Hobart cartoonist wins national award
Sep. 23—Hobart resident Scott Jensen recently received an award from the National Cartoonists Society for his work in greeting cards.
Jensen has been drawing greeting cards for Oatmeal Studios for more than 35 years. He said he mostly draws birthday cards.
"I've always been open to doing many different forms of cartoons, but greeting cards is the area that seemed to take off the most for me, so I'm happy with that," he said in an email. "I like the two-part form of a greeting card gag — the set-up on the outside of the card, then the punchline on the inside."
In addition to creating greeting cards, he draws and writes "Digby's Hardware," a comic strip in The Hardware Connection, a trade magazine for hardware retailers.
"That's fun, too. It's four panels, so it's a different way of playing the joke out," he said. "I enjoy it all."
Jensen is the director of visual communications at Cazenovia College. "I teach a range of design courses, as well as a humorous cartooning class," he said. "It's a long drive, but I enjoy the energy of the students, and I think that being around them makes my own work better and funnier."
Jensen said he got his start at the age of 14, drawing a weekly editorial cartoon for the Deposit Courier. He later attended Delaware Academy and Central School District at Delhi, and drew editorial cartoons for the Delaware County Times throughout high school and college, he said. He studied communications, art and photography at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and later earned a masters of fine arts in advertising design from Syracuse University.
Jensen received the award for best greeting cards from the National Cartoonists Society at the annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Sept. 15, and 16, a media release said.
He received his award from presenter Hilary Price, the cartoonist behind Rhymes With Orange.
Jensen said he has been entering the competition since he joined the society in 2010 and said he was a finalist last year and decided to enter his works again this year. "I considered just the nomination to be a major accomplishment," he said. "I never seriously thought I could actually win. When they called my name, I was surprised, excited, nervous and grateful. By the time I made it up to the stage, I was feeling intimidated and humbled to be honored by my peers in front of so many legendary cartoonists I'd grown up admiring."
During the awards ceremony, Edward Sorel received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year and special awards were given to Jeanne Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz; Mort Gerberg, a magazine cartoonist; Gary Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury; and Patrick McDonnell, creator of Mutts, the release said.
Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.
