Last week the nominees for the 2009 Shuster Awards were announced. The Shuster Awards started off as Canada’s fan-awards, with Canadian comics fans invited to vote on the nominees as selected by a committee. It looks like they’ve moved to a jurried award this year, I have no idea if that’s new or from previous years? I’m sure someone will be along momentarily to clarify.
At any rate, the Shusters tend to have a different focus than the recently-announced Doug Wright Awards, but I’ve been trying to figure out a way to delineate the differences between the two awards and their aims for the past 10 minutes, in a way that won’t offend one or both of the committees who put their respective awards together, and I can’t do it. I think the fact that none of the nominees on the Wright Awards list are on the Shuster List, or vice versa, except for Mariko Tamaki and Kate Beaton? That speaks for itself right there. Variety is the spice of life…
Anyway, congratulations to all of those nominated!
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JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 2009 NOMINEES for Work Published in 2008
Artist/Dessinateur
* Marc Delafontaine – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
* Dale Eaglesham – Justice Society of America #12, 14-15, 18-22 (DC Comics)
* David Finch – Ultimatum #1-2 (Marvel Comics)
* Karl Kerschl & Serge LaPointe – Teen Titans: Year One #1-6 (DC Comics)
* Jacques Lamontagne – Les Druides, Tome 4 : La Ronde des Géants (Soleil Productions)
* Steve McNiven – Amazing Spider-Man #546-548, Wolverine #66-70 (Marvel Comics)
* Steve Rolston – Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), “Familiar” – House of Mystery #4 (DC/Vertigo), You Ain’t No Dancer #3 (New Reliable Press)
* Stephen Sadowski – Avengers/Invaders #1-7 (Marvel Comics/Dynamite Entertainment), Superpowers #0 (Dynamite Entertainment), Jack the Lantern: Ghosts #2 (Castle Rain Entertainment)
Cartoonist/Créateur
* Grégoire Bouchard – Vers les Mondes Lointains (Paquet)
* Darwyn Cooke – “Chapter X: The Greater Good” Justice League: The New Frontier Special #1, The Spirit #12 (DC Comics)
* Francis Descharnais – Burquette (Les 400 coups)
* Jean-Paul Eid – Des tondeuses et des hommes (La Pastèque)
* Michel Gagne – “The Saga of Rex” Chapter 4 – Flight Vol. 5 (Ballantyne Books)
* Faith Erin Hicks – The War at Ellsmere (Slave Labor Graphics)
* Jeff Lemire – Essex County Vol. 3: The Country Nurse (Top Shelf)
* Seth – “Thoreau MacDonald” Kramer’s Ergot 7 (Buenaventura Press)
* Dave Sim – Glamourpuss #1-4, Judenhaas (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
Colourist/Dessinateur Couleur
* Jean-Francois Beaulieu – G.I. Joe: America’s Elite 31-36, Voltron: A Legend Forged 1 (Devil’s Due), Marvel Zombies 3 #1-3, Wonderful Wizard of OZ #1, X-Men: Divided We Stand #1, X-Men Legacy #215 (Marvel Comics)
* Blond – Team 14 #1 (Digital Webbing), Freshman: Summer Vacation Special #1, Magdalena/Daredevil #1, True Blood: The Great Revelation NN, Witchblade: Takeru Manga #11-12 (image/Top Cow), Ultimate Fantastic Four #50-59 (Marvel Comics), Beyond Wonderland #4, Grimm Fairy Tales 2008 Annual (Zenoscope)
* Chris Chuckry – Brave and the Bold #17-18, Countdown to Mystery #4-8, Simon Dark #4-7, Two Face: Year One #1-2 (DC Comics), Air 1-5 (DC/Vertigo), G.I. Joe #0 (Devil’s Due), Comic Book Tattoo (image), Amazing Spider-Man #546, 565-567, newuniversal: Shockfront #1-2, The Twelve #1-8 (Marvel Comics)
* Maryse Dubuc – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
* Nathan Fairbairn – Fear Agent 21 (Dark Horse), Pilot Season: The Core #1 (image/Top Cow), Civil War: House of M #3, Guardians of the Galaxy #1-3, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? NN, Wolverine: Origins #31, X-Men: Divided We Stand #2, X-Men: Kingbreaker #1, X-Men Legacy #217, X-Men: Manifest Destiny #1, 3, Young Avengers Presents #1 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen #3 (Oni Press)
