This weekend is NCS Fest, the annual event hosted by the National Cartoonists Society that includes, among other activities, the NCS Divisional Awards and the annual presentation of the Reuben Award.
This year’s event is being streamed online, and the NCS has interspersed some of the awards presentations throughout the stream. Yesterday Hellboy artist Duncan Fegredo presented the award for best comic book, which went to Walt Simonson’s Ragnarok: The Breaking of Helheim. The comic is published by IDW, which also publishes the other two nominees in the category, Usagi Yojimbo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Jennika.
Emil Ferris, meanwhile, presented the award for best graphic novel, which went to Kodi by Jared Cullum. Kodi is published by IDW’s Top Shelf imprint. Kodi went up against Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band, also published by IDW, and The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, which was published by Avery Hill Publishing.
Finally, the Sergio Aragones International Award for Excellence in Comic Art, named of course for the famed MAD Magazine artist, was awarded to French cartoonist Boulet, aka Gilles Roussel.
While the awards for Online Comics – Long Form and Online Comics – Short Form were scheduled to be presented last night, neither was given out yet, so they’ll likely come later today, along with the awards for Editorial Cartoon, Newspaper Strip and of course the Reuben Award for cartoonist of the year.
You can watch the livestream today starting at 9:45 a.m. on the NCS Fest website. In addition to the awards that will be given out, today’s agenda also includes a session on political cartoons, Scott Shaw!’s Oddball Comics, a spotlight on Steenz (Heart of the City) and a conversation between Karen Green and Mike Mignola.
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