The National Cartoonists Society is starting it’s annual call for entries for consideration for their NCS Divisional Awards recognizing excellence in professional cartooning. As always, you DO NOT have to be a member of the NCS to have your work considered for a divisional award… all that is required is that the work be eligible as detailed below.

New this year is a division for Online Comic Strip… see this post for the details on this new category.

Below you will find a list of the juries which will judge the categories, the jury chair and the address to which you will send your entry. As always, NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED, with the exception of Online Comics, which allows an emailed PDF submission. Below is a short recap of several rules and guidelines, which govern the awards:

Please remember only recent work can be considered. This means work published between the dates of December 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011.

Please submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published. Online Comics should provide Archive.org links for verification.

Online comic creators and their comics must adhere to the following criteria for eligibility:

• Comic-strip format only (no single panels, long-form narrative. etc.)
• Originally published in English or pantomime
• Must be web only publication (any syndication in print would make it eligible for the Newspaper Comic Strip Division)
• Must be at least a weekly
• Must have shown consistent publication based on determined time-schedule (i.e. it being a daily, twice-a-week, weekly, etc) over the course of the 2011 calendar year
• Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning (although not necessarily directly from the submitted strip) in order to adhere to the NCS criteria that creators under consideration must be either full members or eligible for full membership

If your syndicated cartoon runs in both strip and panel format you can submit to one of those divisions, not both (your choice).

Your submissions must be submitted to their respective locations by February 6, 2012.

List of Juries and Submission Addresses:

Cartoonists are invited to submit their work (or the work of anyone else) no later than February 6, 2012, for consideration for one or more of the following Division Awards:

TELEVISION ANIMATION-
Submit one or more samples in VHS or DVD format of aired or exhibited work that was released in the year 2011 to: Chad Frye, 518 E. Cypress Ave. #C, Burbank, CA 91501 (chad@chadfrye.com)

FEATURE ANIMATION-
Submit one or more samples in VHS or DVD format of aired or exhibited work that was released in the year 20101to: David Folkman, NCS Los Angeles Chapter, 6171 W. Century Blvd. #160, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (folkmanart@aol.com)

NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION-
Submit up to 6 samples of 2011 published work to: Polly Keener, NCS Great Lakes Chapter, 400 W. Fairlawn Blvd., Akron, OH 44313-4510 (pollytoon@aol.com)

GAG CARTOONS
Submit up to 12 samples of 2011 published work to: Mark Parisi, NCS New England Chapter, 16 Slayton Rd., Melrose, MA 02176 (markparisi@aol.com)

GREETING CARDS
Submit up to 6 samples of 2011 published work to: Mike Edholm, NCS North Central Chapter, 2108 Sandstone Road, Lincoln, NE 68512 (medholm1@mac.com)

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS
Submit up to 12 samples of 2011 published work to: Rob Smith, Jr., NCS Florida Chapter, PO Box 540103, Orlando, FL 32854-0103 (ncs@robsmithjr.com)

NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS
Submit up to 12 samples of 2011 published work to: Mike Cope, NCS Canada Chapter, 46 Church Street, Stoney Creek, Ontario, CANADA, L8E 2X8 (mikecope@copetoons.com)

MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION
Submit up to 6 samples of 2011 published work to: Brian Walker, NCS Connecticut Chapter, 34 Forge Rd, Wilton, CT 06897 (hiandlois1@aol.com)

BOOK ILLUSTRATION
Send up to 6 samples of 2011 published work to: Adrian Sinnott, NCS Long Island Chapter, 27 East 24th Street, Huntington Station, NY 11746-3701 (acsinnott@adriansinnott.com)

EDITORIAL CARTOONS
Submit 12-20 samples of 2011 published work to: Jack Pittman, NCS Southeast Chapter, 1740 Brooks Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27607-6618 (jack@jackpittman.net)

ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION
Submit up to 4 samples of 2011 published and marketed work to: Tom Stemmle, NCS New Jersey Chapter, 184 Richards Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (tomstem@optonline.net)

COMIC BOOKS
Submit up to 3 samples of 2011 published work to: Bill Morrison, 786 Twillin Ct., Simi Valley, CA 93065 (roswell2@earthlink.net)

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Submit book(s) published in 2011 to: Mike Lynch, 61 Nutes Road, Milton, NH 03851-4800 (mike@mikelynchcartoons.com)

ON-LINE COMIC STRIPS
Submit 12 samples, submitted via mail or as PDF with 2-4 strips per page and bio/entry form to: Ed Steckley, NCS National Representative, 43-07 39th Place, Apt. 3-F Sunnyside, NY 11104 (ed@edsteckley.com)

Online Comics must also adhere to the following:

• Comic-strip format only (no single panels, long-form narrative. etc.)
• Must be web only publication (any syndication in print should submit to Newspaper Comic Strip Division)
• Must be at least a weekly
• Must have shown consistent timely publication over the course of the 2011 calendar year
• Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning (although not necessarily directly from the submitted strip)*

Once again: Each entry must be accompanied by a completed ENTRY FORM
and a BIO SHEET (click on links to download PDFs of both). ALL SUBMISSIONS (with the exception of the On-Line Comic Strip Divisions) MUST BE PRINTED AND MAILED. NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS PLEASE.

All winners will be announced at the 66th Annual Reuben Awards Dinner at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa, Henderson, NV on May 26, 2012.

* This originally was poorly worded. As with all other divisions, you do not need to make the majority of your income from one single property or strip, but from cartooning in general. So, if you are an animator or comic book artist who also does a web-comic but it isn’t your main source of income, you still qualify for professional NCS membership, which is all the NCS rules require for your work to be considered eligible.