* Lovern Kindzierski – Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1-2 (DC Comics), The Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons #1-2Coraline (HarperCollins), Giant-Size Incredible Hulk #1 (Marvel Comics) (Devil’s Due),
* François Lapierre – “Gédéon et la bête du lac” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec), Magasin général 4 (Casterman)
* Dave McCaig – Star Wars: Dark Times #11-12 (Dark Horse), Action Comics #861-863, Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge #1-3. Joker’s Asylum: The Penguin #1, JSA Classified #35-37 (DC Comics), Family Dynamic #1-2 House of Mystery #4, Northlanders #2-8, 11-2 (DC/Vertigo), Broken Trinity: Angelus #1, First Born: Aftermath #1, Pilot Season: The Core #1 (image/Top Cow), Fantastic Four Cosmic Size Special #1, Secret Invasion X-Men #1-4, Ultimate Iron Man II #3-5 (Marvel Comics), Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen #2 (Oni Press) (DC/Johnny DC),
Writer/Écrivain
* Ian Boothby – Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #14, Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2008, Futurama #35-39, Simpsons Comics #136, 141, 148, Simpsons Summer Shindig #1, Simpsons Super Spectacular #7 (Bongo Comics)
* Cecil Castellucci – Janes in Love (DC/Minx)
* Darwyn Cooke – “Dragster Riot starring Robin the Boy Wonder”, “Wonder Woman and Black Canary” Justice League: The New Frontier Special #1, Superman Confidential 11 (DC Comics)
* Maryse Dubuc – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
* Ray Fawkes – The Apocalipstix (Oni Press)
* François Lapierre – “Gédéon et la bête du lac” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec)
* Mariko Tamaki – Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), Skim (Groundwood Books)
* J. Torres – The Family Dynamic #1-3, Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #11, 13, 17-19, Teen Titans Go! #51-55 (DC/Johnny DC), Wonder Girl #5-6 (DC Comics)
Cover/Couverture
* Adrian Alphona – Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Season Two #1 Variant (Marvel Comics)
* Darwyn Cooke – The Spirit #12 (DC Comics)
* Marc Delafontaine – Les Nombrils, Tome 3 : Les liens de l’amitié (Dupuis)
* Dale Eaglesham – Justice Society of America #14 Variant (DC Comics)
* David Finch -Amazing Spider-Man #572 Variant (Marvel Comics)
* Philippe Girard – Les Ravins (Mécanique Générale)
* Niko Henrichon – Hostile Tome 1 (Dupuis)
* Steve McNiven – Kick-Ass #1 Variant (Marvel Comics)
* Dean Motter – Mister X: The Condemned #1 (Dark Horse)
* David Sim – Glamourpuss #4 Zombie Variant (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
Webcomics/Bandes Dessinées Web
* Kate Beaton – Hark! A Vagrant http://harkavagrant.com
* Michael Cho – Papercut http://www.transmission-x.com/_papercut
* Lar De Souza & Ryan Sohmer – Least I Could Do http://www.leasticoulddo.com / Looking for Grouphttp://www.lfgcomic.com/
* Kathryn & Stuart Immonen – Moving Pictures http://www.immonen.ca/comics
* Karl Kerschl – The Abominable Charles Christopher http://www.abominable.cc
* Gisele Lagace – Menage A 3 http://www.menagea3.net/
* Ramón K. Pérez– Kukuburi http://www.kukuburi.com / Butternut Squash (w/Robert Coughler) http://www.butternutsquash.net
* Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo http://www.sintitulocomic.com/
Publisher/Éditeur
* Aardvark-Vanaheim
* Arcana Studio
* Conundrum Press
* Drawn & Quarterly
* La Pastèque
* Les 400 Coups/Mécanique Générale
* Red 5 Comics
* Udon Entertainment
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All of this information and much, much more available at http://joeshusterawards.com/.
– Christopher
I understand the DWA’s angle. While perhaps not completely “inclusive” of the whole spectrum of comics, they definitely have a cohesive vision. Perhaps the JSA’s are trying to hit every single point on that spectrum, but to me, it comes off as a little unfocussed.
