We know these went out a long time ago, but the press release just appeared for the 2007 Reuben Award nominees. The winners will be announced at the annual NCS meeting over the Memorial Day weekend:

The National Cartoonists Society has announced its nominees for the 2007 Reuben Awards, including the selections for the Reuben Award for “Cartoonist of the Year,” professional cartooning’s highest honor. This year’s awards will be presented at a black tie dinner on Saturday, May 26, during the 61th Annual Reuben Awards Weekend, May 25-27, in Orlando, FL.

This year’s nominees for the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year are Bill Amend, creator of “Foxtrot”; Dave Coverly, creator of “Speedbump” and Dan Piraro, creator of “Bizarro”. The winner will receive a statuette designed by and named after the NCS’ first president, Rube Goldberg. Past Reuben winners include Pat Brady, Greg Evans, Scott Adams, Sergio Aragones, Garry Trudeau, Gary Larson, Cathy Guisewite, Mike Peters, Jim Davis, Lynn Johnston, Bill Watterson and Charles Schulz.

In addition, the year’s top cartoonists in a dozen fields, from animation to newspaper strips to illustration and greeting cards, will be honored in the NCS Division Awards for excellence. These awards are voted on by a combination of the general membership (by secret ballot) and special juries overseen by various NCS Regional Chapters. A full list of nominees is attached, and many of these cartoonists’ work appear in your comics pages.

Two other special awards will be presented. The Gold Key Award, signifying induction into the NCS Hall of Fame, will go to legendary cartoonist Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois and seven other cartoon strips. The Silver T-Square, for recognition of service to the NCS, will go to brothers Joe and Luke McGarry. They will become the youngest ever recipients of this award.

The National Cartoonists Society (www.reuben.org) is the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists. Founded in 1946 by a small group of cartoonists while entertaining the troops at military bases, the NCS now has a membership of more than 650 of the world’s major cartoonists. Members work in many branches of the profession, including comic strips, comic books, editorial cartoons, animation, greeting cards and magazine and book illustration.

2007 NCS REUBEN AWARD AND DIVISION AWARD NOMINEES
(see below for link to artwork samples):

CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR: Bill Amend, Dave Coverly and Dan Piraro.

REUBEN DIVISION AWARDS - NOMINEES (listed alphabetically)

FEATURE ANIMATION:
Peter De Seve, Character Design (Fox) “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown”
Carter Goodrich, Character Design (Sony) “Open Season”
Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, Directors (Dreamworks) “Over The Hedge”

MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION:
Steve Brodner
Tom Richmond
Jean-Jacques Sempe

COMIC BOOK:
Marisa Acocella Marchetto, “Cancer Vixen”
Gene Luen Yang, “American Born Chinese”
Marjane Satrapi, “Chicken With Plums by”

NEWSPAPER ILLUSTRATION:
Sean Kelly
Robert Sanchuk
Laurie Triefeldt

ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION:
Craig McKay
Jack Pittman
Tom Richmond

NEWSPAPER PANELS:
Tony Carillo, “F Minus”
Keiran Meehan, “Meehan”
Hilary Price, “Rhymes With Orange”

BOOK ILLUSTRATION:
Mike Lester, 93 In My Family
Wiley Miller, The Extraordinary Adventures Of Ordinary Basil
Adrian Sinnott, Caveman Manners

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS:
Bill Griffith, “Zippy The Pinhead”
Stephan Pastis, “Pearls Before Swine”
Mark Tatulli, “Lio”

TELEVISION ANIMATION:
David Hulin, “Geico Gecko”
Steve Loter, “Kim Possible”
Craig McCracken, “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends”

GREETING CARDS:
Kevin Ahern
Pat Byrnes
Carla Ventresca

GAG CARTOONS:
Drew Dernavich
Mick Stevens
P.C. Vey

EDITORIAL CARTOONS:
Mike Lester
Glenn McCoy
Mike Ramirez

GOLD KEY AWARD: Mort Walker, “Beetle Bailey”
SILVER T-SQUARE: Joe McGarry and Luke McGarry

This entry was posted on 05/15/07 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Comic Strips, Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.