The National Cartoonists Society handed out the Reuben awards final night time, and Bill Griffith acquired the “Reuben” Award, the NCS’s highest honor, introduced to the “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.” The award was introduced on stage by Garfield creator, Jim Davis.
Griffith is the creator of Zippy the Pinhead however has change into recognized in latest 12 months for his graphic biographies, together with this 12 months’s astounding hree Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy. He is a deserving winner certainly.
The swanky affair was held athe the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. Previous Reuben winners embrace Charles Schulz, Al Capp, Alex Raymond, Jeff MacNelly, Gary Larson, Bill Waterson, Mike Peters, Garry Trudeau, and Matt Groening.
The NCS despatched out a listing of winners and an account of the night which follows. Other honoree embrace animator Bill Plympton who acquired the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, and Brian Walker gained the Silver T-Square Award.
Category winners are as follows (you’ll be able to see the nominees right here)
Online Comics- Long kind: Phil Foglio (“Girl Genius”)
Online Comics- Short Form: Rich Powell (“Wide Open”)
Newspaper Comic Strip: Will Henry (“Wallace the Brave”)
Newspaper Panel Comic: Dave Blazek (“Loose Parts”)
Comic Books: Ben Bender (“Beorn: The Littlest Viking”)
Graphic Novel: Alex Ross (“Marvel”)
Book Illustration: Ed Steckley (“Rube Goldberg’s Simple Normal Definitely Different Day Off”)
Magazine/Newspaper Illustration: Nick Galifianakis
Advertising/Product Illustration: Dave Whammond
Editorial Cartoons: Matt Davies
Gag Cartoons: Christopher Weyant
Variety Entertainment: Scott Nickel
I think about there may be some commentary about these winners, so….the remark field is beneath.
And extra data from the NCS:
The night’s awards opened with a comedic musical sketch by cartoonist and Simpsons writing alum, Tom Gammill. Gammill appeared as the ghost of Ernie Bushmiller, the creator of Nancy, joined from past the grave by his outdated pal, Milton Caniff (performed by cartoonist Sean Kelly) to joke about the new world of cartooning. The crowd of practically 300 cartoonists and trade professionals had been in stitches earlier than the awards had even commenced.
A cavalcade of comedic moments unfolded as every divisional award class was introduced by an iconic cartoonist representing every cartooning self-discipline.
Charles Kochman, Editor-In-Chief of Abrams ComicArts who printed GRiffith’s newest, says of his good friend and consumer:
“When I met Bill Griffith virtually ten years in the past, I used to be shocked to find that he had by no means gained a single award for his work. This was not one thing that bothered him—in typical Griffy trend, he wore the Susan Lucci slight as a badge of honor, and, like Groucho Marx, by no means wished to belong to any membership that may have somebody like him for a member.
The actuality is that Bill Griffith created Zippy in 1971, and, since 1986, it has been syndicated by King Features. In addition to writing and illustrating a syndicated caricature seven days per week for thirty-seven years with none assistants, Bill Griffith has by some means—solely not too long ago—discovered the time to analysis, write, and illustrate three (so far) longform graphic novels.
I do know Cartoonist of the Year just isn’t a lifetime achievement award, nevertheless it’s onerous to take a look at the work Bill does every single day (the crosshatching alone) and never shake your head and, as Zippy would say, exclaim “Yow!”
So, prefer it or not, Bill, you are actually a Reuben Award winner. Welcome to the membership—you earned it.”
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Animator Bill Plympton Receives the NCS Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award
The “Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award” is given for a protracted profession of excellent work to a cartoonist who has not beforehand gained a Reuben, and is awarded by unanimous vote of the NCS Board of Directors. This 12 months the “Caniff” was introduced to animation legend Bill Plympton.
Plympton is taken into account the King of Indie Animation, and is the first individual handy draw a whole animated function movie. He moved to New York City from Portland, Oregon in 1968 and commenced his profession creating cartoons for publications comparable to New York Times, National Lampoon, Playboy and Screw. In 1987, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his animated brief “Your Face”. In 2005, Plympton acquired one other Academy Award nomination, this time for his brief “Guard Dog”. “Push Comes to Shove” gained the prestigious Cannes 1991 Prix du Jury; and in 2001, one other brief movie, “Eat”, gained the Grand Prize for Short Films in Cannes Critics’ Week.
After producing many shorts that appeared on MTV and Spike and Mike’s, he turned his expertise to function movies. Since 1991, he’s made eleven function movies. Eight of them are all animated options.
Bill Plympton has additionally collaborated with Madonna, Kanye West and Weird Al Yankovic in a variety of music movies and guide initiatives.
The Caniff was introduced by award-winning illustrator Peter de Sève.
Brian Walker Honored with the NCS Silver T-Square Award
The “Silver T-Square” is awarded, by unanimous vote of the NCS Board, to individuals who’ve demonstrated excellent dedication or service to the Society or the career. This 12 months the NCS acknowledged Brian Walkers’s long-standing dedication to the National Cartoonist Society, our members, the cartooning neighborhood and its fandom with a “Silver T-Square”
Brian Walker has had a various background in skilled cartooning and cartoon scholarship: He is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art, the place he labored for practically 20 years. He has written, edited or contributed to forty-five books on cartoon artwork, together with the definitive historical past, The Comics – The Complete Collection printed by Abrams ComicArts.
He taught cartoon historical past at the School of Visual Arts and has served as curator for seventy 5 cartoon exhibitions together with The Sunday Funnies: 100 Years of Comics in American Life, at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 100 Years of American Comics at the Belgian Center for Comic Art in Brussels, Masters of American Comics at the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and George Herriman – Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. He is the founder and present chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, and has been a useful a part of the NCS neighborhood for many years.
His exceptional dedication to the cartooning trade has been made on prime of his duties as a part of the artistic staff that produces the comedian strips, Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois for practically 40 years.
Walker mentioned the timing of the award was of particular significance, approaching the week of what would have been the a hundredth birthday of his late father, cartooning legend Mort Walker.
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