June 1, 2011 – The National Cartoonists Society held its 65th Annual Reuben Awards Dinner in Boston over Memorial Day Weekend and Jim Benton, creator of the popular It’s Happy Bunny licensed character, was recognized as a NCS Division Award Winner for excellence in Greeting Cards.
“For someone who grew up as such a huge fan of cartoons and cartoonists, it’s just an incredible honor to be recognized in this way by my cartooning peers and longtime cartooning idols,” says Benton.
The National Cartoonists Society annually recognizes excellence in the fields of newspaper strips, newspaper panels, TV animation, feature animation, newspaper illustration, gag cartoons, book illustration, greeting cards, comic books, magazine feature/magazine illustration, and editorial cartoons.
Benton was recognized for his work on a popular line of It’s Happy Bunny greeting cards published by American Greetings.
About Jim Benton’s It’s Happy Bunny
It’s Happy Bunny, the cute little bunny with the BIG attitude, is a humorous character brand popular with tweens, teens, young adults, and the young-at-heart. It is the combination of the Bunny’s sweet and adorable appearance with its impolite attitude that makes It’s Happy Bunny so hilarious and well-loved.
It’s Happy Bunny™ is one of the world’s most popular and successful licensed characters. It’s Happy Bunny is currently licensed to over 100 companies worldwide collectively creating, producing, and marketing literally thousands of SKUs of It’s Happy Bunny licensed products. The It’s Happy Bunny licensing program has won several industry awards including four prestigious Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA) International Licensing Excellence Awards: “Best Art Brand” in 2005, “Best Character Brand License – Soft Goods” in 2006, “Best Character Brand Licensee – Hard Goods” in 2007, and “Best Character Brand Program of the Year” in 2008.
About CopCorp Licensing
CopCorp Licensing is global licensing agent for Jim Benton’s It’s Happy Bunny. CopCorp Licensing is known as an innovative and strategic licensing agency that specializes in the development of brand, character, art, publishing, and entertainment based licensing opportunities for presentation and packaging to the manufacturer and retailer communities. Led by Carole Postal, Founder and President, this award-winning agency develops, sells, negotiates, markets, and implements complete licensing strategies and programs for major entertainment corporations, artists, art studios, apparel brand names, among others clients.
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For more information about licensing opportunities, please contact:
Carole Postal, President
CopCorp Licensing
(212) 947-5958
info@copcorp.com
Jim Benton
Benton Arts (J. K. Benton Design Studio, Inc.)
(248) 644-5875
JKBenton@aol.com