Rube Goldberg on the political cartooning

Comments ¹²

1. Beth Cravens

   I love Rube

2. frank white

   I read recently that the NCS does not give it’s Reuben statuette to a cartoonist more than once. Schulz was allowed to recieve it twice in the past, as was Jeff McNelly and Watterson. Why did this rule get changed? I’m suspecting it was to stop Bill Watterson from winning a third Reuben as the whole party on those nights must have been a real let down for everyone as he never turned up to the awards ceremonies.Seriously, nobody has come even close to winning a second Ruuben since these guys so can anybody tell me why this rule exists? The Oscars don’t have this rule and the Ruebens are often billed as the Oscars of cartooning.

3. Rick Stromoski

   The membership of the NCS voted sometime around 1996 to limit the Cartoonist of the Year award to a once in a lifetime. Some of the arguments for the change compared the Reuben to a Hall of Fame type award and once you’re in the Hall of Fame there’s no need to be elected again.

   Some of the arguments against were that a Cartoonists work can win a Reuben for two different features or in Sparky’s case, two bodies of work from different decades… 1955 Peanuts was quite different from 1964 Peanuts.

   Around the time that the discussion/debate took place, it seemed for nearly a decade the same 4 cartoonists were nominated/won every year…Larson and Watterson and either
   Lynn Johnston or Garry Trudeau. In Larson and Watterson’s case, many attendees grew weary of seeing a syndicate executive accept cartooning’s highest award year after year since neither Larson nor Watterson ever bothered to show up or ever express thanks to the NCS for the honor…although they readily accepted their Reubens. I suspect that this was a factor for the change as well.

   Bil Keane led the campaign to limit the Reuben to once in a lifetime and it was debated at the yearly business meeting as well as at the chapter level and in the newsletter. Many good arguments were made for and against. But the vast majority voted for the change. I recall it was about a 2 to 1 vote.

   I tend to agree with Bil since historically many deserving cartoonists were overlooked for the Reuben since the membership tended to vote for syndicated newspaper cartoonists. Without the rule change I doubt that well deserving cartoonists like Jack Davis, Sergio Aragones, Wil Eisner, Al Jaffee and Matt Groening would have gotten their Reubens’.

   You can see a list of Reuben winners at http://www.reuben.org/ncs/archive/divisions/reuben2.asp

4. Rick Stromoski

   >>>The Oscars donâ??t have this rule and the Ruebens are often billed as the Oscars of cartooning.

   The Oscars are given to actors who appear in different movies year to year.

   One of the arguments made against giving the Reuben to a feature that’s won before would be the equivalent to giving a Best Actor oscar to George C. Scott every year for Patton.

5. Wiley Miller

   It should also be pointed out that Bil Keane is a Reuben Award winner, so his push for the rule change was made out of what was best for the organization and the prestige of the award itself rather than any self interest. He’s a genuine man of great integrity, which is an attribute that has been passed on to his son, Jeff, who is the current president of the NCS.

6. frank white

   Thanks for clearing that up for me Rick.That was very interesting.

7. Rich Diesslin

   Good question, great replies (Rick and Wiley). Makes sense to me.

8. Jesse Cline

   “The Oscars are given to actors who appear in different movies year to year.

   One of the arguments made against giving the Reuben to a feature thatâ??s won before would be the equivalent to giving a Best Actor oscar to George C. Scott every year for Patton.”

   I know you aren’t the one that brought up the Oscars, but I don’t think that is a fair comparison. A comic is a recurring series like a television show. An actor can win multiple Emmy’s for the same character on the same show, as long as its a different season.

   I guess it depends on how you look at it. If its a yearly award, I think giving out Reubens only once cheapens it. It becomes a matter of giving it to who hasn’t gotten one yet, or whose turn it is, instead of who actually drew the best comic that year.

   But on the other hand, if its more of a lifetime achievement type award and/or applied to the entire body of work and not just that one year, I guess it makes sense to give it only one.

9. Wiley Miller

   Making analogies with other awards in an entirely different medium is fruitless and an utter waste of time. There is no such thing as a completely “fair” award system in any field that will please everyone. All any of them can do is try their best in dealing with the realities within the particular artform. There’s always room for improvement for any award system, but unless you’re involved with that system, you’ll never know all the problems inherent with making changes.

10. Joe Williams

    We tend to think of those old time cartoonists as naive (or, at least to me that seems how they get portrayed in the media- that were almost idiot savants who simply doodled funny pictures) and that cartoons were “in their infancy” but in fact I think cartoons were already a mature art form and the people creating them were very intelligent and perceptive people who understood their art much better than cartoonists of today.

11. frank white

    Rick , correct if I’m wrong but isn’t the Golen Brick Award supposed to be the Lifetime Achievement/Hall of Fame type of award? If so then my question still remains why only give one Rueben to one cartoonist in his/her own lifetime?

12. Rick Stromoski

    The Milt Caniff Award is the Lifetime acheivement award for the NCS. Given to a living cartoonist who had shown a lifetime of outstanding work …

    >>>If so then my question still remains why only give one Rueben to one cartoonist in his/her own lifetime?

    See my first post.