The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Friday, May 22, 2009

The Reuben Weekend

As you're no doubt aware, this weekend is the 63rd annual convention of the National Cartoonists Society, the highlight of which is the Reuben Awards on Saturday night. This year it's in Los Angeles, specifically in Hollywood, and, though I'm up for a comic strip division award, I'll be missing it this year because I know Los Angeles is imaginary. It's being held in the Los Angeles Renaissance Hotel, part of the Hollywood & Highland Center which is styled after the Babylon set from DW Griffiths' silent classic "Intolerance".


Yikes, what a spread, huh? The entire population of the middle tier is a squadron of dancing bellhops. Those of you with sharp eyes will note Stephan Pastis and Mark Tatulli on the upper balcony defacing a decorative elephant with tasteless cartoons, with John Glynn (in the hat) urging them on. It's all further proof that LA is imaginary.


Above is a photo of an actual Reuben Award, as designed by Rube Goldberg (it looks like it comes with a set of dinner plates, too). Originally it was to be a lamp, but it was converted into a trophy. Kind of a pity because it'd be a great lamp, especially if there was one on either side of a very ugly sofa. I'm not up for one of these, which is also a pity as I own a somewhat ugly sofa. The division awards come in plaque form, and I'm up against Mark Tatulli's Lio and Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine. So really, I don't have a chance. But I do have a certificate.


My friend Mike Lynch, cartoonist extraordinaire and NCS national rep, sent me this. And you'll notice that the space provided for the division has been left blank, which leaves me free to invent my own. I'm thinking "Neatness" or "Choreography". To enter the comic strip divisional award, you're required to submit a dozen samples. Below are a few of the strips I sent. 




Though I'm missing the actual event, I intend to cover it extensively and to that end I'll be live blogging it, with constant updates here and on my Twitter feed (which I've barely touched otherwise). And on Facebook, too. I think I can bring a fresh and dispassionate perspective to this Reubens thing from 2,000 miles away.

8 comments:

Mike said...

Intolerance had topless dancing girls. Does LA have topless dancing girls?

You should twitter about that as soon as you know. Or tweet. Or whatever.

richardcthompson said...

I'll go out on a limb and say, Yes.

angryparsnip said...

LA is Imaginary, one can never really
find it ! plus it is also Bankrupt.

Your picture of it looks pretty good though.

Good luck, you get my vote! (if I could vote)

Kid Shay said...

Is there a Handwriting division? You could write that in, in nice clean letters.

Come to think of it, lettering should be a division - there's a lot of cool letterers out there.

Parson said...

Those were great strips, I hope you win. Pearls will be tough to beat though.

ken said...

i live in l.a. and i know i'm imaginary.

in fact, i actually didn't leave this comment...

arcticcircle said...

I enjoyed the live twittering being a fellow twit who didn't go.

Plus: you was robbed, mate.

Mike Lynch said...

Hee hee! If I'd known you were going to post that certificate I would have misspelled your name!