Fall Chapter Meeting HEADS UP!!!

When making your hotel reservations, SOONER works much better than later.
Ken just informed me that Augustana College is holding their homecoming the same weekend as our fall meeting.

BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM(S) EARLY!

STAY TOONED! needs your help...

Hey gang,

John Read is 19 votes away from qualifying for his grant to keep STAY TOONED magazine afloat. If you like the magazine, sign on to John's LinkedIN page and cast your vote. The voting part is the hardest part...

When you get to the MISSION: Small Business page, under LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK TO SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY there's a link that reads "Log In With Facebook". Click on that. That will take you to the VOTE LOCAL! page.

At the bottom fill in the BUSINESS NAME box with the name that John gave you: STAY TOONED! MAGAZINE. (Don't forget the ! or it won't work).

Next select John's state: Mississippi and his city: Madison.

Then hit the search button and VOTE. That's it.

You know what a big promoter of cartooning John has been over the years. Now its our turn to help him out. Come on and lend a hand!

Union of Concerned Scientists Cartoon Contest

I received this email on June 20.

I’m reaching out to you personally to let you know that the Union of Concerned Scientists just announced our annual editorial cartoon contest. This year, we are once again opening up the contest to submissions from the public - and we are looking forward to some fantastic entries.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
On issues from air quality to global warming, government science is being censored, manipulated, and distorted on an unprecedented scale. Scientists and citizens alike have helped UCS put the issue of political interference in science squarely on the public agenda. Now here's your chance to show off your artistic and comedic talents in support of independent science.

We here at UCS believe that your chapter possesses the talent to produce great work, and would love for you to submit work for our calendar cartoon contest. Winners of this year's contest will receive cash prizes of $500-1000, as well as a spot in our calendar which will feature the winning cartoons. For more information, please see the contest website.

www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/science_idol/

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Looking forward to seeing your work,
Manny Perez
Union of Concerned Scientists

Fall 2012 Chapter Meeting — what you've been waiting for

Mark your calendars and get your credit cards ready folks. Hot off the presses, here’s the schedule and lodging information for the Fall 2012 NCS Chapter Meeting of the North Central Chapter.

Meeting Dates — Oct 5, 6

The theme of the meeting is “The Art of Editorial Cartoons in An Election Year.”

Friday, Oct 5
2:00 – 4:00 pm
Editorial Cartoon session
Location: Downtown Public Library, conference room.

The session is open to the public as well as college and high school students interested in art, political science, and/or politics.

Panel will include:
• Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper representative
• Paul Fell
• Ed Fischer
• Jeff Koterba

That evening – 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Welcome and reception for Editorial Cartoon exhibit and cartoonists.
Location: Augustana College, new art gallery

7:30 – 9:00 pm
Special guest speaker: Ann Telnaes, Pulitzer Prize winner and editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post.
Location: Little Theatre on the Augustana Campus.
Interviewer: Joel Johnson, professor of political science at Augustana College.

9:00 – ??
Wind down the evening with light dining and refreshments hosted by Jackie D. Beilke, local cartoonist and art teacher.
Location: The Beilke home. Address to be announced.

Saturday, Oct. 6
Gather for breakfast at the hotel
9:30 – 10:30 am
NCS Chapter meeting, NCS members only.
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Meet ‘n Greet at public autograph signing
Location: Zanbroz Bookstore, downtown Sioux Falls (walking distance from the Holiday Inn).
Let Ken Alvine know before September 15 if you have a book or books you wish to sell and promote.

1:00 – 2:00 pm
Lunch
TBD

Downtown Public Library; Conference Room
2:00 – 3:15 pm
Jim Allen – Toon Ed and Cartoon Education Programs in schools, libraries, and colleges

3:30 – 4:45 pm
Kelly McNutt – Animation

Saturday evening
Buffet dinner
Location: the home of Chris and Carrolle Browne
Directions and convoy will be provided.

Lodgings

Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre
100 West 8th Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57104

Room rate: $94 for two Queen beds or one King
Contact info: Call 605-339-2000 or 1-800-Holiday (465-4329)
or 1-800-315-2621.
Be sure to mention the National Cartoonist Society when you call.
www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/sioux-falls
Cut off date for this special room rate is September 11, 2012.

If you book reservations at the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre, you have to call the City Centre front desk (605-339-2000) to get the NCS North Central Chapter Cartoonists special rate! Call soon as Augustana College is hosting their homecoming the same weekend as our meeting. Good for us (book sales, attendance, etc.) but lousy if you delay in booking a room.

OR...

