Last May, my friend Carolyn and I attended the annual meeting of the National Cartoonists Society, a hallowed organization of which I am now a member. I've been poaching at N.C.S. events for decades now and figured it was about time to pay dues and get a pin.
The meeting was held in San Diego at the Omni Hotel, right across from where Comic-Con is held every July. The high point was the formal dinner on Saturday evening and the presentation of the group's annual awards. For the first time ever (I believe) a video of the entire ceremony has been posted online. It runs two hours so you may not want to sit through all of it but you might want to move the slider bar ahead and catch a few highlights…
- At the beginning, current N.C.S. President Tom Richmond welcomes the members and extends a special welcome to Stan and Pauline Goldberg, who were not expected to be there. In fact, they were not expected to be anywhere. Not long before, the two of them were seriously injured in an auto accident and no one thought they'd ever be well enough again to travel…but there they were. You don't see them on camera in this video nor do you hear the full, loving applause for them, but it was there. Sadly, Stan passed away less than three months later but it was so good to see him again…and it made him so happy to be there.
- Around 12 minutes and 30 seconds in, Tom introduced the Master of Ceremonies for the night — TV writer and cartoonist Tom Gammill, who favors us with an opening musical number that would make Neil Patrick Harris give them up forever. Any name in the lyrics you don't recognize is probably a cartoonist who was in the room.
- At 42:45, Tom introduces Sergio Aragonés to present the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award to Russ Heath…whose pants were literally falling down.
- That's followed at 49:00 by the "In Memoriam" reel honoring members and prominent figures in the world of cartooning who left us in the preceding twelve months.
- And that's followed at 52:30 by a film Tom Gammill made to kick off the post-Intermission festivities. It starts as a visit to the home of Bunny Hoest, the widow of cartoonist Bill Hoest and still the writer/supervisor of his comic strips, including The Lockhorns. The film is full of cameos by famous folks in the world of comic strips.
Amidst those highlights, there are many presentations of awards including, at the end, Mell Lazarus bestowing the coveted Reuben Award on Wiley Miller, creator of the comic strip, Non Sequitur. Somewhere in there — I won't tell you where — you might find me in a tux presenting Sergio with his ten-thousandth award and some of us cavorting with a life-size cutout of Ernie Bushmiller, the gent who drew the Nancy strip for many decades. There were many other moments of note, as well. Enjoy…