The Rueben Awards were this last weekend at the National Cartoonist Society annual meeting. I went to the ceremonies a couple of times and it was non-stop laffs. Some dude won this year that I never heard of. The award was named after Rube Goldberg. Here’s a photo of the statue and Rube the year he won.

Rube Goldberg

Mort Walker, whose strip about the National Cartoonist Society meeting Roy Lichtenstein is in the Arf Museum book, tells about the creation of the statue: “Years ago, Rube Goldberg, our leader in lampooning, had designed a lamp base for people weary of cupids and curlycues on their lighting fixtures. It was a horrible looking creation consisting of four nude gnomes doing acrobatics, or something, Nightmarish. The minute we recoiled from the sight of it we knew we had the design we’d been searching for. It was hideous and disrepectful and honest enough that no cartoonist would feel finkey handing it to another and saying, ‘Here. Take the stupid thing. You won it by majority vote of the members who think you’re the outstanding cartoonist of the year. You deserve this.’ ”

Mort goes on to relate, “Bill Crawford removed the lamp socket from the top most gnomes rear end and replaced it properly with a…Higgins Ink bottle. He had it cast in bronze and set it on an onyx base. We call it the “Reuben” and it has served us well…there has been lots of grumbling about its lack of beauty, which makes us very proud. It fits us. So does grumbling. Nevertheless, it is our highest tribute to the top men in our craft. And if is the greatest thrill to be voted by your colleagues to receive it. At least no one has ever returned one”.

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Here’s a sketch Rube did of the completed statue. You’ll see a lot more wacky sculpture drawings by Rube in Arf Musem. Some pretty wild and a few a little risque.

Following are some drawings featuring the Reuben Award by some winners and esteemed cartoonists from the National Cartoonist Society, where, actually, everybody’s a weiner (I say that as one of the members)!

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So, in Arf Museum, you’ll see more drawings of Rube Goldberg statues and read a early 1900′s essay by Rube where he talks about making a wacky lamp like the Rueben award statue for his foyer and then proceeds to make fun of modern artists. And you’ll read this comic drawn by Mort Walker about when the National Cartoonist Society invited Roy Lichtenstein to their meeting in order to ambush him. This is drawn especially for Arf. You can see a preview of both by clicking on the preview of the Arf Museum cover on the upper left of this page. Order your copy quickly as the boat from the Orient with the copies is just about to hit the shore. Shore nuff!

Here’s some synergy…a drawing of Rube by Mort (on Rube’s 80th birthday)!