Photo by Anna Richmond

When I joined the National Cartoonists Society in 1999, I got the chance to meet many of my cartooning heroes at the Reuben Awards. It was thrilling to get to meet legends like Jack Davis, Charles Schulz, Mort Drucker, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters… the list goes on and on. I’m not easily starstruck, but a few of those artists I was genuinely tongue-tied upon meeting.

Jerry Robinson might be the one I was most awed to meet, and that is saying something.

Anybody who knows me knows I am a huge Batman fan… as I type this my movie-prop replica Batman costume stands 10 feet behind me on a mannequin, ready for action. I have a studio full of Bat-toys and boxes of Detective Comics dating back to the 1950s. Jerry was one of the talents who worked on the early days of Batman that shaped him into the enduring character he became, including creating Robin and the Joker. Just those contributions to the world of comics would have been enough to cement his legacy as one of the founding giants of the industry. However, that was just one of many important accomplishments he made to cartooning. In addition to many other credits in comics including his own characters, Jerry was an illustrator, editorial cartoonist, syndicated newspaper strip creator, teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York, president of the National Cartoonists Society from 1967-1969 and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists from 1973-1975. He was also a well-respected comics historian and author of The Comics, a book that studied the history of newspaper comics. In 1978, he founded CartoonArts International, syndicating the work of over 500 international artists to publications all over the world. Jerry was also a champion of artist’s rights, and was instrumental in the struggle for securing recognition and compensation for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for their creation of Superman, among other efforts he spearheaded.

… and that’s just scratching the surface of the importance Jerry Robinson had to the world of comics and cartooning.

Jerry passed away on Wednesday, Dec. 7th at age 89. Rest in peace, Jerry—and thank you for being you and sharing your talent, heart and passion with the world.

-Tom Richmond, NCS President

In 1999, Anna and I attended our very first Reuben awards in San Antonio. I was a new member and basically knew no one, so we walked about wide-eyed seeing all the legendary cartoonists milling about like Charles Schulz, Jack Davis, Jeff MacNelly and many more. One of those legends I knew and admired the most was Bil Keane. “The Family Circus” was a staple in our home growing up, and while my cartooning tastes took a bit of a more “MAD” direction as I grew up, I always had a soft spot for that feature. Not knowing what Bil looked like, I had someone point him out to me.

“Bil always emcees the Reuben ceremony,” I was told. “You’ll get to see him do that tonight.”

Knowing that “The Family Circus” was a very sweet and gentle strip, I mentioned I was surprised they didn’t have an emcee with a little more of a sharp-tongued approach.

“Just wait. You haven’t seen Bil emcee yet,” they replied.

I sure hadn’t. I was laughing so hard throughout the awards I barely recall who won what. To say Bil Keane was only quick-witted is like saying Olympic superstar Usian Bolt is just “sort-of fast”. He was one of the funniest guys I’d ever met. Anna and I shared a shuttle with he and his wife Thel from the airport to the site of the 2002 Reubens in Cancun, and enjoyed their company and stories of how they met and about their wonderful family.

Bil was one of the true legends of cartooning. An active member of the Society, Bil served as president from 1981-1983 as well as emceeing the Reubens for many, many years. It was a true honor and privilege to have been able to meet him and get to know him a bit. He will be sorely missed.

- Tom Richmond, NCS President

Kevin McVey, Reuben Award winning Theatrical Caricaturist and co-founder of the NCS New Jersey Chapter, passed away on October 19 from complications of pneumonia. He was 83.

McVey was born in The Bronx, N.Y. in February of 1928. He dropped out of high school to join the Marines toward the end of World War II. He later got his degree and attended The Art Career School in New York’s famous Flat-Iron Building.

His first career opportunity began in advertising with the Ted Bates Agency. He left Madison Avenue after a relatively short time, because he was fearful he’d only be remembered as “Mister Brand X”. In 1963 he was hired by The Bergen Record Newspaper in North Jersey. As a staff artist, he did both editorial and sports cartoons. He covered trials as a court room sketch artist. He created a weekly in-house desert island themed cartoon panel entitled “Castaway Corner”. For most of his twenty-six years on the paper, however, he was primarily its theatrical caricaturist. His beat was on and off-Broadway. Hundreds of performers from Bette Midler to Harvey Firestein; from Carol Channing to Katherine Hepburn were deftly exaggerated by his exacting pen. Hepburn once told Kevin she preferred his caricatures of her to all others!

His caricatures became well known and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate began a feature called “Celebrity Cookbook” with McVey drawing show business people from Broadway and Hollywood.

In 1984, Kevin McVey received the National Cartoonist Society’s Special Category Award for Theatrical Caricature. He beat out the award winning New York Daily News Sam Norkin, and the New York Times iconic Al Hirschfeld for the honor!

In the mid-sixties, Kevin McVey with the late N.Y. News and N.Y. Post editorial cartoonist Frank Evers, began gathering New Jersey cartoonists together for the purpose of dining monthly to socialize and talk shop. They called themselves “The Monthly Munchers”. Soon this led to more purposeful civic minded areas, where the group would visit local military bases and veterans hospitals to entertain patients. Some did this on a national and international level, too, in concert with the NCS. In 1999, the Monthly Munchers received a charter and became an official Chapter of the Society.

In 2007, the New Jersey Chapter presented Kevin with The Tim Rosenthal Award for his long, and very valuable service to the group. He had served as its past Chairman, and constantly initiated many projects in which the chapter got involved. On the national level, Kevin has served the NCS as it’s Membership Chairman.

He is survived by his son Chris, his daughter Kitt Cela, a sister and two grandchildren. Kevin’s wife of 52 years, Betty died last year.