This past August 6-8th I attended the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Awards in Columbus Ohio. It was a great time celebrating the world’s greatest cartoonists and being inspired by the close community of artists from across the globe. As a University of Michigan Alum, I had to begrudgingly accept the amazing curation and collection of the Billy Ireland Museum at Ohio State. The first day had a few seminars followed by viewings of the incredible history of cartoons the museum had to offer. We also had a happy hour where I was able to meet several CartoonStock cartoonists such as Phil Witte, Pat Byrnes and Gag Nominee Tom Toro.
Speaking of nominee’s, CartoonStock helps represent over 25% of the candidates for a Reuben award.
Newspaper panel
Dave Blazek (Winner!)
Bill Whitehead
Mag Illustration
Tom Chitty
Gag
Joe Dator
Amy Hwang
Tom Toro (Winner!)
Editorial
Pedro Molina (Winner!)
Michael Ramirez
On Friday we had our black tie awards. Here I am with Mort Gerberg, his wife Judith and cartoonist (and nominee and previous Gag winner) Joe Dator.
Tom Toro won the award for best Gag Cartoonist! (Sorry about the blurry photo.)
The next day I visited several artists doing talks and book signings. Below are a few fans with Maria Scrivan, who, along with being a cartoonist is also a graphic novelist.
And here is Jim Benton digging for ideas with a young fan.
Lastly, it was great to share the cartoon world with my kids, who got to meet one of their heroes in Dav Pilkey. While not a CartoonStock artist, we are working on it!
A full list of the winners can be found here. Hope to see you next year in San Diego!