The British Comic Awards

[Emperor]

Well it is now all live:

http://britishcomicawards.com

They have a number of awards, which will be handed out at ThoughtBubble:

Best Comic
Best Book
Emerging Talent
Hall of Fame
Young People's Comic Awards

You can make your nominations through the site.

One of the committee has posted about it on the Forbidden Planet blog:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/the-british-comic-awards-are-go/

We even have a committee member who is a long-standing (if now rare-visiting) member of this here forum.

[Emperor]

The Best Comic is an interesting one:

The Best Comic award is open to short-form, self-contained stories published between 1st September 2011 and 31st August 2012.

This category may include one-off stories, single issues of ongoing series, graphic novellas, short stories from anthologies and web-comic strips.

This would tend to suggest they aren't looking for 2000AD or Strip to be nominated there (I assume Strip counts even though it is published in Bosnia) but the stories within it, which should make for more interesting and relevant results.

I also like the way the Young People's Award, will be selected by actual young people - none of us old farts trying to second guess what would appeal.

[briantm]

Would the self-contained bit not discount multipart 2000AD stories?

Though seeing webcomics there makes me wonder if they'd allow ones that posted the story a page a day.

[Emperor]

Would the self-contained bit not discount multipart 2000AD stories?

The key there seems to be "short stories from anthologies" - the self-contained bit could refer to a storyline within a series.

So if we consider everything from prog 1750 onwards as eligible:

http://2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=1750

You could have:

• Indigo Prime: "Everything and More"
• Low Life: "The Deal"
• Ampney Crucis Investigates: "The English Assassin"
• Angel Zero
• Indigo Prime: "Anthropocalypse"
• Absalom: "Ghosts of London"
• Grey Area, except for the most recent story
• Nikolai Dante: "The Wedding of Jena Makarov"
• Age of the Wolf: "She is Legend"
• Flesh: "Midnight Cowboys"
• The Zaucer of Zilk

also possibly bit of Day of Chaos too... although I suspect Strontium Dog wouldn't count.

Otherwise it'd be odd to have a category that excludes a lot of the best British comic stories. Although it might be a lot would be eligible under Best Book as that includes collected editions - Cradlegrave and Insurrection would count, the former almost definitely being a dead cert for one of my nominations.

Anyway, yes the Best Comic is something I'd need to doublecheck with them to work out what does and doesn't count. Unless Vicky comes on and clarifies it for us.

[briantm]

From the FP article:

There are just five categories for the British Comic Awards, deliberately keeping it small, focused, without distinguishing between print or digital, big publisher backed or self-published

That's an interesting way to go about it.  As much as I like to see a small press category so that they get that extra bit of promotion - their goal of simply showcasing the best is straightforward.

Would be nice to see some small press stuff do well in this over the next few years.

[Emperor]

I asked Richard Bruton about it on the FP blog and he reckons just throw it and let them worry about it, as far as he is concerned Nikolai Dante would be eligible under Best Comic and Best Book:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/the-british-comic-awards-are-go/#comment-274279

Now I have to work out what and who I want to nominate...

[a chosen rider]

They're going by a pretty strict definition of "British Comic"; has to be an all-Brit creative team to qualify:

Nominees for the British Comic Awards must be the work of a wholly British* creative team, and the rights to such work should belong either to creators or a UK publisher. If you aren't entirely sure if something qualifies, suggest it to us anyway and the committee will debate it.

* Where we refer to British we're referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Which excludes anything with Carlos Ezquerra on art for a start.  (And leaves me in the rather bewildering position of wondering whether Judge Dredd qualifies as British under these rules.  Does his co-creator credit render it ineligible?)

[Daveycandlish]

Surely the rights are owned by Rebellion so that would still count?

[a chosen rider]

Surely the rights are owned by Rebellion so that would still count?

True, I was really just pondering how they're defining creative team, and whether it extends to everyone who's credited.  I can't imagine Dredd really would be ineligible, but it boggled me for a few moments to even be contemplating the question.

[Mike Carroll]

They're going by a pretty strict definition of "British Comic"; has to be an all-Brit creative team to qualify:

Nominees for the British Comic Awards must be the work of a wholly British* creative team, and the rights to such work should belong either to creators or a UK publisher. If you aren't entirely sure if something qualifies, suggest it to us anyway and the committee will debate it.

* Where we refer to British we're referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Which excludes anything with Carlos Ezquerra on art for a start.  (And leaves me in the rather bewildering position of wondering whether Judge Dredd qualifies as British under these rules.  Does his co-creator credit render it ineligible?)

It also excludes John Wagner, who was born in the USA... So that means Dredd, Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter (co-created with José Ferrer) are all excluded!

-- Mike

[maryanddavid]

You too Mike, I suppose I wont be getting any either

[Emperor]

They're going by a pretty strict definition of "British Comic"; has to be an all-Brit creative team to qualify:

Nominees for the British Comic Awards must be the work of a wholly British* creative team, and the rights to such work should belong either to creators or a UK publisher. If you aren't entirely sure if something qualifies, suggest it to us anyway and the committee will debate it.

* Where we refer to British we're referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Which excludes anything with Carlos Ezquerra on art for a start.  (And leaves me in the rather bewildering position of wondering whether Judge Dredd qualifies as British under these rules.  Does his co-creator credit render it ineligible?)

It also excludes John Wagner, who was born in the USA... So that means Dredd, Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter (co-created with José Ferrer) are all excluded!

I'd imagine they'd allow a non-Wagner/Ezquerra Dredd, as long as it has British creators.

[Colin YNWA]

Interesting. Its easier to qualify for a British Olympic team!

Not that it matters, but does John Wagner have British Citizenship?

[Bolt-01]

Bit late to this, but I think it is a step in the right direction as far as a British awards go.

To my mind there is nothing wrong with Dedd being nominated as it is published by a Bristish company and is also commissioned by that company.

Going to have a nice long thing about what to nominate- as I'm not sure what category 2000AD falls into, here.

[a chosen rider]

Interesting. Its easier to qualify for a British Olympic team!

Not that it matters, but does John Wagner have British Citizenship?

I'd have thought British citizenship ought to be enough for a creator to qualify, surely?  Or it's even more strict than I thought!  Of course, "Day of Chaos" as a whole would still be disqualified because of Michael Carroll's "Downtime" episode, and I'm not sure it would be kosher to nominate individual stories within the arc when they all bear the "Day of Chaos" banner.  A fair few of this year's Meg Dredds are out of the running due to non-Brit creators too.  (Ooh, I just realised "Strange & Darke" falls within the eligibility window, though.  Loved that series.)

So, who else among current 2000AD creators is disqualified by these rules?  Can't say I've ever done much background research into everybody's nationalities...