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WCCA Winners?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on February 18, 2007 - 11:20

Yesterday at MegaCon was the WCCA ceremony. Anyone there want to post on which winners were announced (nothing's up at the WCCA website yet) and other reactions?

I'm listening to the pre-WCCAs MegaCon podcast from the Gigcast now (mp3 link) - I think they were planning on doing a WCCA podcast but it's not up yet.

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This is a No Win situation isn't it?

Mark Mekkes's picture

by Mark Mekkes - 02/19/2007 - 22:53

Does anyone remember the insanity over last year when we announced the winners without the ceremony? I thought everyone wanted to wait until today when the ceremony was on line?

If you're not going to come down to Toon Town for the live ceremony, I'm not going to get pounced on for letting the news out early!

Visit www.zortic.com and www.abbysagency.us

Visit www.zortic.com and www.abbysagency.us

Different complaints really

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/19/2007 - 23:21

If I stretch my memory I think I can recall some of the creators who created the comics for the online ceremony last year complaining that releasing the names of the winners separately from the online ceremony diminished their effort (or something...).

I don't remember if I said anything last year but I think that's a bit silly - the awards are about the nominees and the winners - not the "presenters". Holding the names of the winners up (this year that is what happened b/c they were announced publicly - that's different than last year btw) in order to placate the presenters is an odd set of priorities.

I assume that's also the reason why there's no list of winners outside of the online presentation for the last couple of years.

I remain a supporter of the WCCAs and I know how threadbare resources can be for many webcomic efforts (so don't take this as a bash) but I do think it would be a good idea to coordinate a little more tightly how the final awards are handled and announced next year.

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Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

The WCCAs cannot be represented solely by the "comic ceremonies"

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/20/2007 - 11:18

Let me add that the other concern here besides a more serious approach to getting word out on the winners to the world at large is working to improve the image of the WCCAs. Ultimately you want to be taken seriously by the general public (hey if the Hollywood foreign press assn can do it...) but in the short term it needs to be taken seriously by at least two groups: comics and Internet content/entertainment.

The online ceremony while fun and a nice nod to the collaborative and community traditions of webcomics should not be the sole public view of the awards -- in fact it probably should be moved more to the status of a bonus feature alongside the awards ceremony proper. Again while I think it's a great tradition that I would love to see continue insisting on keeping it as the sole prism for the public online to the awards does not represent the WCCAs in the best light and detracts from efforts to get others to take it more seriously.

Case in point - a comment today from Dirk Deppey at Journalista! which unfortunately is going to be the only thing a lot of comics folks are going to know about this year's edition:

The winners of the 2007 Webcartoonists’ Choice Awards have been announced. Unfortunately, they’re once again announced in the form of a mock ceremony where mediocre cartoonists draw a page for each award; after three pages, my eyeballs started bleeding and I ceased to care who won. Maybe you have more stamina for this sort of thing than I do. Oh, Perry Bible Fellowship got the big award, in case you’re curious.

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Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

More of the same...

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/20/2007 - 13:13

Here's Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter (between him and Deppey that's comics-blogging-conventional wisdom essentially):

You can find the winners to the 2007 Webcartoonists' Choice Awards on this page, including winner of Outstanding Comic Perry Bible Fellowship by following links on this page. The Awards does this cute thing of of letting webcartoonists draw the ceremony as it occurs, which makes for an experience eerily close to its real-world counterparts: excruciating.

This isn't the kind of coverage the WCCAs need.

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Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

Add T Campbell as well...

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/21/2007 - 11:09

I don't advocate getting rid of the "online ceremony" as T Campbell seems to do (an excerpt from his blog below) but I do think it's wrong to use it as the sole "public" face of the awards (which it still is as the "live" ceremony only had 50-60 attendees). Keep the online ceremony but consider it as a bonus feature and start putting out proper press releases announcing the information on a timely (i.e., right after the live awards ceremony) basis.

Although I wouldn't go as far in my criticism as Dirk Deppey (start here and go to the "digital comics" section) maybe it is time to retire the "cartoonists draw the awards ceremony" tradition. It was fun when it started, a nice little celebration of the awards' ambitions to be the Oscars of webcomics, and some cartoonists are still doing a good job with the "presentations"-- but do we really need to spend our energies imitating a ceremony that even the nation's most popular comedians often fail to make interesting?

Yes, I know it's a way for cartoonists to grab some visibility as they honor their fellows (Gisele and I did that last year). But it's not like there's a shortage of ways to promote your online comic, you know?

Most people on the Internet want access to information instantly, and scrolling through 25 pages to learn things that we could learn in one screen may be more frustration than it's worth. And the energy devoted to such a ceremony might be better spent clearing up administrative headaches.

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Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

Apparently Questionable

WillieHewes's picture

by WillieHewes - 02/19/2007 - 07:37

Apparently Questionable Content won all of them (see sidebar).

