Comixpedia is reporting that the Webcartoonist’s Choice Awards have been delayed a extra week, giving you plenty of time to think over the nominees and cast your votes wisely! But… did anyone even KNOW the WCCAs were coming up?
Outside of much more reputable awards like the Eisners, the WCCAs are the best way we have of determining who is the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the king of the mountain. So do you care enough about making this erstwhile hobby into something bigger? Making people take notice? Blogging about our little awards show everywhere you can? Carefully thinking about your favorites and giving them their proper due?
Or will you just let another year’s Webcartoonist’s Choice Awards pass without caring one little bit about who everyone else says is the best? The choice could be a monumentous one for webcomics, so choose wisely.
Thanks for the heads up. I always forget about the WCCAS, only to remember a few days before the ceremony. Well not this year!
I usually remember, but this year I forgot, so thanks for the heads up.
I couldn’t disagree more with the statement “the WCCAs are the best way we have of determining who is the best of the best”.
I would love to see a real awards system for webcomics, but we’re definitely nowhere close to that now.
I’ll bite.
What we generally call good awards are those with an independent board made up of esteemed members and critics of the industry. Considering there are very few of us we would respect enough to tell us our work is crap who would be on that panel?
I’m only interested because if everyone will say what is needed I’ll be happy to take up the call. I think though that Midnight was making the point that the WCCA’s are the best out there. I personally think the only good award show are the Razzies. 🙂
I stand by my statement that the WCCAs are currently the best method we have of giving props to the best webcomics. However, as Daku clarified, this is not necessarily a good thing.
There many other accolades to bestow upon those we deem worthy; qualifying for, and winning, contests such as Webcomic Idol (though flawed, this could be a good barometer in a few years); being chosen for collectives such as Blank Label and Boxcar Comics; vindication through a large and loyal fanbase.
Any of these, and so many more, go much further to separate the great from the rest of the crap (and there IS a lot of it) than the WCCAs have ever done. And truthfully, I’m not sure if an award chosen by the people (a people’s choice, if you will) will ever get the recognition so many of us creators crave.
My problem with the WCCA’s is the people who make up the voting board, as the majority of them should be in that position.
I understand that the WCCA’s, by definition, are voted in by anyone with a webcomic. Any 12 year old with an internet connection can thus get the right to vote. That’s the reason I give them no real credence what so ever, and to me, the results are meaningless, rather than giving any sort of real standing in the webcomics world.
Personally, I would like to see a real awards system for webcomics, with a real jury and a real group of peers.
I’m late to the game, and I apologize for that.
Even though I participate in the WCCA’s, I have to agree with Ryan. If the WCCA’s were a little more exclusive, it’d probably be a better system. I realize that it’s more diplomatic to allow anyone with a webcomic to be a part of the voting board, but, in my opinion (which doesn’t amount to much), it’d be easier to take the WCCA’s seriously if the voting board were “elected”.
Oscar winners are voted on by actors who have been invited to be on the voting board. Maybe the WCCA’s should have an “Academy” of established webcartoonists who are willing to give their honest two cents into the voting process of the awards.
– Wes
It’s never too late to join a conversation when you bring in good points.
I’m actually a little surprised that it’s the voting that’s coming out more important. For me it has always been the outcome and that no one else but web comic artists participate. Here I was thinking if we could get 2 syndicate creators and 2 print only creators there would be more then just us congratulating ourselves.
So what determines if you are established artist? There are some obvious ones but is it just traffic or profit? Some artists generate no money but get 100k unique IPs a month. On the other side of the coin your fans can be so loyal that despoite getting little traffic you are still able to support yourself. Who would be qualified to be on this board and who would do the electing?
“So what determines if you are established artist? There are some obvious ones but is it just traffic or profit? Some artists generate no money but get 100k unique IPs a month. On the other side of the coin your fans can be so loyal that despoite getting little traffic you are still able to support yourself. Who would be qualified to be on this board and who would do the electing?”
All of your questions would have to be answered by Mr. Payne and Mr. Mekkes. There are several criteria you could go by when selecting “established” artists – i.e. income, traffic, skill, etc. If Payne and Mekkes were to ask me what I would do, I would set up a guideline of what I think an established comic would be, and then I’d nominate those comics to be on the voting board. At first, the voting board would be voted upon solely by Mr. Payne and Mr. Mekkes. But, after the first year, the voting board should be able to nominate new members to the board.
The trick is to keep a certain level of exclusivity when it comes to who can vote. It should be an honor to say, “I’m on the WCCA voting board”.
Right now, I’m a member of the voting board. If the WCCAs were to go to a more exclusive voting board membership and I was not allowed to vote, I would not be offended. I’m not making a living off of my strip, I only get about 2300 hits a day, and I’m a hack. This proves my point that the WCCAs would be better off without guys like me involved in the voting process. 🙂
What hasn’t anyone nominated me for president?
– Wes
I meant to say “Why hasn’t anyone nominated me for present?”. Huge grammatical error. One more reason why I shouldn’t be voting in the WCCAs.
– Wes
I think there would need to be an ‘academy of voters’ of sorts, like the Oscar folks do it. A small, select and diverse group would be a good step to making these more legitimate.