2014 NCS “Silver Reuben” Divisional Awards Announced!

The National Cartoonists Society just posted the 2014 nominees for the “Silver Reuben” Divisional Awards. Here’s the complete list with nominees in alphabetical order:

Advertising Illustration

• Kevin Kallaugher
• Ed Steckley
• Dave Whammond

Editorial Cartoons

• Clay Bennett
• Michael Ramirez
• Jen Sorensen

Gag Cartoons

• Liza Donnelly
• Benjamin Schwartz
• Edward Steed

Magazine Feature

• Ray Alma
• Anton Emdin
• Tom Richmond

Newspaper Illustration

• Anton Emdin
• Glen LeLievre
• Ed Murawinski

Newspaper Strips

• Brian Bassett (Red and Rover)
• Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine)
• Glenn McCoy (The Duplex)

Book Illustration

• Marla Frazee “The Farmer and the Clown”
• Yasmeen Ismail “Time for Bed, Fred”
• Shaun Tan “Rules of Summer”

Online Long Form

• Vince Dorse (The Untold Tales of Bigfoot)
• Mike Norton (Battlepug)
• Minna Sundberg (Stand Still, Stay Silent)

Online Short Form

• Danielle Corsetto (Girls with Slingshots)
• Jonathan Lemon (Rabbits Against Magic)
• Rich Powell (Wide Open)

Greeting Cards

• Gary McCoy
• Glenn McCoy
• Maria Scrivan

 Comic Books

• Jason Latour (Southern Bastards)
• Babs Tarr (Batgirl)
• H. Williams III (The Sandman Overture)

 Graphic Novels

• Jules Feiffer (Kill My Mother)
• Mike Maihak (Cleopatra in Space)
• Jillian Tamaki (This One Summer)

Newspaper Panels

• Dave Blazek (Loose Parts)
• Mark Parisi (Off the Mark)
• Hilary Price (Rhymes with Orange)

Feature Animation

• Paul Felix (production designer: “Big Hero 6”)
• Tomm Moore (Director: “Song of the Sea”)
• Isao Takahata (Director: “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”)

Television Animation

• Mark Ackland (Storyboards- “The Void” : “Wander Over Yonder)
• Patrick McHale (Creator “Over the Garden Wall”)
• Kyle Menke (storyboards- “Star Wars” parody episode “Phineas and Ferb”)

I’m quite honored to be nominated for magazine illustration this year. I haven’t submitted my work for consideration since I became president of the NCS, but as the awards were voted on by the entire membership, I thought I’d put some of my work in the ring again. This will be my ninth nomination for “Magazine Illustration/Magazine Feature”. So far zero wins. Forget Susan Lucci, I guess I am the Stephan Pastis of the magazine division (Stephan’s on his eighth nomination for the “Reuben” for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year”)! I don’t mind… nominations are a big honor in themselves and there will be no shame in watching Anton Emdin go up and accept another award.

Actually a nomination this year is an even bigger honor than usual. Thanks to the online voting process, this was the first year all members got a say in the results as opposed to the old system where a small jury made the decisions. It’s much more meaningful when the process is so much more democratic.

I was also pleased with the results of the “Online Comics” division nominees. Danielle Corsetto’s Girls with Slingshots, Mike Norton’s Battlepug and Minna Sundberg’s Stand Still, Stay Silent are all terrific strips with no ties at all to the NCS, and it’s always great to see work outside the organization honored. The other nominees are also great strips and comics, but are part of “GoComics” or in Vince’s case a past nominee and member. Last year we got (unfairly and wrongly) accused by a few misinformed people that we were biased towards GoComics properties since all of the nominees for “Online- Short Form” were on GoComics. That was complete rubbish of course. The jury that did the deliberating were shown 12 samples of each comic, and not told where they were published online. The jury was biased only for what they considered the best work. The same jury picked nothing but independently published webcomics under the same process the year before. Anyway, this year the entire membership made the choices, and it is nice to see the results.