MAD Magazine Artist Tom Richmond Wins A Reuben!

Tom wins the Reuben! (The Award, not the sandwich!)

(Via MAD Magazine's blog)  www.madmagazine.com

The National Cartoonists Society held the 66th Annual Reuben Awards in Las Vegas the last weekend in May, 2012.

The big winner at this year's ceremony was none other than MAD's very own Tom Richmond, who took home the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year! The Reuben is the highest honor a professional cartoonist can receive.

Past winners include such big names as Charles Schulz, Gary Larson, Matt Groening, and four legendary members of MAD's Usual Gang of Idiots: Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragonés, Jack Davis and Al Jaffee! Below is a photo of Tom holding his shiny new Reuben surrounded by three of the four previous MAD winners, along with MAD Art Director Sam Viviano and longtime MAD Editor Nick Meglin.

Congratulations, Tom! Now start drawing our satire of The Avengers for an upcoming issue of MAD!

Huge thanks to David Folkman for the photo!

If you've wondered about "The Usual Gang of Idiots" here's a half dozen of 'em!

From left to right: Nick Meglin, Al Jaffee, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragonés, Tom Richmond and Sam Viviano

Impressionistic View of Two Tall Ships in New York Harbor.

I didn't need to use 'special effects' to obtain this impressionistic view of two of the ten Tall Ships that came into New York Harbor for the Memorial Day weekend. The image was created when my work boat crossed over a wake and jiggled my phone's camera (Droid 4). Turns out, I actually like this image. But as I started to take a few more pictures, the Coast Guard pulled up along aside my boat announcing "evacuate the area!" I did move on, but seriously --- can you see how far away I am!!! What kind of threat is my boat which displays its New York State registration numbers right on the side of hull? There were 3 boats patrolling the area, and I was the only pleasure boat nearby, so I guess it was something for them to do. 

An end to bruised fruits and veggies that you carry home from the market.

These days’ people are buying (or thinking about buying) more fresh fruits and vegetables. But that creates a new problem, getting home to discover that your healthy produce is bruised. The Quirky online community has come to the rescue with a new produce carry-bag. Called Mercado, it could be the ultimate farmers market bag. If you’re not familiar with Quirky it a place where ordinary people help design, develop and share in the revenue from products that make it to the marketplace. The Mercado has pockets to protect delicate fruits and vegetables, loops to hold bottles in place, and compartments to keep everything organized.

Let’s take a closer look. There are 6 small interior pockets designed for smaller, delicate fruit, 2 medium interior pockets, 1 large interior compartment with 2 elastic loops to hold bottles in place and 2 small exterior pockets for quick access items like cash or keys. The bag seems very well made using a combination of mesh and cotton canvas. The structured mesh pockets holds the shape of the bag whether worn or placed on the ground. You know how it is with regular bags that contain odd shaped items. Usually they fall over and spill their contents. What’s worse than watching your fresh peaches rolling down the street! There’s a wide adjustable strap that lets you choose the right length for carrying your fruits and veggies. Mercado is available for sale in Quirky's online store for $24.99.

www.quirky.com

Some background on Quirky: Mercado is the dream of Quirky community member Peter Wachtel from Buffalo, New York, and was brought to life on Quirky.com with the help of 738 influencers. Quirky makes invention accessible by partnering with creative people around the world to bring new products to life. Quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation from sketch to store. Anyone can participate on Quirky.com either by submitting their own product idea for $10, or by voting, rating, and influencing other people's product ideas. Cooler still, 30 cents of every dollar generated from the direct sale of a Quirky product goes back to these influencers.

Getting down and muddy.

One of the neat things the 18 reporters who attended the Sony Sedona trip in March got to do was to get down and muddy. Yes, we were able to make our own clay creations. The Sedona Arts Center has a pottery class taught by Dennis Ott. Dennis has the talent to make you feel like you're doing well even though you're positive you're doing nothing more than making a mess. I chose not to use the potter's wheel because I could tell from the amount of clay on the aprons that it was one of the more messy ways to work with clay. I just did clay pounding and cutting and came up with this "gem". We left our creative effots in Sedona to be fired and sent on to us. Mine seems to have gotten broken right before the firing/glazing process. I guess the person at the kiln didn't realize it was a moustache and stuck the left broken piece right on top of the rest of my 'stache. Doesn't matter. You can't ruin a piece of art like that! It comes pre-ruined! Actually looking at it again, it seems the right side of my stache was also broken, but it was put back in the proper place. Thanks again Sony, for an incredible adventure.

http://www.sedonaartscenter.com/

When I was at the National Hardware Show in Vegas, I made a small side trip.

Since I had written the satire of the Pawn Stars for MAD, called Yawn Stars, a friend suggested we drop by the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, home of the series. I didn't know if they had sense of humor about themselves, but I figured, why not -- or, what me worry? Turns out the Pawn Stars were out on location when we got their place. But it looked quite a bit different from the series. It's more like 40% antiques and pawned items and 60% Pawn Star merchandise. The most merchandise is Chumlee stuff, including "Chumlee For President" t-shirts and posters. A lady at the register said Chumlee merchandise is their largest seller! Quite amazing. There was even a line to get in, but a PR person helped us. Yep, they have a PR agency too. Pawn Stars is a hit on TV. A nice guy named Richard who works for the old man said the family does have a sense of humor, and they did enjoy my MAD send-up, Yawn Stars. with wild Tom Bunk art. Thanks to Michael Sommers for driving us there and shooting the photos. Below, All Chumlee stuff!