What it's like to be named funniest of them all

Now that we've announced the lucky winners of our recent cartoon caption contest, we wanted to share a glimpse into their reactions to being named the funniest of them all! We also thought you'd enjoy learning a little bit about who they are.

Grand prize winner: Ray Odiorne

Ray's cartoon print

Ray is an adjunct instructor at Post University. You might have taken a class with him, or his wife, Bonnie, who is the Director of the Writing Center. Ray wins:

• An original 8.5" x 11" print of the cartoon with his winning caption, autographed by our contributed cartoonist and judge, Dave Blazek
• Custom T-shirt printed with the cartoon and his winning caption
• A $25 Amazon gift card

Ray's new T-shirt

Ray's reaction to winning:

"I am stunned that I won. Bonnie had forwarded the material on to me and I entered on a whim ... I simply came up with all the lines I could think of (I am an inveterate jokester) and sent them in! So it was a surprise to learn that one of those bits of humorous ephemera won the day! What will I do with the T-shirt? Wear it, of course, and proudly put up with the many people who want me to stand still so they can read my chest."

First runner up: Barb White

Barb's new book

Barb wins:

• An autographed copy of Dave's latest book, "Weird Things in Small Boxes," a collection of his best "Loose Parts" cartoons published in the past two years
• $10 Amazon gift card

Barb's reaction to winning:

"I'm an almost-senior woman from Vancouver, B.C. I don't attend the university but I found Post's contest one night when I was idly trolling the net. My hobbies are photography and graphic art and I write a humor blog promoting my art websites, so I often search for other humor-related fun stuff on the web. When I ran across Dave's cartoon, I loved his drawing style and it intrigued me enough to spend a few minutes coming up with captions. I had totally forgotten I entered the contest when you notified me about the win, so I'm blown away! The autographed copy of 'Weird Things in Small Boxes' that I won will be treasured (and bragged about) for years to come. I create funny greeting cards and T-shirts for my website, so I the contest was definitely my kinda thing."

Barb also told us about her art website and blog, so we thought we'd post them here for anyone interested in giving them a look-see.

Thanks Ray, Barb, and all our contestants for entering our cartoon caption contest! Just goes to show there's a little bit of humor in all of us!

Now that our cartoon caption contest has come to close, we'd love to know what you thought of it. Would you like us to run it again in the future? What other ideas for contests and prizes do you have? Leave your thoughts in the "comments" section. We'll review and consider all ideas. Maybe yours will make its way on our blog next, and we'll be sure to give you the credit! :)