 :: Monday, January 19, 2004 :: And The Award Goes To… Yes! It’s the first annual Supersized Awards! Awards given out for excellence in the field of comics! The esteemed panel of judges includes me, your host Jay D’Ici and… well that’s it really, just me. These awards are based on my own subjective views, and what I have read this year, meaning what I have bought this year since I’m not on any comp lists. (Hint, hint). (For the winners: acceptance speeches are welcome and will be posted if you’re willing, and there will be trophies upon request.) But enough preamble lets see who gets SUPERSIZED! THE SUPERSIZED BEST WRITER OF 2003! So many options this year. Neil Gaiman made and amazing return to comics, with 1602 and the return of his classic characters The Endless in Endless Nights. Brian Michael Bendis also had another consecutive banner year filled with excellence, from handling the majority of Marvel’s Ultimate line to what is possibly the best run on Daredevil in the character’s history to his always outstanding Powers. Grant Morrison has revitalized the X-Men, and hurt our brains once more with The Filth. But in the end the award has to go to… GREG RUCKA! Greg Rucka stands out this year, delivering solid and worth while comics month in month out. His Queen & Country is one of my most anticipated titles each time a collection is solicited. People often question why there aren’t more espionage comics out there with Queen & Country breaking ground in the genre for Anglophone comics, and the answer is simple really, there is no way to avoid comparison and the comparison would not go well. But not only that, Rucka is doing amazing work over at DC as well, and has even managed to get me interested in reading Wonder Woman a character I’ve never really had any desire to read before. THE SUPERSIZED BEST ARTIST OF 2003! If you thought the competition for best writer seemed tight, best artist was by far the most difficult to select. Bryan Hitch (with Paul Neary) has done some of his best work to date on the sporadic Ultimates. But you can’t ignore Michael Allred’s colorful work on X-Statix. And then you have Scott Morse’s ground breaking story telling style in Sam and Twitch. What about Carla Speed McNeil’s work on Queen & Country? And you can’t ignore Steve Rolston’s (one of the best cartoonists around) simple and catchy style from Mek. And then there are hundreds more who are just as deserving of such an award, finding an artist who stands out for me this year is incredibly difficult. But in the end the Award goes to… MAX DOUGLAS aka SALGOOD SAM! Yes the host of the Monthly Montreal Comics Jam, and the host of the Montreal Comics Collective (which is kind enough to host this column!) and the inker of one of those Terminator 3 comics wins. An incredibly talented artist whose work often goes unnoticed. I enjoy seeing the progress of his forthcoming comic Pin City on his work blog. This may seem like a cop out, but hey! He did give me a column to write! (For those unhappy with this decision blame him.) THE SUPERSIZED BEST WRITER/ARTIST OF 2003! This was a little easier for me to pick although there were some stand out works this year. Steve Rolston did an amazing job with his first Original Graphic Novel One Bad Day. Chynna Clugston-Major did some her best work yet with Blue Monday and Scooter Girl. Craig Thompson’s Blankets is getting the well deserved nod every where you turn for best graphic novel. The field was wide open and the above are all worthy of praise and awards, but in the end the award goes to… SCOTT MORSE! With new books like Barefoot Serpent and Southpaw, Scott Morse shows a simple child like joy in the drawings yet maintains a styled grace of line of any seasoned pro. Stories that are simple and touching letting the visuals tell the story instead of letting the words explain everything. On top of his newer works this year we also got to see the return of his beautiful tale of faith, Visitations return to print, as well as a stunning collection of his epic and genre bending tale Soulwind into a single volume. Scott Morse refuses to rest on his laurels for a moment and is constantly stretching his styles both in his storytelling and in the visuals on the page, always delivering something new and different. Refusing to be pinned down to one form Morse shows only the best features one could hope from a storyteller in any medium, and we have him here in comics! (Except when he’s animating.) When God was handing out talent Scott got it Supersized and is now sharing it with us all. THE SUPERSIZED BEST EDITOR OF 2003! A difficult area to judge, since a good editor’s talent should be invisible, but can still push an artist to their fullest potential. Another