Country Inn and Suites
200 East 8th Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57103
(One block from the Holiday Inn City Center)
Room rate: $99
Includes breakfast
Contact info: Call 605-373-0153 or 1-800-456-4000 or 1-800-830-5222. Be sure to mention the National Cartoonist Society when you call.
www.countryinns.com/sioux-falls-hotel-sd-57104/sdsfalls

Cut off date for this special room rate is Oct 4.

SPECIAL NOTE: We are asking for a $15 fee to cover some of the "extras." Hope you don't mind. Bring cash or a check and Paul Fell will take care of you. Thanks.

STAYTOONED needs our help!

Got an email via Facebook from John Read — he's applying for a grant and needs our help with a YES vote. Login on Facebook then just follow the steps. Be sure that you include the ! in "Stay Tooned! Magazine", otherwise it won't recognize the name. http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=126132995&gid=4043953&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_nd-pst_ttle-cn&ut=0S4BQUELNnR5g1

New York Comic-Con

One of the biggies, the New York Comic-Con is coming up, right after our Fall Chapter Meeting. In case you're interested... :-)

Fall Chapter Meeting — October 5-6

Ken Alvine is putting together a schedule of events and activities as well as hotel information and rates. As soon as I get the info from Ken I'll post it here and send an email to the membership. If you would, please share the information with your friends who are cartoon fans and would be interested in attending. Other than a couple of super double top secret meetings for NCS members only, just about everything else is open to friends, family, and fans. They pay their own way, of course (because we missed out on the Facebook bailout fund), but we want 'em! :-) Remember, our guest speaker is Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, Ann Telnaes.

NCS/SCCS Comic-Con Party!

If you're headed to San Diego next month for the Comic-Con International, be advised that the NCS/SCCS is hosting a Comic-Con Party and you're invited. Thursday, July 12 7:30 - 10:30 pm $15 cover (Drinks extra) Buster's Beach House 807 Harbor Drive (walking distance from the Convention Center). (Go out the back of the Center, turn right on the boardwalk, go 1/4 mile and get ready to party.)

What happens in Vegas…

It has been said far too many times to recall that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. While there can be no doubt that circumstances have called for such drastic measures to be employed, this year’s Reuben Awards must be the exception. What happened in Vegas, over the 2012 Memorial Day weekend, surely cannot be suppressed. The membership of the NCS began flocking to Sin City to make their way to the wonderful Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa in beautiful Henderson, NV. To my shock and surprise, McCarran International Airport wasn’t the same as when I last left it. Holy Schmidt!! The thing grew! When I’d make my semi-regular journey west the airline would make a brief stop at either Sky Harbor Airport (Phoenix) or McCarran International. Sky Harbor is too beige and it takes GPS and Rin Tin Tin to find the men’s room in that place. Yuck! My preference was McCarran because it was not too big and I had no trouble finding the Starbuck’s without needing a tour guide and provisions for a long haul. Simple. But now… I mean Holy Schmidt The place is gigantic and looks like something from The Strip. Guess I’m going to have to employ the guide dog services of Rin Tin Tin again. ARGH! Progress sucks, but I digress. The North Central Chapter had a pretty fair turnout for the Reubens. Upon arrival on Thursday, at 7:00 a.m., the first thing on my mind was a nap. Paul and Arlene Fell offered to drive to Omaha and we could fly together. Our flight out was 6:00 a.m. — Paul said, “We’ll be by at 3:30 to pick you up.” That mean I had to get up at 2:30 in order to be ready, alert (NOT), and semi-functional. Before long we were wheeling our way towards Omaha and the Southwest Airlines counter. If you haven’t flown Southwest out of Omaha before, the check in line can reach as far as Atlantic, Iowa some mornings. This time was no exception. Once through TSA’s cheery pat-down, strip search, body scans all in the interest of protecting us Americans from some body’s 92 year old grandmother who might be harboring ill-will toward the US or cartoonists, we boarded our flight and we were off. One hour later (actually 2:17 allowing for the time change), we made our way over the tundra of McCarran to Level Zero where the Green Valley Ranch shuttle bus would pick us up. Our driver pulled up, only a few minutes late due to excessive traffic, we stuff our bags into the Mercedes shuttle bus (classy, huh?) and headed toward this little oasis on the desert. While the wi-fi sucked from the get-go, everything else was fantastic. Fell’s proclaimed the need for a nap after we had breakfast in the Grand Café. I discovered why they call it the Grand Café when I offered to pick up the check for the three of us. There goes my gambling money. So I've unpacked, hung up the tux and got settled into my room. I’m lying on the bed trying to take a nap at 9:00 in the morning when it hits me — “I’m in Vegas! What the hell am I doing taking a nap? I can nap when I’m dead.” Next stop, the pool area. A quick visual survey of the pool area and I began building the unofficial NCS nest right next to the bar. And then there was the bar staff…. ☺ Once we were settled, medicated, and situated, we hooked up with other NCS members to help stuff goodie bags. John Hambrock lent his stacking and organizational skills to the effort by loading the carts with mountains of this year’s stylish bags. Atta boy, John! Thursday evening we partied by the pool. It’s always great seeing friends with whom we only email or are fortunate enough to talk with on the phone. Phone? Phone? What’s that? Now, we’re partying together at a beautiful resort in Las Vegas. Life is good! The weekend was filled with panel discussions, individual presentations, and a chance to see and meet legendary cartoonists like Ray Billingsley who talked about his career and his syndicated strip Curtis, Jim Davis share his trials and tribulations with a cat named Garfield, Gold Key recipient Stan Goldberg talked about his incredible career with Timely, Marvel, Archie, and so much more. There were panel discussions featuring Michael Jantze, Dave Kellett, and John Lotshaw talking technology and business. Mark Simon does a one-man presentation on maximizing your advertising and PR dollars. Butch Hartman talked about his animation work at Nickelodeon. On Sunday was a day of MADness with a presentation and panel on 60 years of MAD magazine that included MAD editor Nick Meglin, and featured Sam Viviano, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragonés, Don “Duck” Edwing, Al Jaffee, Ray Alma, and North Central member, NCS President, and this year’s Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year winner and a personal friend of mine, Tom Richmond. Master of Ceremonies for the Awards banquet was the one-and-only Tom Gammill. While the sound system could have used a good tweaking, Tom was in fine form. He was interrupted here and there by Elvis, but hey, that’s Vegas. Awards were presented to a bunch of folks. I’d mention them all but just go to the NCS site to see them for yourself. www.reuben.org/news. It was a truly great weekend. Between the resort, the pool-side bar babes, shopping and dining in The District, the pool-side bar babes, getting together with great friends, the parties, and all the fun, it was one Reuben Weekend not soon to be forgotten. Did I mention the pool-side bar babes? See you next year in Pittsburgh! ☺ In the meantime, the North Central will be preparing for the Disney Toonfest in September and our Fall Meeting in Sioux Falls in October. You can see more at our blog site: (scroll down, past the photos) Apologizes on some of these photos as they were taken with my iPhone. Semi-good... http://northcentraltooners.blogspot.com/

