2010 NCS Reuben Weekend Art

Click for a closer look…

For the last several years I’ve had the honor of doing an illustration for the National Cartoonists Society’s annual Reuben Award weekend that they use to adorn the official T-shirt, programs, etc. I usually draw caricatures of the guest speakers and recipients of NCS honors like the Milton Caniff or the Silver T-Square awards amid some scene that has something to do with the location of the event.

This year there were a LOT of guest speakers and award recipients, and the Reubens are being held in Jersey City, New Jersey at a hotel on the Hudson overlooking the Manhattan skyline. I briefly toyed with a “Sopranos” or “Jersey Shore” theme, but quickly nixed the former as old news and the latter as unworthy of more attention than it already gets. So, NCS president Jeff Keane and I went with the above theme… since nobody was seriously hurt in that incident it seemed like a decent gag.

Since there are so many cartoonists in this image here’s a key to the faces:

1. Isabella Bannerman
2. Rina Piccolo
3. Anne Gibbons
4. Benita Epstein
5. Stephanie Piro
6. Margaret Shulock
7. Stephen Silver
8. Stan Goldberg
9. Mort Drucker
10. John Reiner
11. Larry Katzman
12. Joe Kubert
13. George Booth
14. Steve Brodner
15. Bill Plympton
16. Yaakov Kirschen

Whew. Absolutely no pressure having to draw caricatures of master caricaturists Mort Drucker, Steve Brodner, Steve Silver, Bill Plympton and John Reiner… 🙄

Anyway, it’s all in good fun and the Reubens will be happening May 18th-30th in New Joisey.