feature should also be their ability to find exciting new talent. Larger companies have editors in spades but quite often their job gets compromised by the higher ups with company decisions being handed down, and smaller companies rarely have them. Stuart Moore would have most likely taken this if he was still editing because I always could tell when he had stopped editing a title since its quality seemed to slip mildly in his absence. But he’s gone and the decision became a little more difficult because it came down to two. And the winner is… A TIE! JAMIE S. RICH and JAMES LUCAS JONES! The dynamic duo of Oni Press get the nod! Whether it’s Rich’s amazing sense for simple and beautiful human stories, or Jones’s keen eye for new talented artists, these two split the award for making sure that Oni’s books are all great reads and have a visual flair that is new and exciting. They let the artists do what they do best and make sure that each Oni book is worthy of the demon’s face. These are the guys who find the people you want to read. THE SUPERSIZED BEST COLLECTION OF OLDER MATERIAL OF 2003! This is a strange little category, it’s based on the idea of collecting rare, hard to find, or out of print material that is nearly forgotten. A main contender was definitely BOP! [More Box Office Poison] by Alex Robinson, an amazing little addendum to the massive tome of Box Office Poison and well worth your time and money, each page is just as full of the fun and laughter as the pages in the original massive collection of the series. Also not to be forgotten is Gilbert Hernandez’ Palomar, another beautiful collection whose hefty price tag shouldn’t scare away an undecided reader. However there is one book that really stood out for me in this category this year because the award goes to… TOTAL SELL OUT! By Brian Michael Bendis Apparently Bendis can’t make it though any award ceremony without getting something! This collection of short subject comics varying in length from one pagers to 10 or more pages from pre-Marvel, pre-Image Bendis, dating from the years when Bendis was just another Indy comic shmuck. The one page strips are some of the funniest comics I’ve read in years that often had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. This includes some of Bendis’ best work to date, and if you miss Bendis the artist you’d be quite satisfied with this fun volume of joy. THE SUPERRSIZED BEST SINGLE ISSUE OF 2003! This is a bit of an unfair category since I don’t really read that many comics in single issues, the majority of my comic reading is in trade paperback form. But there is one single issue that I bought and loved, and the decision was rather elementary, therefore the award goes to… GIANT THB 1 Vol. 2! By Paul Pope The return of the cutie pie of Mars HR Watson with her personal body guard the MEK THB came out in a beautiful near Graphic novel sized 96 page single issue. A continuation right from the end of the THB abcd series. This issue opened up more of the story. The oversized pages make Pope’s beautiful and energetic brush work come alive on the page. Pope is possibly one of the best examples of what can be achieved when someone combines the best of Japanese, European and American comics into one vibrant onslaught of comic book style. The self styled comic book destroyer, and the rock star of comics returned to his main series with a blast of energy and flash that you’d expect from all comics. THE SUPERSIZED BEST ON-GOING SERIES OF 2003! Having made it this far into the awards there seem to be some very big fingers pointing in certain directions. My anticipation of Queen & Country makes that title seem like an obvious choice, but then there is Morrison’s can’t miss New X-Men, or J. Michael Strakzinski’s wonderful treatment of everyone’s favorite web slinger in Amazing Spider-man. Even Bendis’ Ultimate Spidey is a flamboyant and wonderful ride. There is also the stylish revisionist history tale in Arvid Nelson and EricJ’s Rex Mundi. But from out of the back field comes the taker of this award… FINDER! By Carla Speed McNeil The ornate series by Speed McNeil has been called “The best series you haven’t read”, which is probably true, but in the end it is possibly one of the most intricate series coming out right now. Finder weaves delicate threads through out its established world of fantastical science fiction. Using the technologies and ideas that spring from her head Carla Speed McNeil uses these to tell wonderfully human tales instead of letting the technologies and cultures of her world be the core of her stories. Her detailed end notes help make clear any questions one would have of what is happening, and often illuminate details that could