Stories for THE CARTOON!ST

If you have some fun, exciting, boring, whatever, going on in your cartooning life and want me to include it in the Chapter posting for The Cartoon!st, get it to me right away. Our piece is due this FRIDAY (March 1).

Also, don't forget we're gathering in Omaha at the Upstream Brewery & Restaurant on April 6. AND, if you haven't made your reservations for the Reuben's, I'd get on it if I were you. :-)

Interview with Jim Horwitz...

Chapter member Jim Horwitz was recently interviewed on TALL TALE RADIO with Tom Racine.
Part 1 goes up today (Monday, Feb 25) and follows with Part 2 on Wednesday (Feb 27).
Here's the link to the GoComics where the interview is located.

Enjoy.
ME

2012 Reuben Nominees!

The National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" is arguably the top honor a professional cartoonist can receive. The NCS first gave out the honor in 1946 to Milton Caniff, and in the 67 intervening years some of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the art form have received "The Reuben" (with the exception of a stumble last year, when they gave it to this clown.) This year's nominees for the 2012 Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year” were just announced by the NCS. They are:

• Brian Crane

• Rick Kirkman

• Stephan Pastis

From the NCS Website:

Brian Crane is the creator of Pickles, a daily comic strip syndicated by the Washington Post Writer’s Group. Soon after Pickles’ debut in 1990, Brian “retired” as an art director for an advertising agency in Reno, Nevada, to devote his full attention to his comic strip. Although he often used cartoon figures in ads he designed, Pickles is his first syndicated comic strip. In 1995 and 2001, Pickles was nominated for Best Newspaper Comic Strip by the National Cartoonists Society, winning the coveted award in 2001. Pickles has topped comics polls across the nation again and again, and it appears in over 800 newspapers around the world. Brian lives near Reno with his wife, Diana. He’s the proud father of seven and grandfather of 11. This is his third nomination for the Reuben. Visit the Pickles website.

Rick Kirkman is the co-creator of the daily comic strip, Baby Blues, syndicated by King Features Syndicate. Prior to Baby Blues, Rick was a freelance humorous illustrator for national advertising and magazine clients. He and partner Jerry Scott initially based Baby Blues on Rick’s family. Creators Syndicate released the strip January 7, 1990. It now has 1200 newspaper clients in over 900 cities worldwide. The strip has been published in over 30 anthologies in the U.S., and many more in other languages, and became a TV series on the WB network. Baby Blues won Best Newspaper Comic Strip from the National Cartoonists Society in 1995. Rick lives with his wife, Sukey, in Arizona with a bunch of cats and dogs, and the kids are grown and having adventures of their own. You can visit the Baby Blues website here.

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine, syndicated by Universal Uclick. Stephan practiced law in the San Fransisco Bay area before following his love of cartooning and eventually seeing syndication with Pearls. Launched in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001, the daily strip currently appears in 650 newspapers worldwide. The National Cartoonists Society awarded Pearls Before Swine the Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 and in 2006. Stephan also recently released an interactive app called Only the Pearls. Stephan lives in northern California with his wife Staci and their two children. This is his fifth nomination for the Reuben award. Visit Stephan’s blog and the Pearls Before Swine website. The official ballots have been issued to all full members of the National Cartoonists Society for voting to determine the winner.

Congratulations to the nominees! The winner of the 2012 “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” will be announced on May 25th at the annual NCS Reuben Awards dinner in Pittsburgh, PA.

FREERANGE on FB

Bill Whitehead's FREERANGE Facebook page is now available. Check it out!
https://www.facebook.com/FreeRangeComic

NCS membership slippages

Good morning gang,

While trying to get the details of our membership roster up-to-date with those fine folks at Crow-Segal, we've discovered that a few members have chosen to drop out while others have neglected to pay their dues.

If you should decide that the NCS is no longer where you want to be, and for the life of me I can't imagine why that would be, PLEASE let me know. No, I won't try to strong-arm you into staying... I have Paul Fell to do that. (He'll whine you to death.) Also, PLEASE, OH PLEASE get those dues paid up. As our chapter funds are closely tied into the dues that are paid to the NCS, if you don't pay, we, the chapter, suffer financially. So help us out and stay in touch.

Remember, the North Central Facebook page is always open for business. Feel free to post a note, video, or photo/artwork. Please keep it clean though. Facebook don't like that kind of stuff and I'll have to explain what the dirty words mean to Fell. Ugh!

Thank,
ME

PS — And speaking of April 6, if you have somebody that you think might be a good NCS or North Central Chapter member, this is a great opportunity to throw them in the deep end of the pool ... er, to bring them along and meet the group. If they're interested in being a cartoonist and have some samples, encourage them to bring a few pieces for use to rip to shreds.

Pure Cupidity

A drawing I did for my girls' school Valentine's Day celebrations. Happy Valentine's Day all you lovebirds. XXOO -K

Stand by for NEWS... Fall Meeting

News about our Fall Meeting. I'll have some early info for you very soon. Some of you may have heard that we'll be meeting in the Midwest this year. True! Our hosts will be Ken Alvine and Dave Carpenter. Again, true! That the venue will be near water. That's three-out-of-three.