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=821

Comics by a girl who likes sad things (but sometimes they are funny) - http://www.williehewes.co.uk

Comics by a girl who likes sad things (but sometimes they are funny) - www.williehewes.co.uk

Are you telling me there ISN'T a Webcomics Award Fight Club?

Mark Mekkes's picture

by Mark Mekkes - 02/18/2007 - 23:25

In my opinion the ceremony went pretty well.
We had between 50-60 people in attendance who were all into the awards and actively cheering on their favorites in each category. I specifically asked if anyone was there just to take a break from the rest of the con and nobody admitted that they didn't know what was going on.
Our first presenter was Jenni Gregory from Abby's Menagerie who introduced the Outstanding Newcomer Category with a very nice presentation about newcomers.
JT & Scott from the Gigcast introduced Outstanding Website Design and Outstanding Use of the Medium.
Christi Johnson (In the Puddle) was a little late so KC Green from Rumblo jumped in to introduce Outstanding Long Form Comic, but Christi made it in time to introduce Outstanding Layout.
Tye Bourdony from Lighter Side of SciFi presented Outstanding Short Form and Single Panel Comic.
Gina Biggs from Red String introduced Character Writing and Rendering.
Greg Carter of Abandon: Reborn introduced Photographic and Environment Design.
Krishna Sadasivam of PC Weenies introduced Use of Color and Black & White.
Kit White of Blue Canary introduced Comedic and Dramatic Comic.
Jennie Breeden was a little late so we jumped forward to Derrick Fish of Dandy & Company who said some things about Comic Art before introducing the Outstanding Artist category. That was just in time for Jennie to show up and talk about Comic Writing and introduce the Outstanding Writing Category.
I wrapped up the ceremony by talking about each of the Outstanding Comic Nominees individually and announced the winner. The Gigcast guys recorded the whole thing and it should be available on their site sometime in the next couple of days.
Everyone involved said that the ceremony was a great experience and we're all looking forward to improving it and building on it's success for future years.

Visit www.zortic.com and www.abbysagency.us

Visit www.zortic.com and www.abbysagency.us

Winners? Press Release?

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/18/2007 - 23:47

If the winners have been announced how about sharing it with the rest of the world? A press release or just a list of winners would work.

____

Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

As it turns out, everyone on

halfpixel's picture

by halfpixel - 02/19/2007 - 03:00

As it turns out, everyone on the committee's keyboard locks up whenever they type the phrase "the winners are," forcing them to reboot. We won't learn what happened until the 24th, when Ryan Estrada bails the whole thing out again.

Kristofer Straub
Halfpixel.com

Halfpixel.com

Awards leaks

EricMillikin's picture

by EricMillikin - 02/19/2007 - 12:39

[quote=halfpixel]

As it turns out, everyone on the committee's keyboard locks up whenever they type the phrase "the winners are,"[/quote]

I don't think you can blame the entire committee. My sources inside the committee say they don't even know who won!
Apparently the winners are on a total "need to know" basis, with the award committee working in a "terrorist cell" system so that if one cell is infiltrated, it does not compromise the mission of the others. That mission being in part, "Don't give the results to Eric so he can leak them to Comixpedia again this year."




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Fetus-X is the greatest comic in the world.

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Fetus-X is the greatest comic in the world.

What? I was still waiting on

halfpixel's picture

by halfpixel - 02/18/2007 - 20:40

What? I was still waiting on receiving my final ballot, and it's done now? Awesome.

Kristofer Straub
Halfpixel.com

Halfpixel.com

Top Secret Awards

EricMillikin's picture

by EricMillikin - 02/18/2007 - 21:13

[quote=halfpixel]

What? I was still waiting on receiving my final ballot, and it's done now? Awesome.[/quote]

They're called SECRET ballots. We're not supposed to know about them.

Apparently "The first rule of webcomics award fight club is nobody talks about webcomics award fight club."

What, do you actually expect to find out that you've been nominated for an award any other way than about 23rd hand?

It's not like there's any type of global network of supercomputers that could be used to transmit this inofrmation.

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Fetus-X is the greatest comic in the world.

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Fetus-X is the greatest comic in the world.

Webcomic Award Fight Club

Xaviar Xerexes's picture

by Xaviar Xerexes - 02/18/2007 - 23:05

[quote=EricMillikin]Apparently "The first rule of webcomics award fight club is nobody talks about webcomics award fight club."[/quote]

We totally have to have Webcomics Award Fight Club! Dude!

Rad!

(sorry it's late but that would be a cool frightnight event)

 

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Xaviar Xerexes

On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.

I run this place! Tip the piano player on the way out.

Aye, the suspense is killing

David Simon's picture

by David Simon - 02/18/2007 - 18:28

Aye, the suspense is killing me!

Crimson Dark

[url=http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/]Crimson Dark[/url]