So on Friday night, Kathryn Immonen posted the following on her Twitter:
“can someone explain to me how two of the ignatz jurors can also be nominees themselves? #honestquestion” – kathrynimmonen
…and that is an honest question. I hadn’t really thought about it, but the implication did set my teeth on edge. I have strong opinions about awards in comics, and my response, “My guess is they just have no rules or guidelines about nominating work?” was born out of a history of industry reach-arounds. Well, my bad.
According to the Ignatz website, the way in which books are nominated at The Ignatz Awards is unlike any other awarding body in comics: The Jurors are anonymous, and can’t nominate their own work. From the Ignatz website:
1. All Jurors are to remain anonymous, including within the Ignatz Jury, until the ballot is announced to the public. This is to insure that no one can be accused of having their votes influenced in any way. It also protects the Jurors from people campaigning for a nomination.
…
4. Jurors are prohibited from nominating their own work. However, since Jurors are not informed of the identities of the other Jury members, there is no prohibition from one Juror’s work being nominated for an award by his or her fellow Jurors.
According to Greg McElhatton, Ignatz Awards Coordinator“Ed Brubaker set the awards up in this fashion in part so that artists can serve without having to withdraw their names from contention, and if the jurors weren’t anonymous from each other, then they absolutely would have to. We… have active, creative people helping define the ballot.”
I had no idea Ed Brubaker set up the Ignatz Awards rules?
I also had no idea that jurors Lille Carre and Vanessa Davis, both of whom were nominated for awards this year, couldn’t have nominated themselves… Which leads me to believe that the jurors really dug their work (myself included…!).
I think it’s unfortunate that the folks I get my news from didn’t make a point of mentioning how the awards nominations are arrived at in posting the nominations and jurors. But then again a lot of comics journalism consists of reposting press releases, and if I were the Ignatz Awards, I might include a succinct statement in the little PR that spells that out, to make sure my jurors stay above reproach in the public eye.
But yeah, I fucked up, and I have to say I’m glad to see that the Ignatz’ are on the up and up, particularly because a lot of great work got nominated this year and the more attention great work gets, the better.
The 2009 Ignatz Awards will be handed out at The Small Press Expo, http://spxpo.com, on Saturday, September 26th. The complete press release from The Ignatz Awards is behind the cut, below.
– Chris
Press Release:
SPX 2009 hosts the thirteenth annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression.
The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. The nominees for the ballot are determined by a panel of five comic artists, which are voted on by the attendees during SPX. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 9:00 PM.
Outstanding Artist
Tim Hensley, Mome (Fantagraphics), Kramer’s Ergot #7 (Buenaventura)
Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Josh Simmons, Mome (Fantagraphics)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Abandoned Cars, Tim Lane (Fantagraphics)
Against Pain, Ron Rege Jr. (Drawn & Quarterly)
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, T. Edward Bak, Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Fuzz and Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn (Fantagraphics)
Kramer’s Ergot 7, ed. Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura)
Outstanding Graphic Novel
Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
Nicolas, Pascal Girard (Drawn & Quarterly)
You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Story
“The Carnival,” Mome #14, Lilli Carre (Fantagraphics)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
“Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars,” Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Untitled,” Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Willy,” Papercutter #10, Damien Jay (Tugboat)
Promising New Talent
T. Edward Bak, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Colleen Frakes, Woman King (self-published)
Hellen Jo, Jin & Jam #1 (Sparkplug), “Diamond Heights,” Papercutter #9 (Tugboat)
Ed Luce, Wuvable Oaf (self-published)
Amanda Vähämäki, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Outstanding Series
Danny Dutch, David King (Sparkplug)
Delphine, Richard Sala (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Interiorae, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Comic
Danny Dutch #1, David King (Sparkplug)
Dead Ringer, Jason T. Miles (La Mano)
Interiorae #3, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich #6, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight #3, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Mini-Comic
Claptrap #2, Onsmith
Just So You Know #1, Joey Alison Sayers
Stay Away From Other People, Lisa Hanawalt
Stewbrew, Kelly Froh & Max Clotfelter
Xoc, Matt Dembicki
Outstanding Online Comic
Bodyworld, Dash Shaw
Danny Dutch, David King
Thingpart, Joey Alison Sayers
Vanessa Davis’s comics for Tablet
Year of the Rat, Cayetano Garza
2009 Ignatz Jury
Lilli Carre
Vanessa Davis
Robert Kirby
Scott Mills
Laura Park
There’s a really great collection of articles about this exact issue, including the weird historical problems that first brought the jurors-are-nominated rules to the forefront. I read it through Tom Spurgeon’s website, if I can find the link, i’ll post it for you. They had some controversy when some guy did nominate himself a few years ago.
http://www.tcj.com/3_online/n_102299.html
If you scroll down to the headline “Ignatz Under Fire” you can read more about it. Tom posted the link when he posted the nominations last week.
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/your_2009_ignatz_award_nominees/
Yeah I think Tom’s wrong in his admonishment though (and I missed that the first time). I don’t think jurors should have to recuse themselves if proper steps are taken, and the rules of the event should be entirely clear.
I also tweeted an explanation in response to Kathryn’s tweet, so I thought I covered it even if you don’t agree with my admonishment. I’m a little concerned to see your post that seems to be suggesting I blew this off. It was in my story before Kathryn asked her question out loud.
As for that admonishment: Me, I don’t think it’s a big deal for judges to skip a year if they’re going to be judges. If you want a chance to see your work nominated, don’t judge that year.
It seems unless they do that, they’re still going to get people asking questions and raising eyebrows even though nothing was done that was wrong. The only way to answer the questions is to go into an explanation of the rules, at which point the questions are already going to be asked — I mean, I posted about it immediately, and people still had questions.
not related to the juror non-issue but on the Ignatz front:
Hellen Jo FTW!
I went ahead and named my winners on the EAZB:
http://blog.electricantzine.com/pick-the-winners-ignatz-edition
Was very pleased with the ballot this year, and the interesting choices by the jurors. There were no Eyebrow-raising HUH?? nominations on the list, like many comics awards often elicit. Having a jury of contemporary creators and piers helps make the Ignatz cool, vibrant and relevant 🙂
I don’t think this years jurors pulled a stunt, but I still think jurors shouldn’t be nominated. Bow out for a year or don’t judge. Just my opinion. It looks odd no matter how cleanly it came about, good work or bad, it’s just inviting raised eyebrows and casts doubts in some minds on the process and the outcomes. And it’s easily avoided. The way things go, I bet you could find five creators who didn’t publish or had minimal output and don’t mind bowing out to serve the greater good. Or whatever.
The biggest problem I had with the program when I used to attend SPX – are the Ignatzes still voted on by having a box set up on a table that anyone on the floor can stuff ballots into?
All that being said, I think that’s a nice roster of nominated work.