Last week, the Chief travelled to Los Angeles to accept the Pen USA Award for Outstanding Body of Work in Graphic Literature on behalf of Dan Clowes. He attended the ceremony with Mimi Pond who climbed on top of Dave Eggers and then sat in his lap to get this photo. Chris will turn in his blog report later this week on the full trip. (when hopefully we'll see photos of Katherine Keener who was also at the ceremony!!!) But for now, we have Dan's acceptance speech in full. Many bets in the office were made that Chief would not read the last line when on stage. I tried to get Mimi to make sure he would, but even she could not.I’m very happy and honored to accept this award, and especially so to have a category all to myself. I’ve always felt like a fraud when referred to as a “writer” – I only use that description when talking to the other parents at my son’s school – but cannot deny my pride at being recognized by this esteemed institution, both as an individual and as a proud representative of my beloved medium. Comics are their own separate language, quite unique from prose and drama, and the form has long - and perhaps rightfully - been regarded with disdain by the guardians of artistic virtue and I can only be humbled, or perhaps horrified by our general cultural decline, to have slipped through the gates.
I’d like to thank The PEN center, of course, and Mr. Oliveros for speaking to you in my absence. In gratitude, I will mercifully refrain from making him talk in the third person about what a great guy he is. Thank you.
1) Chris, you are a great guy even if you won't say it yourself and 2) Dan, you are not a fraud in any medium. You deserve every accolade ever bestowed upon you. Those other parents are crying in their cubicles. Congrats.
Ok, so no disrepect to Mimi, but the Pen Awards sent along the official photo:
