The NCS has just announced that Russ Heath will receive The Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award . The Caniff is presented to a cartoonist for “a lifetime of outstanding and accomplished work to a cartoonist who has not previously won the organization’s highest honor, the Reuben Award.”

Heath is best known for his DC war comics, but he has a lengthy varied career—including work with Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman on Little Annie Fanny and stuff for Marvel and just about every other publisher—beginning at age 16 in 1944. He was voted into Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2004 and won the Sergio Award by the Comic Art Professional Society in 2010. He’s definitely a comics legend and seeing him honored like this is a nice capstone for him.

It wasn’t until I read this announcement that I put into place the fact that Heath drew those ads for Roman and Revolutionary war plastic soldiers that adorned just about every comic of the 60s. The things you learn on the internet.