Brian Crane receives top award

Syndicated cartoonist Brian Crane of Sparks, creator of the comic strip “Pickles,” has received the highest award of the National Cartoonists Society—the Reuben, also known as Cartoonist of the Year.

“Pickles,” syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group for more than 15 years, is carried in 800-plus newspapers and collected in several books published by BaobabPress, the publishing arm of Sundance Books in Reno. It has twice received the comic strip of the year award from the NCS.