Congratulations to Stephan Pastis, who took home the award.
Quickly flipping through the program, I didn't notice Lynn's name listed, anywhere. We know she attended, because she mentioned having done so during her interview with Inman.
I wish I could have attended. Daniel Clowes! Los Bros Hernandez! Charlie Adlard!
Edit: I posted a link to a video of Pastis's acceptance speech, in a comment below. It was a video that John Glynn had posted on his Facebook page, and tagged Stephan Pastis. It looks as though the video is not accessible/working for all who try to access it. So I've made a transcript. Cannot guarantee I've spelled every name correctly.
...And I was behind the curtain, about to go on-stage to speak to a bunch of people, and the MC was introducing me, and he was going through my bio, and he said this: "Stephan Pastis was nominated by his peers for the highest award in cartooning, the Reubens, in 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, and won the award in each of those years." So I knew the right thing to do when I went out there was to gently correct him and tell him that I had in fact lost all of those years. So when I went out there, I said nothing. Who was I to ruin a good thing? So while some of you might think this is my very first Reuben, the fact is that in parts of New Mexico, I have won eight.
So thank you to all the cartoonists I have had the privilege of being nominated with, this year and every year. Thank you to Amy Lago, wherever you are here tonight. Amy is the person that pulled "Pearls" out of large submission stack and got me started. Thank you to Ron O'Neil for selling the heck out of the strip. Thank you to Dave Mace for the same. And thank you to everybody at Universal. Particularly John Glynn, for just being a legit kind person, through all the crises I manufactured, and through all of those you caused. And above all, to my wife Stacy. Stacy has only come to two Reubens. And I lost both years. And it was so disappointing, because I knew deep down that she had jinxed me. But then I lost in succeeding years, when she wasn't here, and began to realize the truth. That she was jinxing me from home.
But here is the real truth, and we can get out of here. As many a spouse or partner here in this room will tell you, living with a creative type is not easy. We are moody, we are up, we are down, we are manic, we are boastful, we are mopey, we suck, we're great, we're unstable, we forget, we rage, we're nuts, and we quit, and we unquit, and we quit again. And one person that none of your peers ever sees is there in our homes and on the phone, talking us off that ledge, telling us whatever truth or lie will get us through the night. So that person for me is Stacy, who happens to be here tonight. So I will say this directly to her. First off, way to break the curse, babe. Stacy, when we had one small kid and another one on the way, and we were making real money from my job as a lawyer, I told you that I wanted to quit that job and take a chance on a career that had a very high failure rate. You never once questioned that. We never even had that discussion. So in the years that followed, you and only you saw all the highs and lows that no one else saw, supporting me long after I had the right to ask. So while others will see my name on that, I will see yours. Thank you to all of you, thank you to the NCS, I will take this home and put it with my other seven. Thank you very much.