THE REUBEN AND THE NCS DIVISION AWARDS
Newspaper Comic Strips—Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine; *Mark Tatulli, Lio; and Richard Thompson, Cul de Sac. Newspaper Panel Cartoons—Vic Lee, Pardon My Planet; *Mark Parisi, Off the Mark; and Jeff Stahler, Moderately Confused. Editorial Cartoons—Mike Luckovich (who won the Reuben a couple years ago, the same year he won the Pulitzer), *Michael Ramirez (who has won in this category before, and last year, took home the Pulitzer), and Jeff Parker (who, besides editorial cartoons, does Mother Goose and Grimm on alternate weeks for Mike Peters). Magazine Gag Cartoons—Pat Byrnes, *Mort Gerberg (both mostly New Yorker cartoonists), and Werner Wejp-Olsen. Television Animation—Bryan Arnett, Character Design, “The Mighty B!”; Ben Balistreri, Character Design, “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends”; and *Sandra Equihua and Jorge Gutierrez, Creators, “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.” Feature Animation—James Baxter, 2D Character Animator, “Kung Fu Panda”; Clay Katis, Supervising Animator, “Bolt”; *Nicolas Marlet, Character Designer, “Kung Fu Panda.”
Newspaper Illustration—Lars Leetaru, *Mark Marturello, and Sean Kelly. Greeting Cards—Kevin Ahern, *Jem Sullivan, and Debbie Tomassi. Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration—Daryll Collins, Bob Staake (noted here for his New Yorker cover the week Obama won), and *Sam Viviano. Book Illustration—Jim Benton, Stacy Curtis (otherwise, an editorial cartoonist), and *Mike Lester (ditto). Advertising Illustration—Roy Doty, *Craig McKay, and Jack Pittman.
And, finally, “Comic Books”—Chris Blain, Gus & His Gang, Matthew Forsythe, Ojingogo, and *Cyril Pedrosa, Three Shadows. I say “Comic Books” rather than Comic Books (without incriminating quotation marks) because none of the nominees is in this category because he produced a “comic book”; they’re all here because they produced “graphic novels,” which have become the respectable multi-page form that NCS can give awards for. By ignoring comic books, NCS is overlooking such masterfully done comic books as, say, Loveless or Casanova or Army @ Love or 100 Bullets—real four-color visual-verbal fiction, not high-fallutin’ “graphic novels.” The problem here, it seems to me, is ignorance: NCS is still, as it always has been, chiefly the redoubt of syndicated cartoonists, and the organization has harbored a deep-seated bias about comic books, which, when NCS started giving out awards, were (and still are) produced by teams rather than single creative consciousnesses. NCS wants to award single cartoonists, not teams. Or it did, at the beginning; and the custom has persisted even as animation categories often recognize groups of creators. The titles I just listed are well and inventively drawn, regardless of how written; and one of them, Army @ Love, is both written and drawn by that creative colossus, Rick Veitch. NCS, however, remains stunningly oblivious of such achievements—which means, by the way (although not at all incidentally), that the Society is blind to the cartooning arena in which the most innovative work is being done these days. But let me move on before I whip myself into a froth.
At last, then, we get to the candidates for the Reuben: *Dave Coverly, Speed Bump; Dan Piraro, Bizarro (both panel cartoonists) and Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine. Coverly, no speed bump he, walked away with the heavy metal statuette. Good on y’, Dave.
Congrats to all, winners and nominees alike, but especially to the winners. (Cheers, general applause, foot stomping, some shrieks of girlish laughter, trumpets blaring, drums rattling, and assorted kinds of exuberant behavior.)
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Posted by: Art Dissertation | January 06, 2010 at 08:03 AM