For Immediate Release:

Top College Cartoonist Scholarship Award Winner, Chris Houghton

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2009 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. Chris Houghton, 20, a junior at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan where he studies illustration.

The scholarship is awarded to the top college cartoonist, selected by a jury of professional cartoonists. Houghton was chosen from among 120 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award weekend in Los Angeles on May 22.

Houghton's studies at the College for Creative Studies have included character design for animation and writing and illustrating his own comics. According to Mad Magazine cartoonist, Tom Richmond, Houghton's work is "brilliant," and he "shows a mastery and playfulness in his work that is truly impressive." The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is an annual award established in memory of Jay Kennedy, the beloved King Features comics editor. The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is the non-profit charitable arm of the National Cartoonists Society, the premier organization of cartoonists in America.

For more information, contact John Kovaleski, NCSF Education Committee Chairman at (717) 334-5926.

High-resolution images of Chris Houghton's artwork for print and his photograph are available to download at www.cagle.com/news/houghton