
Drawing for the children at St. Jude's Hospital was the true highlight of the weekend for me. Those children are so amazing and inspiring! Here I am drawing
Snuffy Smith next to incredible cartoonist Daryll Collins who works as a cartoonist for
Boys' Life and
Highlights magazine among many other publications. We almost look like twins!
This past weekend was the annual Reuben Awards Weekend gathering of the
National Cartoonists Society! Every year it is in a different city. This year we had our meeting in Memphis, Tennessee at the historic
Peabody Hotel. It was a very fun and very inspirational weekend for me. Here are many more photo highlights:

A close-up of me drawing
Snuffy for a child.

Spending some time with my good friend, Greg Walker of
Beetle Bailey and
Hi and Lois!

The great Brian Walker of
Hi and Lois and I stand behind the amazing Guy Gilchrist of
Nancy/The Muppets/TMNT and his lovely art assistant Anna Marie Guthrie.

I have admired John Reiner's work on
The Lockhorns comic panel for many, many years! He is as kind as he is talented!

Delicious Friday night dinner on the top floor of The Peabody! At my table are (from left): Frank and Bonnie Mariani, my lovely wife Karen and Gerri and Jerry Dowling. All very talented folks!

Karen and I Friday night.

Bob Rich
(Balloon and Daisy), Tom Stiglich
(Creators Syndicate Editorial Cartoonist) and I pose with the legendary Peabody Duckmaster in the hotel lobby.
MAD Magazine's Nick Meglin interviews
MAD/Rankin Bass cartooning giant Paul Coker, Jr.

This image by Paul shows him at his drawing board with the famous
Frosty The Snowman character he created for the TV Christmas Specials looking over his shoulder.

The wonderful holiday characters Paul Coker, Jr. created for the many, many Rankin Bass Christmas Specials were always a
big part of my holiday season growing up! I own many of them now on DVD. Meeting Paul was a childhood dream come true for me.

My incredible wife Karen and I before the Reuben Awards banquet Saturday night! She even makes
me look good!

John Hambrock
(Edison Lee) and I with Best Newspaper Comic Strip Winner, the incredible Terri Libenson
(Pajama Diaries)!

Toasting King Features before the Reuben Awards Banquet with Tea Fougner
(Editorial Project Manager at King) and John Killian
(Vice President, Sales at King).

It was an honor to meet Steve Martino, Director of the award-winning
The Peanuts Movie for the first time! You may remember I did an earlier blog post about Spark Plug's cameo in
The Peanuts Movie!

Karen with our very good friends, Silver T-Square Award Winner, Bruce Higdon and his wife Yong.

Karen (dressed as Cindi Lauper) posing in front of Graceland where the NCS had a Rock and Roll Costume Party. We had Graceland to ourselves that night!

With my good friends, the amazing Mike Peters
(Mother Goose and Grimm/Editorial Cartoons) and Tom Stiglich at the Graceland Costume Party. I am dressed as Kenny Rogers, Mike as The Colonel and Tom as Slash from Guns and Roses, I believe.
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