Charlie Adlard wins this year's Sergio Aragones Award

The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard won the Sergio Aragones International Award For Excellence In Comic Art at this year’s Reubens Awards, held over the weekend at the inaugural NCSFest in Huntington Beach, California.

Charlie will collect his Award at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Cumbria, in October.

“I’m honoured, overjoyed, and humbled,” said Charlie. “Thank you!”

Charlie, who was Comic Laureate from 2017 until earlier this year, has been a “veteran” of the comic industry for over 20 years, spending the majority of his time since 2004 working on The Walking Dead for which he has received many industry awards. In his time as a comic creator, he has worked on many other projects as far reaching as Mars AttacksThe X-Files, “Judge Dredd” and “Savage” for 2000 ADBatmanX-MenSuperman and more – and creator-owned projects closer to his heart like Astronauts In TroubleCodefleshRock Bottomand White Death.

Stephan Pastis, creator of the daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine, syndicated by Universal Uclick, won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. Stephan practiced law in the San Fransisco Bay area before following his love of cartooning and eventually seeing syndication with Pearls, which was launched in newspapers in December 2001. The National Cartoonists Society awarded Pearls Before Swine the Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 and in 2006. He is also the author of the children’s book series Timmy Failure.

The National Cartoonists Society also presented Disney legend Floyd Norman with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Annual Reuben Awards. Floyd is an animator, writer, comic strip and comic book artist, and a bonafide “Disney Legend.”

Over the course of his stellar career, Norman has worked for a number of animation companies in addition to Walt Disney Animation Studios, including Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.

Each year, during the NCS Annual Reuben Awards Weekend, the Society honours the year’s outstanding achievements in all walks of the profession. The recipient of the comic profession’s highest honour, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year is chosen by a secret ballot of the members.

The Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by unanimous vote of the NCS Board of Directors, as is the Silver T-Square, an award that recognises outstanding service to the Society and the profession.

The National Cartoonists Society is the world’s largest and most prestigious organisation of professional cartoonists. It was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the Allied troops. They found that they enjoyed each other’s company and decided to meet on a regular basis.

Today, the NCS membership roster includes over 500 of the world’s major cartoonists, working in many branches of the profession, including newspaper comic strips and panels, comic books and graphic novels, editorial cartoons, animation, gag cartoons, greeting cards, advertising, magazine and book illustration, online comics, and more.

Membership is limited to established professional cartoonists, with a few exceptions of outstanding persons in affiliated fields.

• Charlie Adlard is online at www.charlieadlard.com | Follow Charlie on Twitter @CharlieAdlard

• Reuben Awards: www.reuben.org/awards

• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival runs from in Friday 11th – 13th October 2019 at various venues across the town

• Web: www.comicartfestival.com | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Podcast