NCS Reuben Awards Speakers Announced

Clicky to Embiggen… Roughly left to right: Tom Gammill, “Weird Al” Yankovic,
Greg Evans, Eddie Pittman, Sandra Bell-Lundy, Russ Heath,
Bunny Hoest Carpenter, John Reiner, Suzy Spafford, Chris Houghton.

The lineup for the speakers for the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards Weekend was just released:

From the NCS Website

• Eddie Pittman– Animator, illustrator, creator of the online graphic novel Red’s Planet
• Chris Houghton– Animator, comic artist, illustrator, 2009 winner of the NCSF Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship
• Greg Evans– 2003 Reuben Award winning creator of the syndicated comic strip Luann.
• Suzy Spafford– Creator of Suzy’s Zoo, greeting card/product/licensing entrepenuer
• Sandra Bell-Lundy– Creator of the syndicated comic strip Between Friends, which is celebrating 20 years in syndication.
• Bunny Hoest Carpenter and John Reiner– Recipients of the 2014 NCS Gold Key Award (The NCS Hall of Fame), creative team on the syndicated panel cartoon The Lockhorns
• Russ Heath– Comics legend and recipient of the 2014 NCS Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award

Also on the agenda for the Reuben Awards Show:

• Tom Gammill– TV writer, producer on The Simpsons and the host of the Reuben Awards show
• “Weird Al” Yankovic– Grammy winning musician, humorist, winner of the 2014 NCS A.C.E. Award (Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinaire)

That’s my art for the official brochure above.

Just a quick word on the A.C.E. award. This was an award that used to be given out pretty regularly back in the day. It was awarded to a famous person who wanted to be a cartoonist when they were young but ended up becoming famous for something else. Some past winners include Carol Burnett, Jonathan Winters, Jackie Gleason, Orson Bean, Ginger Rogers, Al Roker, Denis Leary and Morely Safer, among many others. Weird Al wanted to be a writer for MAD Magazine growing up, and for some silly reason became a Grammy award-winning musician instead.

Looks like another fun NCS Reuben Awards, at it all happens Memorial Day weekend in San Diego, CA!