National Cartoonists Day!
WITNESS ME!!!!!
So, today is National Cartoonists Day! I feel like the title of this blog gave THAT away. That said, it’s also an excuse for me to talk about cartooning, cartoonists, and the National Cartoonists Society!
I have been a member of this awesome organization for a few years now, and it has been an amazing experience that has opened up a lot of doors for me to enjoy incredible experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything.
My membership has allowed me to table… for the cost of my annual dues… at the American Library Association conference in Philly last year, and C2E2 in Chicago a couple of years back. It has enabled me to meet up online with other cartoonists, both peers and LEGENDS, with their regular events.
But more than anything else, it has provided me an impossible to describe sense of BELONGING. For any cartoonist out there, I cannot recommend it enough!
That said, in a couple of months, their 80th Conference and Reuben Awards will be held in Columbus, Ohio, and Heidi and I will be there with proverbial bells on. And while I have been nominated for a Silver Divisional Award once again this year, we had booked the trip well in advance of knowing that. The event is just THAT fulfilling for me.
Like a lot of folks, I have struggled to find my “place” and my “people” for the entirety of my life. And, honestly, I have never felt HALF as welcomed anywhere as I have with the NCS. There are no cliqués or levels. Everyone is just as messed up as I am in their own way. I frickin’ love being a member and being at these events.
That said, I wouldn’t mind WINNING the award this time. Just sayin’. lol
As such, here is a collection of the strips I’ve drawn about the past two years of NCS Conferences, with plenty of name-dropping and cartoonist cameos! (Look close, you might be in the background!)
T-Shirt link: https://www.zazzle.com/cartoonist_warning_t_shirt-256509832099380586
Awesome.. as always! Thanks for posting those strips again. It’s a kind of bucket list item to join the NCS before I kick off this mortal coil….
You met Dave Kellett and name-dropped his podcast, and forgot to mention his great strips Sheldon and Drive? (Sheldon comics dot com and Drivecomic dot com, respectively)?! I’ll be honest, meeting the creator of Luann would come a distant second for me.