get lost in such a nimble and graceful series. Each storyline is a separate part of the whole, jumping from one stage of the central figure, Jager’s, life journey. Sometimes Jager is merely a background figure, sometimes he plays a more central role. But the stories are always entertaining, and with each new book you go in with only the vaguest idea of what aspect of The Finder’s world is going to be explored. THE SUPERSIZED BEST PUBLISHER OF 2003! Marvel had an outstanding year, but corporate buggery and rumors and complaints of editorial interference cost them a great deal in their standing. AdHouse Books proved that they are going to be a publisher worth reckoning with, with several great books coming out. DC and its various houses raised their bar actually going after the number one spot for monthly comic sales again. Brett Warnock & Chris Staros’s Top Shelf Productions continued to produce top shelf material with some of the absolute best books to come out this year with Blankets, Barefoot Serpent and BOP! [More Box Office Poison]. But in the end the award for best publisher of 2003 goes to… ONI PRESS! While other comic companies want to make comics better Oni goes about making better comics. While not always the most innovative or literary the Oni demon head is always a symbol of top quality comics and story telling. With A-list talents contributing to their excellent library of books, as well as introducing the world to new and fresh creative talent each year Oni raises the bar a little bit more to make sure that their books are consistently a symbol of how good comics can be. And while message boards and on-line communities seem to be full of bickering little fan boy troglodytes they have managed to build a small but growing on-line group of fans and aficionado’s of comics who don’t make you despair for the industry or make you want to kill it just to annoy the simple minded fan boys. They make comics worth saving. Also in 2003 Oni boosted their collection of Original Graphic Novels with such titles as Days Like This, Last Exit Before Toll, Lost at Sea, Maria's Wedding and One Bad Day. From their book designer Keith Wood, through their massive list of amazing talents, to the decisions of James, Jamie and Joe, Oni are leaders in the comic book industry. Everyone who has had their name on an Oni book should be proud because it means you are among the best works that the industry has to offer, never faltering simply to make sure they have enough titles out in a month, but rather making sure that each title is worthy to be an Oni book. THE SUPERSIZED BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF 2003! Ah… here it is, and easy choice really, right? Just go with everyone else, Craig Thompson’s Blankets. A book that has over shadowed every other OGN to come out this year. But that leaves out books like Scott Morse’s Barefoot Serpent, possibly Scott’s best work since Visitations. But then you also have Brain O’Malley’s imaginative, angst filled tribute to adolescence Lost at Sea which well deserves this award. There is also J. Torres’ and Scott Chantler’s Days Like These tale of the early years of 50’s Pop music industry. All these books are greatly deserving of this award. In truth I really would like to give this award to O’Malley for Lost at Sea, and I’ve actually spent a week going over this decision, but in the end the award goes to… BLANKETS! By Craig Thompson This look back at Thompson’s first love and his inner battles that grew out of it, and the hard look at his own failings during that love is a heart wrenching tale. Not only for the audacious 580 pages that make up the book and the dedication to even do a single volume like this, but also the excellent sense of story telling elegantly jumping back and forth through time between childhood and adolescence to present day. In the end I give Thompson this award because of two reasons, it brought back all my memories of my first love, and also because when I finished the book I felt like hugging it for hours. Blankets laid a simple and personal tale that remains nearly universal, and it reminds the reader what it is like to be young and in love. It is 580 pages of beauty and should not be missed by anyone. *** Okay, this is the Monday edition, and I swear on high heaven that this Thursday there will be the first part of my interview with the SUPERSIZED BEST INTERVIEWEE OF 2003! CHYNNA CLUGSTON-MAJOR! We spoke for two hours, for an in depth interview that includes nudity (hers not mine), sex, and multiple on the fly treatises on art. (With apologies to Jamie, Joe and Baichoo for not lauding their interviewee status here.) Happy Belated New Year! -Jay D’Ici 6:40 PM + Jay D'Ici + permalink |