Master of Science Fiction dies

Ray Bradbury, a master of science fiction whose imaginative and lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 91. My limited association with Mr. Bradbury began when I was in junior high (or middle school as they call it these days) in an English class that specialized in science fiction. The first book we were to read was THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. It took a giant leap a few years ago when one of my cartoon illustrations was seen by Professor John Tibbetts, English professor at KU at the Disney Hometown Toonfest. The piece was entitled "MORNING WITH MARTIAN CHRONICLE," and featured one of my Martian characters reading the morning edition of the hometown newspaper. Professor Tibbetts was friends with Mr. Bradbuy. He thought Ray would like the piece and he asked if I'd like to contact the author. "Yes, very much," was my reply. He gave me Ray's home address and phone number. I contacted Mr. Bradbury and sent him a copy of the piece. I told him that I would love to meet him sometime. He invited me to contact him the next time I was in Los Angeles. A few months later, I did exactly that. My intention was to give him the original of "MORNING WITH MARTIAN CHRONICLE." But our schedules couldn't mesh and we never met face-to-face. I did see him at the International Comic-Con (San Diego) when he and his best friend, Ray Harryhausen met on stage to talk about their work and their life-long friendship. While we exchanged only a few notes and letters, my exchange with Ray Bradbury has left and impression that will never, ever be erased. To this day, many of his books and movies based on his writings occupy my library. Thank you for an eternity of joy and wonder, Mr. Bradbury. — Mike Edholm PS - There's a slightly longer, more detailed version of this story on my blog.

See our one and only Paul Fell in an interview for City TV Channel 5 with Leta Powell Drake M-W-F and Sat. at 11:30 am T-Th at 11:00 am and 8:00 pm Also Fridays at 7:00 pm and Sunday at 9:00 pm If you're not in the Lincoln viewing range this could be difficult. www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/mayor/cic/5citytv

Jim Unger, creator of HERMAN, died.

"Herman" Cartoonist Jim Unger Passes Away. Died in his sleep at his home in British Columbia at the age of 75. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbxfDr6ZFQg&feature=colike

A personal note: my dad loved two cartoons. The first was Warner Bros. cartoons. He and I would watch them every Saturday morning. The second was Herman. He always wound up on the comics page of the paper and read Herman first and then last. I received Herman books and collections for my birthday from dad. :-)