“While being nominated for a Shuster or an Eisner award is a great honour for any creator, if we take a closer look at the award categories — specifically where webcomics are concerned — it seems like something is missing.”
“Should webcomics be so thoroughly separated from the rest of the industry?
Could it be that the lack of webcomic nominations for Best Artist, Best Writer, Best Cartoonist or Best Colorist are due to their method of publication? Isn’t it possible that somehow, somewhere, people are writing on the internet just as well as others are writing for print? It’s too early to be pointing fingers or yelling about prejudice, but this division of suitability seems somewhat arbitrary and unfair. But how do we know this to be the case? Maybe webcomics are considered, but none have been good enough to merit a nomination. Well, this year’s nominations prove that isn’t so: Nominations for Best Artist list all credited work for the past year, for instance: “Steve McNiven — Amazing Spider-Man #546-548, Wolverine #66-70 (Marvel Comics)”. Yet, for Karl Kerschl, only his print work is mentioned.” –>>
Well, it’s arguably the best work he’s been doing, so if he should get best artist for something, why is it not that, in the regular best artist category? The rules i suppose but, why is a fair question. It’s also true that there is still in general terms, a significant culture firewall between the pulp and digital worlds of comics in many people’s minds. Strong speculation in any case, but they don’t seem to have asked the Shuster’s? Something to look into for us this weekend on the panel. [15:00-16:00: Sequential Presents: Oh, Canada. Surveying The Landscape of Canadian Comics.] In general asking the Panel what role they see for web comics is one for the list.