2006 WCCA Categories

The Categories for the 2006 Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards have been finalized. So now’s your chance to start thinking about which comics you believe should be nominated in each category for their performance during the previous year. This list can also be currently found at the WCCA website.

  • Outstanding Newcomer – This is an award that acknowledges the best new comic of this year. Eligible candidates would be any comic that debuted within the last year. 
  • Outstanding Comic – This is the over all most outstanding comic most effectively using every element of the creative process; art, writing and technical. This is the category that best represents the collection of all of the other categories 
  • Outstanding Artist – This to award the artist whose body of work best demonstrates all of the visual elements of art including line, color, design and composition.
  • Outstanding Writer – This award recognizes the author whose work best utilizes the elements of writing including character and plot development, exposition, pacing and atmospheric description. 
  • Outstanding Black and White Art – This award recognizes an online comic that makes use of highly successful black and white art. 
  • Outstanding Character Art – This award recognizes an artists’ skill at rendering the characters of an online comic during the previous year, where the visual flavor of the character design is effectively presented. 
  • Outstanding Environment Design – This award recognizes visual design work of environment, props, or setting of an online comic, where the visual flavor of the environmental design is highly successful. 
  • Outstanding Layout – This award recognizes an online comic whose art is notable for its highly successful compositional elements. 
  • Outstanding Use of Color – This award recognizes an online comic that has a highly successful use of color in its art.
  • Outstanding Use of Flash – This award recognizes comics that make superlative use of Flash or a similar program to achieve in webcomics what cannot be done in print comics. 
  • Outstanding Use of Infinite Canvas – This award recognizes comics that make superlative use of the "infinite canvas" popularized by theorist Scott McCloud, where a large section of narrative is on one "plate" and the browser window is used to navigate along the narrative, rather than click to bring up new pages. 
  • Outstanding Website Design – This award recognizes outstanding website design of an online comic, where the design and interface of the entire site enhance the experience of reading the comic. 
  • Outstanding Character Writing – This award recognizes an online comic whose character or characters have been rendered though image and narrative development to an extraordinary level of quality.
  • Outstanding Comedic Comic – This award recognizes an online comic’s ability to use humor and comedy effectively.
  • Outstanding Dramatic Comic – This award recognizes the dramatic elements of an online comic’s storyline. 
  • Outstanding Long Form Comic – This award recognizes comics with longer formats and extended, continuous storylines. Traditionally these comics fit (but not restricted to) "Comic Book" formats.
  • Outstanding Short Form Comic – This award recognizes comics with shorter formats with regular gags, or beats to it’s story to reflect each individual strip. Traditionally these comics fit (but not restricted to) "Comic Strip" formats. 
  • Outstanding Single Panel Comic – This award recognizes comics with one panel formats with regular gags. Traditionally these comics fit (but not restricted to) "Magazine Cartoon" formats. 
  • Outstanding Story Concept – This award recognizes the writer’s ability to create an engaging, enjoyable and entertaining plot using the proper linguistic tools of both the genre and the medium. 
  • Outstanding New Character Design – This award recognizes the original creation of visually effective character design specifically from the previous year.
  • Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic – This award recognizes comics that make the best use of anthropomorphic characters such as talking animals, plants, or usually inanimate objects.
  • Outstanding Fantasy Comic – This award recognizes comics that stand out in their use of fantasy elements. 
  • Outstanding Gaming Comic – This award recognizes comics that successfully base their stories around video or roleplaying games, their characters, players and/or creators. 
  • Outstanding Slice-of-Life Comic – This award recognizes comics that make outstanding use of realistic settings and characters: autobiographical comics, journal comics, and fictional comics that deal with realistic subjects.
  • Outstanding Romantic Comic – This award recognizes comics that reach a high level of quality in addressing issues of love and romance in their stories, settings and characters. 
  • Outstanding Science Fiction Comic – This award recognizes webcomics that exhibit excellence in using real or imagined science and technology to tell their stories. 
  • Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic – This award recognizes the finest comics that incorporate action/adventure elements including superpowered characters.

Mark Mekkes