Thank You NCS!

I am in Indianapolis this weekend teaching a caricature workshop. Yesterday I am in the middle of the opening presentation when one of my students gets up with his phone and plays us all a video from the live virtual National Cartoonists Society NCSFest, where I was awarded a “Silver Reuben” divisional award for “Magazine/Newspaper Illustration”. I got a nice round of applause from the class! It was a nice surprise.

I had to do back to teaching the class, so I was not properly able to thank the NCS for this honor. There is nothing like being recognized by your peers. It made me sad that we were not able to get together for the annual NCS Reuben Award Weekend this year, and I was also sad that the virtual NCSFest landed on one of the few weekend in the last 6 months I was NOT sitting at home where I could have watched the whole NCSFest event live online.

Congrats to my fellow nominees Peter Kuper, Jason Chatfield and Dave Whammond, all three of which are more than deserving of this honor. The award will hang proudly in my studio to remind me that even though I’ve been faking in through my whole career in cartooning, I’m faking it with FEELING.