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/
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/
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