2010 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship winner

Mengxin Li is the winner of the 2010 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. She is a Film and Animation major at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. Li was born in China and grew-up in Japan. She received the third place prize at the Beijing International Student Animation Festival and her comic “Wind Chevalier” has been featured in the Japanese manga publication, Shoujo Jump.

The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is an annual award established in memory of Jay Kennedy, the late King Features comics editor, from an initial from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from other prominent cartoonist. It is administered by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to a college student in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the following academic year, selected by a panel of professional cartoonists.

Dept. of gift ideas – Donations in someone’s name

Two donation-worthy thingies that are close to my heart:

Jean Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, has issued a challenge to cartoon art lovers everywhere: she will match every dollar donated to Ohio State University’s Cartoon Library and Museum through March 9, 2014, up to $2.5 million. (I believe that this is the largest collection of it’s kind. A one-of-a-kind resource.) Learn more here.

If you’re a reader of this here blog, you know that the National Cartoonists Society Foundation is pretty important to me. (I’m on the board of directors and organize the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship.) The NCSF was formed in 2005 to continue the charitable and educational works that have been a hallmark of the NCS since its inception in 1946. Learn more here.

Random pics…

Wanna confuse cartoonists? Just put them in a restaurant where they have to “input” all the food and drinks they want on a touch screen. Daryl Cagle, Betty (barely seen) & Greg Evans, an equally-confused waiter trying to help us, Rick Kirkman and me. Chad Frye took the pic and it’s up on his blog with a very substantial recap of the NCS Reuben weekend. (Puts mine to shame really.)

Wanna see even more pics of the SPACE comic strip panel I did with Jeff Stahler and Steve Boreman where my bad back is making me grimace? Look no further than here and here.

My travels – Part 3 – Drawing on the furniture

The National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Weekend was, well, over a month ago, and I’m just now getting to posting about it. And let’s face it, this won’t be much of a post – just some bulleted items of stuff I can recall off the top of my hairless head.

• After too may years I got to see Jim Whiting (who started the local cartooning group where I first met cartoonists in a group-like setting) and Aussie Peter Broelman.

• I got to witness a bunch of friends win awards: my buddy and sometime-roommate Mark Parisi (“Off the Mark“) won for Newspaper Panel, my pal and MAD boss Sam Viviano won for Magazine Illustration and my chum Dave Coverly (“Speed Bump“) won “the big ugly.” That is, the Reuben, the award for outstanding cartoonist of the year. It’s named after cartoonist Rube Goldberg and is indeed kinda odd looking. It consists of four naked cartoon figures piled on top of one another with an ink bottle perched on the uppermost figure’s butt. (Even odder is that supposedly it’s based on a lamp Rube made.)

• I stayed up very late every night, which was even later considering I live three time zones away. I believe I lapped myself the very first day, staying up for 24 hours. Even in the best of circumstances this is not the best way to start a Rubes w-end, even more so since I had to be up in the AM every dang day for some meeting or other.

• I ate at Johnny Rockets a lot.

• And last but not least, I got to draw on furniture. Mell Lazarus (“Miss Peach,” “Momma”) and his wife Sally have a piano in their home that they got about 15 years ago. Mell didn’t like the looks of it and suggested refinishing it. Sally suggested having their cartoonist friends draw on it. And so they have. It’s a “who’s who” of the cartooning world – Schulz, Eisner, Aragones, Johnston , etc. etc. Mell asked a bunch of us who hadn’t marred it’s surface to do so, and I was honored to. It was unnerving to add a drawing to such an amazing piece…and to have nowhere to rest my hand while drawing and trying so very hard not to screw up.

My travels – Part 2 – I’m not dead yet…

One thing the internet is great for is embarrassing photos. Here’s one of me from the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben weekend in Hollywood. (You’ll find more at the Hogan’s Alley site.) It has this caption:

“Bo Nanas” creator John Kovaleski either needed a nap or had too much to drink. Or both.

To clear up this scandal-to-be, it was the first. I was worn out going to the Rubes and got sick while there. I got directions to a drug store, dodged my way around many costumed characters hoping that I’ll pay to take a photo with them (but how do you pick between three Spidermans?) and bought some Airborne. I was late to a seminar panel on the future of newspaper comics, the place was packed so I sat on the floor in the back and had myself a anti-sickness cocktail (see empty glass at right). I was way in the back and figured, I can listen just as well laying down. That’s when David Folkman came around the corner on snapped this pic. It was later that I fell asleep.

(At left you can see one of my collection of “Man Purses of Many Lands.” This one is from Nicaragua.)

NCS karaoke

I’ve been away for 11 days and have just not gotten the chance to post…and things are too busy at the moment…catching up with work to get ready for MoCCA this weekend…so I stole a photo off of Tom Richmond’s blog. Shameful, I know, but I am in this photo so it’s sorta OK. (Can you “Where’s Waldo” me?)

This from the National cartoonists Society’s Reuben weekend a week and a half ago. (You can never accuse me of being timely.)

2009 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Winner

And the winner is… Chris Houghton. (The official press release is below.) I was the chair of the selection committee and got to talk to Chris a couple of times and he’s terrific…and super talented. Can’t wait to meet him.

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2009 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship.

Chris Houghton, 20, is a junior at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan where he studies illustration. Houghton was chosen from among 120 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award weekend in Los Angeles in May. The scholarship applicants submitted up to five examples of their work along with an entry form that included short essays on their current and future plans in cartooning. Entries were judged by a jury of eight professional cartoonist who are members of the board of directors of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. Houghton’s studies at the College for Creative Studies have included character design for animation and writing and illustrating his own comics. He has also submitted gag cartoons and spot illustrations for the school’s student magazine. Aside from his class work, Houghton has also dabbled in freelancing including working on T-Shirt and logo designs and drawing caricatures at events.

Last summer he illustrated a 130 page NASCAR coloring book and is currently doing illustration and concept art for a children’s video game company. He would like to do magazine illustration and work in animation.

The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is an annual award established in memory of Jay Kennedy, the late King Features comics editor, from an initial from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from other prominent cartoonist. It is administered by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to a college student in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the following academic year, selected by a panel of professional cartoonists.

Houghton will receive his award and meet the professional cartoonists who selected him at the National Cartoonists Society’s Annual Reuben Awards banquet in Los Angeles on May 22nd.

You can see more of Chris’s work on his website.