymes with Orange”

MAGAZINE FEATURE/ MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION

• Ray Alma

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

• Dave Whamond – “My Think-A-Ma-Jink”

EDITORIAL CARTOONS

• John Sherffius

ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION

• Steve Brodner

COMIC BOOKS

• Paul Pope – “Strange Adventures”

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• David Mazzucchelli – “Asterios Polyp”

You can see the list complete with links to images from the winners at the NCS website.

I was thrilled to win a divisional Reuben for Newspaper Illustration, and more than a bit shocked because the other two nominees, Bob Rich and Bob Sanchuk are crazy good doing fantastic work. Actually all the nominees in all the divisions deserve their award and yet it has to go to someone, so many thanks to the Southeast Chapter for the honor. All the nominees are winners, in my opinion.

Artwork by Patrick McDonnell

The annual Reuben Awards from the National Cartoonists Society is currenty happening in Jersey City, NJ. I’m at the event all weekend, which is filled with speakers, seminars, parties and general mayhem. Tonight is the big awards banquet. Here, again, are the nominees:

The Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year”:

• Stephen Pastis
• Dan Piraro
• Richard Thompson

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”

You can see the list complete with links to images from many of the artists at the NCS website.

I will attempt to Twitter the winners live from the event, but tomorrow there will be a complete list in lieu of a Sunday Mailbag.