NOMINEES FOR NCS REUBEN AWARD
The National Cartoonists Society meets this weekend, May 22-24, in Washington, D.C., where the winners of the “division awards” (now termed “Silver Reubens”) will be announced.
Nominees for the Granddaddy Award, the Reuben (no metallic adjective) are: Roz Chast, whose graphic memoir about her parents’ last years, Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant, has resulted in a deluge of honors and recognitions (Kirkus Prize, National Book Critics Circle rcognition); Hilary Price (Rhymes With Orange comic strip) and Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine comic strip). This is Pastis’ seventh nomination and Price’s second; for Chast, it’s the first.
With two women cartoonists up, we might encounter a historic moment when this year’s Reuben is finally conferred. Only two women (Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse, and Cathy Guisewite, Cathy) have collected a Reuben statuette in the Society’s nearly 70-year history.
On the other (not so nice) hand, if this were a political election in which supporters of women are pitted against supporters of men, two women candidates divide the women’s vote, assuring the election of the man. Pastis’ seventh nomination might turn out to be his luckiest.
But then, this isn’t a political election.
The winners of the Reuben and the Silver Reubens will all be announced during the annual NCS Reuben Awards dinner on May 23rd.
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