SYCAMORE - Sycamore resident Pat Brady always admired great cartoonists for their artistic talent and wit. Now his name will be listed among theirs. Brady, who has been producing the "Rose is Rose" comic strip for the last 21 years, has received the most prestigious award in the industry, the National Cartoon-ists' Society Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. He accepted the award May 28 in Scottsdale, Ariz., in front of 350 peers. Previous winners include Bil Keane ("Family Circus"), Jim Davis ("Garfield"), Gary Larson ("The Far Side"), Matt Groening ("The Simpsons") and Charles Schulz ("Peanuts"). "I was grateful for the award and grateful for all the happiness that the work of the other cartoonists have brought to me over the years," he said. The 57-year-old's love for cartoons began when he was a child. "Ever since I was little, I loved to doodle and draw cartoons," he said. "I've always had cartooning at heart and wanted to pursue that goal." He was fascinated by the early Disney comic books featuring Donald Duck and his nephews and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. And then Brady's father showed him his first Mad Magazine. "I was convinced that was the route for me," he said. The boy began submitting his work to the publication and other publications at the age of 11. Although Mad Magazine never published his cartoons, school newspapers did and it wasn't long until newspaper syndicates became interested in Brady. In the meantime, he worked various graphic arts jobs. From 1980 to 1983, he produced "Graves Inc.," a business-oriented comic strip about a tyrannical boss. The strip didn't generate enough of a following to keep it going, but it was good practice for Brady, who launched his next strip, "Rose is Rose," the following year. It originally appeared in 60 newspapers. It runs in about 600 now and has been anthologized in 11 books. "It's been a wonderful 21 years," said Brady, who for the last 17 has been living and working in Sycamore. The strip features the Gumbo family, with Rose, a homemaker who occasionally transforms into her alter ego, Vicki the Biker; Jimbo, a blue-collar dad and romantic; their imaginative son, Pasquale; and Peekaboo the cat. "There's something wonderful about seeing the characters I've created in the newspaper every day," Brady said. The characters aren't based on people he knows or on his life, but every once in a while a situation he's experienced appears in the strip, he said. "All the events, people and family in my life kind of went into a big pot that got shaken and mixed into pieces that appear in the strip," he said. But pieces of another person's life have been included in the strip since last year, when Brady brought in a partner. For 20 years, Brady worked on the strip by himself, putting in about 70 hours a week. During mornings, he wrote the material and developed ideas. In the afternoons, he illustrated them. He finished two daily comic strips or one Sunday comic strip a day. With time left over, he worked on special projects, such as creating special editions of "Rose is Rose" for newspapers celebrating anniversaries. Last year, he took on a partner, Don Wimmer of New Jersey, who draws and develops story ideas with Brady. Brady has mixed feelings about turning his characters over to someone else but enjoys having more free time to spend with his family and on his next project, which he isn't ready to talk about yet. "Don is a very skilled cartoonist, having done great work on his own, and is very good to work with," he said. Brady said he suggests to young people who want to become cartoonists that they finish their educations and work for a while at regular jobs to learn how to handle deadlines and deal with multiple tasks. He suggests they submit their ideas to magazines. The job isn't for everyone, he said, but for people who have cartooning in their souls, like him, it can be a great career. Renee Messacar can be reached at rmessacar@ pulitzer.net.