Honored to be Honored

I had a nice surprise is the mail yesterday. My plaque for winning the National Cartoonists Society Divisional award, aka the “Silver Reuben” for “Best in Magazine/Newspaper Illustration” for 2019 arrived on my doorstep, and was not stolen by porch pirates. Yes, this is 2021 and this was for 2019, but the mail is slow during a pandemic! Actually as there was no in-person NCS Reuben Award Weekend this year, the awards and speaking program were done virtually back in September as part of NCSFest, so it hasn’t been all that long since the awards were announced (BTW if you want to see any of the presentations and talks from virtual NCSFest, you can do that here anytime, and for free). As you can see I’ve already hung the plaque up in the studio. Looks great!

This is a great honor. The list of cartoonists who have been recognized by the National Cartoonists Society is a literal who’s who of the greatest and most talented cartoonists to have ever put pen to paper, and being part of that group is humbling. Plus, these are voted on by peers and people who really know the industry, and praise from the praiseworthy is the best kind.

This one is also a bit bittersweet, since 2019 really represented the last of my major work for MAD. That year had several issues where I had multiple pieces, and there was a wide range of subject matter/unique features like the “Tarantino” cover and retro parody, my final traditional movie parody (“Aquaman”), a political mash up (“Mary Poopins Goes to the White House”), and two pieces in what looks to be the last “MAD 20”. It was nice to receive this honor as a sort of end cap to my time at MAD.

So, thank you , NCS! This means a lot. 2020 didn’t have many positives but this was one of them.