Dustin Gets Another Nod

L to R, top row: Mike Richardson, Brian Walker, David Silverman, Tom Gammill. Second row: Brian Basset, Jason Chatfield, Nick Galifianakis, (Reuben emcee), Lynda Barry, Matt Groening. Front row, VIZ characters, Bill Plympton

Team Dustin is honored to learn our comic strip has been nominated for the National Cartoonists Society Silver Reuben Award for Best In Newspaper Comic Strips Division once again.  Congratulations to fellow Comic Strips division nominees, Brian Crane for his powerhouse strip “Pickles,” and Terri Libensen for her incomparable “Pajama Diaries” (last year’s Newspaper Comic Strips winner).

This is “Dustin’s” fourth nomination.  Steve and I humbly took home the hardware after our first nomination in 2011.

In case you’re thinking “Dustin” has been nominated for a sandwich or something, the Reubens are the cartooning world’s answer to the Oscars.  Each Memorial Day weekend, cartoonists of all stripes from all over the globe gather at a lavish black tie award ceremony, complete with “…the nominees are…” followed by gold sealed envelopes opened to, “…and the winner is…” (No doubt we’ll see and Oscar-like wrong envelope incident this year.)

What makes the Reubens so special is that nominees are selected by fellow cartoonists.

The big prize, as always, is the Reuben statuette itself, given to the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. Nominees this year are,  Lynda Barry, known for “Ernie Pook’s Comeek,” Stephan Pastis of “Pearls Before Swine” fame, Hilary Price creator of the drop-dead funny “Rhymes With Orange,” Mark Tatulli, mad genius behind “Lio,” and Ann Telnaes, editorial cartoonist extraordinare with The Washington Post. The statuette and division award plaques were sculpted by cartoonist titan Rube Goldberg, thus, “the Reuben.”

This year, winners will make their acceptance speeches in Portland, OR.  Click here for more on the Reubens and a list of all the nominees.