Richard Thompson, creator of the comic strip “Cul de Sac,” won the Reuben Award on May 28 as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. (The Washington Post Magazine) (Dustin Fenstermacher)
The other Reubens finalists were “Pearls Before Swine” creator Stephan Pastis and “Tangled” filmmaker Glen Keane.
Thompson’s big win capped a notable night for newer features. In the Newspaper Comic Strip division, “Cul de Sac” — nearing just its fourth year in syndication — lost out to another recently launched strip: “Dustin” by Jeff Parker and Steve Kelley.
And the Indianapolis Star’s Gary Varvel won the NCS’s Editorial Cartoon award. The honor continues a banner awards season for Varvel, who earlier this year received the 2011 RFK Journalism Award for cartooning for his reportorial series “The Path to Hope.”
In other newspaper-related categories, Michael McParlane won for Newspaper Illustration and Glenn McCoy won Best Panel Cartoon for “The Flying McCoys.” As they do many years, the Brothers McCoy continued to rack up the NCS awards: Gary McCoy for Gag Cartoons.
In the animation categories, character designer Nicolas Marlet won for Feature Animation for the Oscar-nominated ”How to Train Your Dragon”; and director/producer designer Dave Filoni won the TV Animation award for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”
In bound-comics categories, Joyce Farmer won the Graphic Novel award for “Special Exits,” and Jill Thompson won the Comic Book award for “Beasts of Burden.”
Elsewhere, Jim Benton won for Greeting Cards; Anton Emdin won for Magazine Illustration; Mike Lester (“The Butt Book”) won for Book Illustration; and Dave Whamond won for Advertising Illustration.
In career-achievement categories, Roy Doty got the Gold Key; Lucy Shelton-Caswell (who retired last year as curator of OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) received the Silver T-Square; and R.O. Blechman was honored with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.
A full list of viewers may also be viewed on the Reubens site.
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