We'll need you, the membership (both NCS and our Chapter members, and you know who you are) to pack up a few samples of your work for a show. No originals. So please tell your spouse now so he/she can start nagging you to get your work in the mail. I'll have the address, contact, etc. shortly.

If you enjoyed last year's meeting in Sioux Falls, you're gonna LOVE this one!!!

Your retread leader,
ME

TOONS & BREWS

Got nothin' to do the evening of Friday, February 22?

Toons & Brews with Jeff Koterba

Friday, February 22
Open to the Public · By Benson Theatre
Friday, February 22, 2013
7:00 pm
The Pizza Shoppe Collective
6056 Maple Street
Omaha, NE

Join the Benson Theatre Project for Toons & Brews with artist Jeff Koterba and New Belgium Brewing on Friday, Feb. 22! A cartoon exhibit of Koterba’s recent work will open at 7:00 p.m. in the Pizza Shoppe Collective with a talk by Jeff at 8:00 p.m. A New Belgium beer tasting with food from the Pizza Shoppe will run throughout the night, and the historic Benson Theatre will be open next door for tours.

Jeff Koterba is an award-winning cartoonist for the Omaha World Herald, and his work is syndicated to over 400 newspapers nationwide. His cartoons have appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and on CNN, and have been collected by Oprah and Warren Buffett. In 2010, two of his original drawings traveled aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

His memoir Inklings was called “a powerful and moving portrait of an artist” by Entertainment Weekly and was named a Chicago Tribune favorite nonfiction book of 2009. In 2012, Jeff was featured in the documentary Voluntary Gestures, a film that explores the connections between Tourette syndrome and creativity.

Tickets are $20 and all proceeds benefit the Benson Theatre Project.
Visit bensontheatre.org to purchase tickets.

April 6!!!

For those of you who missed my email blast this morning, Commander Fell and I had lunch (salad) yesterday and were pondering a few notions —

As we are NOT judging for a Reuben's category this year (too many chapters, too few categories) we thought it might be nice to give those of [us] who are missing the annual late winter/early spring fellowship by having a Nothing Too Serious Gathering of the Chapter. ALL are invited!!!

We looked at our calendars and thought April 6 might be a fine time. Location: Omaha. Venue: The Upstream Brewery (as they've been so darn good to us in the past).

This would be an excellent time to bring possible members either for the North Central Chapter or as potentials for the NCS. Introduce them to the mob and see how they deal with all the pressure (yeah, right). If we can get a large enough group (and it's heading in that direction so far) we will ask a couple folks (one member, one not) to be guest speakers and give a little chat. The other would be that if YOU are working on a presentation or something where you need some test subjects, guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) as it were, this would a perfect opportunity. :-)

We'll also be talking about upcoming events: Reuben's Awards in Pittsburgh, Ohio State Festival of Cartoon Art, Comic-Con (for anyone who wants to talk about that) and other Cons, the Toonfest, and of course the North Central Chapter's Fall Meeting.

So, if you're interested and think you can make the date, let ME or Paul Fell know. As I say, we've already heard from a few (since this morning) who would like to gather. Oh, and there will be, as always, food and DRINK. Wanna bring your spouse? Fine by me. There's no voting and they'd be more than welcome. If not, we can keep our big, fat mouths shut, as always.... a-hem.

Your fretless leader,
ME

Paul did a little checking and found that with at least 2-weeks notification, the Hilton Garden Inn will get you a room for $101. The Courtyard by Marriott goes for $103.

Anyone interested in WonderCon?

I just received word that WonderCon Anaheim (it moved from San Francisco), you might want to check out the website for professionals.

If you've ever been to Comic-Con International or one of the other big Cons, I'd recommend not waiting to get a hotel room. They go about as fast as tickets to U2, Bruce Springstein, or (if it were possible) a reunion concert of The Beatles.


Dear Mike Edholm,

We are pleased to announce that the professional application period for WonderCon Anaheim 2013 is now open! We invite you to be a part of one of the country’s best comics and popular arts conventions, taking place at the beautiful Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim CA during the weekend of March 29-31.

If you would like a complimentary badge to attend WonderCon Anaheim 2013 as a professional, you must fill out a “Comic-Con and WonderCon Anaheim Application for Professionals” and submit the required verification materials. Please visit http://comic-con.org/wca/2013/professionals for details. The application deadline date is February 22, 2013.

This email is NOT a confirmation of registration. Once you have completed the professional application and submitted the required verification materials, you will be sent an email containing additional information on how to apply for a WonderCon Anaheim professional badge.

We hope you will join us for WonderCon Anaheim 2013! If you have any questions, please email proreg@comic-con.org

Sincerely,
Chris Schoenthal
Professional Registrar
WonderCon Anaheim