But as you say, it’s cool…
Something that both awards have in common is that I’ve never been nominated for either. Oversight or scandal? YOU DECIDE.
This is the 2nd year of juried awards.
I lifted this from wiki: A common comparison of the two is that the JSAs are mainstream-biased and the DWAs are more indie-oriented. A more accurate comparison is that the JSAs are comic book industry oriented awards (honouring individual Canadians who work on comics and graphic novels in a variety of roles for their body of work from the previous year) while the DWAs are graphic novel (single work)-centric awards (Canadian cartoonists win for best graphic novel or best non-linear work or best emerging talent with a specific graphic novel).
What Kevin said. The JSAs, for some reason, tend to be considered the “mainstream” awards. But a quick look at their nominations and winners in past years reveals an impressively diverse assortment of works.
There is occasionally some overlap between them and the DWAs. I’ve been nominated for both in the same year. So have Darwyn Cooke, and Jeff Lemire (I’m in good company). It may not be common, but it happens.
Chip – Sorry for the oversight. I should explain, that we’re working on a separate category called the Chip Zdarsky Annual Award for Achievement in the Area of Excellence. Look out for it next year!
I think that with multiple awards orgs that aim to recognize the same medium (say, Canadian comics) there’s bound to be some crossover.
I also think it’s worth noting that the DWAs (and, i assume the Shusters) have gradually settled on their individual focus over the past five years. For us, i think that while we fashion ourselves on traditional “book” awards, rather than industry awards, our taste isn’t necessarily categorizable in one word or phrase. I mean, calling our categories “indy-focused” for instance is a bit of a misnomer, since that would discount D+Q, Fantagrahpics and Oni books. (And, technically, people are nominated in the Best Emerging Talent award – their published works listed in a secondary position.)
In the end, the DWAs and the Shusters each have their own clear aesthetic that sets them apart from each other. But I don;t think you can sum it up in a short phrase, or one-liner.
“the Chip Zdarsky Annual Award for Achievement in the Area of Excellence.”
This is exactly what I wanted, thank you.
-chip
Hey Brad, I do agree that it is hard to describe what our aesthetic is because in most of the categories, the nominees are selected by people located all over the country, with different tastes and interests – but by applying our balanced two round voting rules we always end up with a reasonable balance of types and styles in each category. That might lead someone to say we are unfocused, where we are happy with a cross-section that shows off Canada’s artistic diversity.
In our overall approach there is some slight resemblance to other comics industry awards like the Eisners and the Harveys.
It’s more of a demographic question. It seems like the Wrights have done a much better job of bringing attention to cartoonists from outside of the introverted comic book industry, especially the fanboy demo — there’s a bigger press push, more literary and news media coverage, and prominent Canadians from across the cultural spectrum pitch in every year. They’re almost like the ‘external’ representatives.
The Shusters do a much better job of working their way around the comics community and are more receptive to works that are created on a division-of-labour model. There’s a little more blog hype and a slightly more diverse pool of candidates (though this may be due to the fact that, like other comics awards, they have 8,000 categories).
They’ve both done a good job, the Wrights bringing in other artistic establishments to strengthen the place of Canadian cartoonists on the national scene and the Shusters empowering the community from within.
The only complaint might be that the Eisner model cheapens things. It makes works a dime a dozen and you see people getting like eight and nine awards in a year. It’s actually really hard to get a Doug Wright Award, which gives the prize a bit more weight and prestige. It seems like the Shusters have realized this too, cutting down on categories and moving to a jury like the Wrights.
We’re moving sideways with the JSAs Joey… keeping the core awards (Artist, Cartoonist, Writer, Colourist, Webcomics, Publisher, Retailer, Cover Art) and eliminating the popular vote categories in favour of the new Gene Day self-publishing award and the Comics for Kids award (for material aimed at younger readers). We’re handing out 10 awards this year (plus the Hall of Fame inductees).
Sorry that you feel the Eisner model cheapens things (the Eisners have 26 categories this year + hall of fame)… the way I look at it is this way… between the JSAs and the DWAs the whole Canadian comics scene is covered. This isn’t meant to be a competition. Sure, some creators may overlap – but the categories don’t.