More on 2008 Reubens

Courtesy of my friend, the award winning illustrator, Sean Kelly, comes a series of photos of New Orleans and the Reubens weekend. Thanks Sean!

So, here are just a few of the great photos that Sean sent my way to show his impressions of New Orleans.



Above: Bourbon Street, as if I needed to tell you.


How he found all these cool places I don't know! Sean, did you do the voodoo here?


Sean has a really good eye. It's like he's artistic or something! OK, now let's get to the Reubens.



Above is the one and only Arnie Roth and the one and only Al Jaffee. This is in the kiss & cry area. Al has just left the stage after thanking all those assembled, as well as fellow nominees Dave Coverly and Dan Piraro. He reminded all of us that when he was first a member, it was when guys like Soglow talked shop, and that he (Jaffee) had waited 50 years for the honor of winning the Reuben -- a prize he never dreamed of winning.


Above: a peek at the bar area just before the big sit down for the Reubens dinner. That's Heidi Silver (TV animation award winner Stephen Silver's wife), Jack & Dena Davis and Tom Richmond.


Two of the nicest guys: Brian Walker and Reuben Award nominee Dave Coverly.


A nice shot that Sean took of the Reubens evening. You can see all the people and the stage is up there with a couple of screens for PowerPoint & video.


When Daryl Cagle was having trouble opening the envelope with the winning name, Mike Peters tore away his tux (yeah, the guy had a tear-away tux!) to reveal the Superman costume.



Above: a closer look at the stage area with the 15 gleaming awards!


Exterior of the hotel.


OK, let's downshift to some of the doodles and sketches I picked up.


Above: the paper tablecloth of K-Paul's restaurant, with these odd little characters printed on it.


Above: I tore off a part of the paper cloth, turned it over and drew the bottom of this guy (chin, mouth, neck, shirt) and Rick Kirkman took over drawing the top half (ala the exquisite corpse game).


Above: Sandra Boynton and I traded sketches when we saw each other at the airport. She gave a wonderful presentation at the event.

More photos and writeups from those who were there:

• Paul Gilligan's Pooch Cafe blog
• Newspaper Panel Cartoon NCS Division Award winner Chad Carpenter's blog.
• Greeting Card NCS Division Award winner's Dave Mowder's Flickr set
• Alan Gardner's (Daily Cartoonist) Flickr set
• Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter Collective Memory: 2008 Reubens

Finally, here's Bill Gallo, long time sports cartoonist for the NY Daily News, drawing his signature character Boxcar Bertha (you know her if you grew up reading the News) while blindfolded. Yeah, blindfolded. This is all part of a series of experiments that David Folkman set up at the Reubens with cartoonists trying to draw while blindfolded. Yeah, kinda silly.



Hat tip to Gerry Mooney, who took the video.


My thanks to the above gold-coin-finding, NCS Illustration Award winning Sean Kelly for letting me post his photos! Thanks, Sean! And let me know if you post them all on Flickr so I can pass along the link here!

Next year: Hollywood! And I hope they have huge big ass beers there too!