The 15th Annual Toonie Awards 2006

The Annual Toonie Awards honor cartoonists who have made significant contributions to the field and have ties to the Pacific Northwest.

2006 Toonie Awards Photo Gallery
2006 Toonie Awards Clay Entries

Television networks scheduled reruns during the Winter Olympics rather than compete for an audience, and the National Hockey League went on temporary hiatus... But Cartoonists Northwest held their Fifteenth Annual Toonie Award Ceremony & Banquet right on schedule—Ciao Ballard!

As a matter of fact, this year's Toonie Award Banquet had the highest attendance of any of the fifteen events. Our first award banquet was attended by seventy-five people and none since had come close to that attendance, but this year eighty members and guests filled the room to capacity!

At the door to the banquet room at the Yankee Grill, Liriel McMahon welcomed everyone. She made sure we signed in the Guest Book, picked up name tags, meal tickets, beads and tiaras.

To start things off, former Cartoonists NW President Kevin Brockschmidt presented Twenty-Five Years of Cartoonists Northwest, sharing humorous recollections of the early years of the club. Kev also narrated a video presentation by Tony Benedict. It featured memories from early meetings and Toonie Award Banquets, including images of members no longer with us such as the late J. Lee Helck and Harvey Bosch. Also on the DVD were members we don't see much anymore like Louis Scarborough Jr. and Avery.

Properly reminded of the clubs past, CNW President Scott Alan & VP Scott Ball took the reigns of the present. First they invited anyone who hadn't already done so to have fun with Clay sculpting. Then they asked everyone to view and begin bidding on the fabulous items in our Silent Auction, where there was everything from original art by Rick Hoberg and Ray Collins, to published works by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Horsey and Georgia & Scott Ball. And last but not least, to check out the Raffle items (tickets $2) including t-shirts, book bags, posters, playing cards—Billy Mays would have a field day listing you could get.

About this time, we came to the Musical Interlude. All the way from Cashmere, WA, we put our hands together to welcome Dan McConnell who played the title track from his CD Cow Cat. Audience participation was encouraged and soon the whole room was singing and laughing and wondering how many verses Dan had written. Copies of his CD were available at the banquet.

Special Guest Peter Bagge was a highlight of the evening. He shared the story of his cartooning career and had the room laughing our behinds off (is that why Kev had a sticker on the back of his pants?).

One funny anecdote concerned his first visit to Cartoonists Northwest and the prodding he got from one member about "it's not what you know but who you know" and why wouldn¹t Peter share his secrets to comic strip syndication fame & fortune?

Taking the podium to present the Member Certificates were Mike Tackett, Maureen (Gibbs) VanderPas and Liz deDesrochers.

Best of the Northwest 2005 — Kevin Boze

The Great Vic Stredicke Favorite New Talent Award — Bill Morse

And finally, the moment we all were waiting for, the Toonie Award Finalists and then the awarding of the Golden Toonie Award to the Cartoonist of the Year. The categories and finalists for this year were:

Still the evening wasn't over yet. It was a special treat for Cartoonists Northwest to bestow a deserved honor on our beloved Founding Mother, Maureen (Gibbs) VanderPas. Scott Alan & Scott Ball called her to the podium and presented her with the one-of-a-kind Silver Toonie Award. Maureen also was given a memory book made up of artwork and notes from members. "What an incredible idea. To have special artwork from so many people especially for me. It's truly outstanding and I'm just awestruck," she said.

The Silent Auction and Raffle were successes. Members took home fantastic items such as original Rick Hoberg artwork and the club coffers were fattened up a bit. A win-win situation. Scott Alan declared these the best Toonie Awards ever and welcomed everyone to join us at the next Toonie Award Banquet to be held... locally.

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