RUBEN, REUBEN
Tom The Dancing Bug Blog 2017-06-22
Hey, I learned this morning that "Donald and John," the webcomic run by The Nib in late 2016, won a National Cartoonists Society award at the Reuben Awards ceremony in Portland, Oregon, last night.
This award has the highest buttocks prominence of all the major awards, easily out prominent-ing the second place winner, the Academy Award's Oscar.
On a Saturday morning last October, I found myself suddenly deciding to launch a daily (!) comic strip that would run until the election, using the Donald Trump / Calvin & Hobbes mashup I had used in a couple of Tom the Dancing Bugs (here and here). It was a bizarre decision because my life was already filled to the brim as it was, and it would take over everything for over a month.
Incredibly, within hours, Matt Bors at The Nib agreed to run the daily comic, and "Donald and John" was launched. I can't thank Matt and his great team at The Nib enough. The subject of the cartoon is as upsetting and distressing as I can imagine, but creating it was an amazing experiment, and one of the highlights of my career.
Thank you to my pal John (Johnny G.) Glynn, who accepted the award on my behalf in Portland. He tells me he used the opportunity to deliver a diatribe against the "Holds" statistic in baseball, and I couldn't think of a more worthy or appropriate topic.
I was really sorry I couldn't be there -- not because of any award, but just because it would have been a blast be with my friends and/or heroes. Who wouldn't want to hang out with just the people on this poster, let alone all the others... just to name a few: Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Mo Willems, Tom Gamill, etc., etc.
The other two nominees in the category are really fantastic cartoonists -- Sarah Andersen (!) and Dave Kellett -- and I know exactly how they feel...
...Because I was also a nominee for an NCS award I didn't win last night: the amazing Mike Luckovich won for Best Editorial Cartoons over myself (for Tom the Dancing Bug) and my buddy Jen Sorensen. Congratulations to Mike... and all the other winners and nominees and all of Team Comics!
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