Welcome to part three of my posts on this year’s National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards weekend. Today’s post will focus on the actual Reuben Awards themselves! They took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California on the evening of May 23.
For those of you not familiar with the Reuben Awards (named after the great Rube Goldberg), they are bestowed annually on the best and the brightest in the cartooning business. Awards are given in several categories of illustration, comic strips, animation, comic books, comic panels, and editorial cartooning. And of course, there is the very prestigious Reuben Award itself that is given to the Cartoonist of the Year. You can see all the categories and read about the history of the awards on the NCS website.
So, that being said, let’s get on with the photos, shall we? There are lots of cartoonists to see – cartoonists in ball gowns and tuxedos no less! You don’t see THAT every day!
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The Reuben night began with a cocktail reception outside the Renaissance Hotel’s ballroom where the annual Governor’s Ball for the Oscars is always held. On one side of us were the exit doors from the upper level of the Kodak Theater, and on the other was the ballroom.
MAD Magazine fellas Sergio Aragonès, Sam Viviano, and Nick Meglin. You can see animation guy Stephen Silver just over Sam’s head.The New Yorker’s Mort Gerberg with his wife.Brad “Marmaduke” Anderson who hails from, um, who comes from…. shoot, which state is he from again?Another crowd shot with the witty Dave Blazek (“Loose Parts”) in the front right.Reuben Award nominee Dan Piraro (“Bizarro”) with his wife Ashley Smith.David Folkman, designer of “Hogan’s Alley” magazine, is always the official photographer for the Reubens. However, none of these shots are his this time.Another crowd shot with Megan and Max Keane (Glen Keane’s son) chatting with his Aunt Melinda.Karen O’Connell, her husband Patrick McDonnell (“Mutts”) and MAD man Sergio Aragonès.
Once the cocktail reception ended, the party moved indoors where guests were treated to a wonderful dinner prepared by Wolfgang Puck’s crew. Dinner was accompanied by a big band, and lots of shmoozing. Thankfully, there was a coffee table open throughout the night as the dinner and awards did not let up until close to midnight.
New NCS member from New York Chari Pere with “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams and his wife, Shelly.Pauline and Stan Goldberg, longtime artist of Archie comics including the upcoming issues dealing with Archie’s impending nuptials to Betty. Or is it Veronica?Mell Lazarus (“Momma”) with Bill Janocha who works as an assistant to Mort Walker of “Beetle Bailey” fame.A variation on a photo from Part 1. It’s the New Jersey contingent. Tom Stemmle, Don Wimmer (“Rose Is Rose”), Chad Frye (who grew up in Jersey), Patrick McDonnell (“Mutts”) and Peter Gallagher (“Heachcliff”).The band. Profound, I know.The three folks on the left are Mark Tatulli (“Lìo”) and his son and wife, and on the right are Rob and Amber Harrell (“Big Top” and “Adam@Home”).Cartoonists Chari Pere, Rich Moyer, John Kovaleski, Paul Jon Boscacci, Sean Parkes, and Terry Willis.There were awards to be won, after all. Here is the winner of the Newspaper Panel Division award Mark Parisi (for “Off the Mark”) flanked on either side by Ron Boychuck and Brian Boychuck, creators of the “Chuckle Bros.” strip.Jeff Bacon, winner of the Silver T-square Award for volunteerism in the profession with Rob Smith, Jr. Jeff has been responsible for getting many cartoonists together to travel as U.S.O. ambassadors to visit wounded U.S. soldiers here and abroad. Rob recently went on one of the trips with Jeff to Germany.Dave Coverly (“Speed Bump”), winner of the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year being congratulated by fellow nominee Dan Piraro (“Bizarro”).Jim Borgman (“Zits”) posing with Reuben Winner Dave Coverly (“Speed Bump”).
Even though the evening was late, many convention goers headed down to the lobby to continue socializing. They weren’t down there for long when Dave Coverly came down to round everyone up to head on up to the spacious Presidential Suite to join President Jeff Keane and wife Melinda. And so the party continued!
The party in the Presidential Suite where you might see Jerry Van Amermongen (“Ballard Street”) chatting with Vic Lee (“Pardon My Planet”) and Rick Kirkman (“Baby Blues”), Sally & Mell Lazarus with Darrin Bell (“Candorville”), and many others.Mike Peters (“Mother Goose and Grimm”) with Amy Lago, comics editor of the Washington Post Syndicate.From Glasgow, Scotland, the two Meehan brothers who attended the black-tie awards banquet in traditional kilts. Here, David Meehan (left), brother of King Features’ “Pros and Cons” cartoonist Kieran Meehan (right) flank Kenny Zelnis, the former Michigan high school teacher who encouraged Reuben Award winner Dave Coverly to get into cartooning.A parting shot of the Presidential party that went through the night. Hilary Price (“Rhymes With Orange”) can be seen in the forground chatting with Amber Harrell, Tom Gammill (“The Doozies”), and The Simpsons’ David Silverman while in the background is Amy Lago and Steve McGarry among others.
If you were hoping to find a complete list of winners from the night’s festivities, I invite you to check out my post in Part 1 of these Reubens Reports. All the winners are listed there!
Many thanks to illustrator Sean Kelly, and cartoonists Chari Pere,Rob Smith Jr. and Tom Stemmle for the use of their photos in this post. Come back again tomorrow when I will have my last of the 2009 Reuben photo spreads featuring the events on Sunday that include a late afternoon meal at the home of Cathy Guisewite and the evening karaoke party!
And a little P.S. to the Reuben Awards – This is Nicolas Marlet, character designer for Dreamworks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda” movie. Unable to attend the Reubens himself, I dropped by Dreamworks to hand Nico his Feature Animation Division Award.
