Last weekend I was at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention in Sacramento. I’ve been going to this for more than 20 years and it is nice to see old cartoonist buddies. This first pic is five of us having lunch in a pie shop. From left, that’s Tim Eagan, Pedro Molina, Kevin Siers, the New Zealand Herald’s Rod Emmerson and me. Mmm. Pie.

Pedro is in a dangerous spot in Nicaragua, where government goons are attacking civilians under the direction of strongman Daniel Ortega. He won the CRNI Courage in Cartooning Award this year, given to him by cartoonist Zunar from Malaysia, who is quite a hero himself, having recently faced years in prison as the regime cracked down on him, Zunar’s case was thrown out as the regime changed. Not all of the cartooning news is bad news.

Here’s my Canadian cartoonist buddy, Graema MacKay of the Hamilton Spectator winning awards from the leader of the of our cartoonist buddies to the North, and my new buddy, Wes Tyrell.

Here is the talented Charis Jackson Barrios who won the John Locher Memorial Award as the outstanding college editorial cartoonist of the year.

Congratulations and good times to all!