TOM TOMORROW receives Pearl Jam gold record -- 'how cool is that?'

Tom Tomorrow with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. (Beverly Gage)

Some cartoonists dream of Pulitzers or Reubens. But how many bag a gold record? (Anyone? Anyone? )

Word comes this morning that TOM TOMORROW -- the ever-talented "This Modern World" alt-cartoonist who created the cover for Pearl Jam's most recent album, Backspacer -- has received the recording industry's award for albums that sell a half-million units.

"The band always plays these things close to the vest," Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins) tells Comic Riffs this morning. " I had no idea they were going to pull me up on stage last week in Hartford, and I had no idea this was in the works. It was an incredibly thoughtful gesture on their part, and I was as moved as you might imagine.

"And now I have a gold record, with my name on the plaque and everything -- how cool is that?"

Perkins first befriended Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder at a Ralph Nader rally in 2000. Last year, Vedder asked the artist whether he'd work on album-cover ideas for the Seattle band's new album, which was released last September.

Pearl Jam's "Backspacer." (AP Photo/MonkeyWrench Records)

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