The cartooning world, like most fields, has its own awards, and it just handed out one in L.A. to a man who wasn’t even in the room. Or was he?

On Saturday night at its annual banquet, the Los Angeles-based Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS) honored an ailing legend in the comic book industry, Gene Colan, and did a nifty handing of the award to him 3,000 miles away.

Gene was one of the big names in comic book illustration, mentioned along with such names as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko for dynamism and innovation, although Gene could outdraw either of those two.

His style was influenced by motion pictures and involved masterful use of light and shadow, dramatic angles and unorthodox arrangements of comic book panels, breaking away from standard grids. He often employed photo-realism and was noted for his expressive faces and detailed backgrounds.

He started with Marvel Comics’ predecessor, Timely Comics, back in 1946, walking into their New York offices with his portfolio and being offered a job on the spot by the legendary editor, Stan Lee (who was also honored by CAPS a few years earlier).

Gene went on to work for National Comics, predecessor to DC Comics, and went on to work for Warren, Eclipse, DC and other publishers, but primarily for Marvel. Originally drawing war-stories books, he graduated into superheroes including Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange and most notably, Daredevil. He also drew for Batman, Wonder Woman, The Tomb of Dracula and Howard the Duck, and recently took on a Simpsons comic book, rendering Bart, Homer and the gang in three-dimensional shadowed semi-realism.

But now, at age 83, he is in ill health, including hospitalization for liver problems. Colan has been the recipient of assistance from groups such as the Hero Initiative, organized to help comic book creators in their “golden age” years, and CAPS. He managed to travel to San Diego for this year’s ComicCon, but the trip there and back to Brooklyn exhausted him, and he was told by his doctor not to travel anymore.

This posed a problem for CAPS, which had already decided to award its annual trophy, the “Sergio” — named after Sergio Aragonés, a co-founder of CAPS and probably its best-known member — to Colan. Replacement recipients were briefly considered, as was canceling the banquet, but it was finally decided to go ahead and honor the man they wanted to honor, and see if it was possible to arrange some kind of video hook-up.

Thanks to the magic of Skype (allowing computer-to-computer “phone” calls), the built-in cameras in Mac laptops and a newly-purchased projector, a live video hook-up was arranged. As the tributes to Gene began around 8 pm PDT, he and his wife Adrienne were able to follow the entire presentation in Brooklyn (at three hours later time) and share their reactions.

The best moment of the evening came as CAPS President Pat McGreal held up the “Sergio” award, looked toward the laptop facing him and said, “Gene, I’d now like to hand you this trophy” as he thrust his hand, holding a duplicate statue, toward the laptop. At that moment in Brooklyn, Adrienne unveiled the real statue - previously shipped and hidden in the room — and continued the handoff to Gene.

He was visibly delighted, stunned and moved, reading the inscription and expressing his amazement and gratitude. And as the scheduled portion of the event in L.A. wrapped up, he stayed by the laptop, chatting one-on-one with anybody in the room who wanted to talk, including many comic book artists whom he’d inspired. As my wife and I left the banquet room, Gene was still animatedly chatting away, despite it being around 2 pm, New York time.

It felt nice to honor a major figure in comic books, which is the background of most CAPS members, to stick with our original choice for the honoree and using technology to make everything work together in real time despite a 3,000-mile distance.

I haven’t really followed the comic-book world through my adulthood, but am grateful to have been there to honor a man whose work livened up my teenage comic-book-fanatic years.

Here’s to you, Gene. And thanks to you too, Skype.

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Be sure to see the huge archive of my work (organized by topic area) on my web site at http://www.greenberg-art.com