While Wiley Miller opts to make his Reuben Award winner prediction in a retractable-less cartoon that’s set to print on Sunday – just hours after the formal announcement is made, Tom Heintjes, editor of “Hogan’s Magazine” has posted his predictions for all the division awards as well as the Reuben Award.
NOMINEES FOR THE REUBEN AWARD: Those in the running for the top award (despite common misperception, this award is the ONLY Reuben Award given each year; the others are divisional awards) are Dave Coverly (“Speed Bump”), Al Jaffee (“Mad” magazine’s fold-in) and Dan Piraro (“Bizarro”). Both Coverly and Piraro were Reuben nominees last year, but we predict they’ll be bridesmaids again this year, as the living legend Jaffee wins cartooning’s most prestigious paperweight. SHOULD WIN: Beloved by his peers, Piraro demonstrates daily that the comics page can still be hospitable to brilliant art. Always solid and occasionally transcendent gagwriting burnishes his credentials. (Don’t get us wrong: We are in awe of Jaffee’s body of work, but the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award exists to honor members of cartooning’s pantheon like Jaffee; however, Sandra Boynton is slated to receive that honor this year.) WILL WIN: While Coverly and Piraro will no doubt hold the hardware in their hands one day, it’s Jaffee turn to put his Reuben Award through the x-ray machine at the airport.
More than any other human, he has caused millions of copies of “Mad” to fall from mint condition.
You can read the rest of his predictions over on google groups.
I guess no one’s going to pat me on the back for going five-for-seven with my predictions. (Last year, I went four for five, but this year I ventured into two more categories..) Call me the Greek!