The Daily Cartoonist

Industry news for the professional cartoonist

Ruben Bolling Takes Berryman Award

D. D. Degg04 mins

Ruben Bolling, author of the “Tom the Dancing Bug” satirical weekly cartoon strip, has won the 2021 Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons from the National Press Foundation.

The judges cited Bolling’s mordant wit, superior artwork and inventive delivery. The cartoonist parodies well-known American cultural memes, from Charles M. Schultz’s Peanuts to Richard Scarry’s children’s books to The Matrix.

His 2021 work included biting commentary on the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the Q-ANON conspiracy theory.

The National Press Foundation announced the awarding here and here.

Ruben sends his thanks:

Hey, Tom the Dancing Bug just won the Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation!

I’ll be traveling to Washington, DC on February 9 to accept the award at a gala dinner. I hope there are tacos!

I’m really honored, and I know I’m repeating myself, but I don’t care:  Anytime I’m given any honor I only want it to reflect on the people and entities who partner with and support me and Tom the Dancing Bug:

  • My web clients, BoingBoing.net, DailyKos.com, and GoComics.com, who have always shown great faith in the comic strip, and have brought it their great and incredibly enthusiastic audiences;
  • Andrews McMeel Syndication, who has been a valued partner and great friend for almost 25 (!) years, and all of Tom the Dancing Bug valued print clients; and
  • The Inner Hive, the team that every single week makes the very existence of Tom the Dancing Bug possible, and much more fun.

Anyway, my thanks to the National Press Foundation.  I’m grateful to the judges for finding something worthy in my comics, and for finding that cartooning in general is worthy, apparently a view that is not universally shared among judges of cartooning awards.

 

 

 

Tim Campbell is the runner-up for the 2021 Berryman award for a hilarious and heartbreaking illustrated series based on comments the artist collected from middle school students during the pandemic.  Campbell’s work is distributed by the Washington Post News Service & Syndicate, and his winning work appeared in the KidsPost and Youarecurent.com.

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