At Last It Can Be Told

Welcome to the July-August issue of The Cartoon!st. Trust me, in ten years or so when you’re flipping through your copy and reminiscing about the good old days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, you’ll have completely forgotten that it didn’t come out until September!

In this column I have an important announcement to make, but before I get to that I want to correct an egregious error that I made in last issue’s column. You may recall that in my recap of the 2016 Reuben Awards weekend at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, I finished by thanking everyone short of the person who invented pillow mints! But in the process of editing I somehow dropped the paragraph that thanked John Glynn, Andy Sareyan, and all the fine folks at Universal Uclick/GoComics for hosting the fabulous Reuben Awards Banquet! The main event that the entire Reuben weekend is built around, and I didn’t thank the sponsor! Unbelievable! It’s like buying a Mercedes-Benz and then prying that metal three quarters of a peace sign-looking emblem off the back of the car!

Well, now that I’ve got one Reuben weekend under my belt I can say with authority that without the support of our friends at Universal, the Reuben Awards would be only a shadow of the gala affair we all look forward to every year. Besides being such a generous Reuben sponsor, the people at Universal are also our dear friends and colleagues, and they deserve our praise and gratitude for everything they do for us.

And now, speaking of the Reuben Award weekend, let’s talk about 2017. I’m sure most of you know that we usually announce the next year’s Reuben city at the Saturday business meeting during the Reuben weekend (although somehow word always leaks out and the president spends the Friday night welcome party continually answering the question “Is it true that next year we’ll be in [Insert name of super topsecret city here]?” ).

Well, this year a confluence of events prevented me from locking in the 2017 city before the 2016 Reuben weekend, and further happenstances transpired to keep me from making a decision even by press time of the May-June issue of The Cartoon!st, so the announcement is coming a bit later than usual. Historians will decide if I go down as the maverick NCS president who spat in the face of long-established traditions and forged a daring new path, or the president who procrastinated until the last minute, finally flipping a coin to make his decisions.

Either way, I’m happy to finally announce that the 71st Annual Reuben Awards will be held in Portland, Oregon! Plans are well underway for all aspects of the weekend and more announcements will be coming in the next issue of the newsletter, but I can answer a few follow-up questions that I know many of you already have, such as:

Q: Hey Bill, will the Reubens be on Memorial Day weekend as usual?

A: You bet, so mark your calendars

Coming through in a pinch — or more appropriately here, a strike — is a piece of art JumpStarted by Robb Armstrong, who has a new book out that mixes inspirational stories with comics and even drawing lessons. An excerpt from Fearless – A Cartoonist’s Guide to Life begins on Page 5.

NCS BOARD

Honorary Chairman

Mort Walker President

Bill Morrison 805-579-9827

First Vice President

Jason Chatfield

Second Vice President

“The Cartoon!st” is the official publication of the National Cartoonists Society, P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the NCS. Entire contents ©2016 National Cartoonists Society, except where other copyrights are designated.

The Cartoon!st needs your news, opinions, drawings and photos. Address all materials to: Frank Pauer, 53 Beverly Place, Dayton, OH 45419. Phone: 937-296-0502 home, 937-229-3934 days. Email: fpauer1@udayton.edu

Deadline for the next issue: September 25

Hilary Price 413-586-0223

Third Vice President

Darrin Bell 510-205-8592 Secretary

John Kovaleski 717-334-5926 Treasurer

John Hambrock 262-658-2676

Membership Chairman

Sean Parkes 480-626-2702

National Representative

Ed Steckley 413-478-4314

NCS COMMITTEES

The Cartoon!st

Frank Pauer 937-229-3934 fpauer1@udayton.edu

Ethics Steve McGarry mac@stevemcgarry.com

Education Rob Smith Jr. (rob@robsmithjr.com)

Greeting Card Contracts Carla Ventresca 615-480-7931

NCS FOUNDATION

President Steve McGarry 714-593-0514 mac@stevemcgarry.com

For questions about accounting, membership, database and dues renewals, contact: National Cartoonists Society P.O. Box 592927 Orlando, FL 32859-2927 407-994-6703 info@reuben.org

The National Cartoonists Society Web Site: www.reuben.org.

Please address correspondence to: Frank Pauer, 53 Beverly Place, Dayton, OH 45419, or fpauer1@udayton.edu

REUBEN AWARDS WEEKEND MAY 26-28, 2017

and save the dates; May 26-28!

Q: How much will rooms cost at the hotel?

A: Cheaper than last year! Plus, Oregon has no sales tax, so your money will go a lot farther at the hotel and throughout the city!

Q: What makes Portland worthy of an NCS weekend?

A: Portland is a true cartoonists’ town. It’s often referred to as “Comic Book City” due to the plethora of comic artists and writers who live and work there! It’s also the home of no less that two comic book companies (Dark Horse and Oni Press) and animation studios such as Laika Entertainment (makers of Coraline,

Paranorman, The Boxtrolls, etc.), Happy Trails Animation, and Deep Sky Studios.

It’s also where our good friends at Wacom now reside, so you can be sure that they’ll be present at the convention as they were in Memphis with lots of new digital drawing gizmos for us to play with throughout the weekend!

Portland also boasts many unique attractions such as Powell’s City of Books, the largest independent new-and-usedbookstore in the world (They actually provide maps to help you navigate your way around the store!); The Tardis Room (a dive bar for all you Dr. Who fans!); The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium (What cartoonist wouldn’t love a one-of-a-kind museum and shop dedicated to sci-fi art, historical oddities and urban legends?); and literally as many micro-breweries as Baskin-Robbins has ice cream flavors!

It’s also near several great natural attractions like the Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Hood and the Willamette Valley wine region — it’s a terrific town to build a vacation around!

So start making your plans to attend the 2017 Reuben weekend and I’ll get back to finalizing plans on this end so I can give you more exciting information next issue!

Bill Morrison roswell2@earthlink.net