Winner Tom Richmond blogs the Reuben weekend, as with the above picture of Mell Lazarus, THE NEW YORKER’S Mort Gerberg, editorial cartoonist & GRIMMY creator Mike Peters.
I’m back from another terrific time at the NCS Reuben awards. The board members and officers really work hard to make this event fun, entertaining and relaxing every year. They secure the sponsorship of the major syndicates like United Media, King Features and others to pay for lavish dinners, parties and gatherings throughout the weekend, which also includes a number of guest speakers and plenty of time left over to hang out with friends and colleagues. Sleep is often an afterthought, with parties going until the wee hours every day.
Mike Lynch has a ton of pictures, as well.
Tom has the complete list of winners but we’ll copy part of it here just to show that Gene Yang won the Comic Book category
* Advertising Illustration: Tom Richmond
* Animation Feature: Carter Goodrich, Character Designer, Open Season
* Animation Television: Craig McCracken, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
* Book Illustration: Mike Lester
* Comic Books: Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese
* Editorial Cartoons: Mike Ramirez
* Gag Cartoons: Drew Dernavich
* Greeting Cards: Carla Ventresca
* Magazine Feature Magazine Illustration: Steve Brodner
* Newspaper Illustration: Laurie Triefeldt
* Newspaper Panels: Hilary Price
* Newspaper Strips: Stephan Pastis
As noted previously, Bill Amend won Cartoonist of the Year.
Since he’s finally popped up here, I have to share my thoughts on what an amazingly kind individual Mike Peters is (and a talented cartoonist with a Pulitzer Prize to boot)….
I was flying home with my family from a trip to England that was already a mind blowing experience for me at the age of about nine. I saw the guy across the aisle from me with a small legal pad full of four panel Mother Goose and Grimm cartoons about five to a page. He had dozens, if not hundreds all penned out there. I told my mother that he had to be the artist. She said that I was just getting excited and that it’s not really him, leave him alone, that kind of thing. I dug out my paper and pens (because what nine year old travels without such supplies) and started to silently draw my own Grimmy. The gentleman must have noticed me because at one point he leans over and says, “excuse me, but what’s your first name?” I told him, and then I watched him quickly write it into a word balloon and he then presented me with a huge sketch of Grimmy saying, “Jonathan is top dog!”
I was floored! I freaked out and showed my parents, and we all started talking. He was indeed Mike Peters the author/artist of Mother Goose and Grimm. My older brother was so jealous that he came around the aisle and sheepishly asked for a picture too. He obliged without a flinch.
It turns out that Mr. Peters lived at the time in the same town as my grandmother. He gave me a business card and told me, “next time you go to visit your grandmother, give me a call and come see me.” Of course my parents thought it was just a nice thing to say, however I took it to heart. The following summer just over a year later I visited my grandmother, and I did call him up. I basically said, “remember me?” and he actually *did* remember me!
He was leaving on a flight in relatively short time but he invited my grandmother and me over to his house. He showed me his private little “studio” which was less drafting boards and light tables and more stacks and stacks of magazines, newspapers, loose leafs of paper, and various other print. He had a television that he never turned off and never turned away from CNN (I believe it was). He showed me some of his original cartoons that had yet to be printed in the Sunday funny pages. He was going to give me the original but he hadn’t sent it into the newspaper yet so he photocopied one and signed it. Then he quickly did another large Grimmy sketch for me. He showed me some of his private art collection, as well as some really incredibly projects with other famous cartoonists that I don’t even have time to begin describing here, but basically imagine if the artist from every popular comic strip from the past 50 years drew all of their characters mingling with all of the other characters at a cocktail party. It was incredible!
He showed me his home, the little pond behind his house, even the family of ducks that took to his property that came and went as the seasons changed. I was so incredibly excited at the time but now looking back I get even more excited. I just can’t believe what lengths he went to, what incredible effort he put into some stranger, just because he saw me copying his Grimmy cartoons on my page. I haven’t spoken to him since that day at his house, though I sent him fan mail for a few years after that, and he will go down in my own personal history as one of the most generous people that I have ever known.
Mike Peters is one of the greats. His editorial cartoons are funny and biting, and Mother Goose And Grimm is still worth a look after some twenty years.
I was lucky to have seen his talk at the Library Of Congress in 1994, when he and Jeff McNelly talked about all sorts of things.
He has also done a how-to television show in the 70s for Ohio Public Television. Don’t know if it still exists, but probably worth the trouble of finding out!
I believe that’s one of the DVD’s mentioned on his website that can be found at various places around the web. Supposedly there’s also Grimmy cartoons on DVD that I’m going to have to track down too!
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