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OMFG URSULA WON A HUGO SDFGHJASDFGHJKSDFG
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Ursula who? And in what category? I'm guessing you meant this:
"Best Graphic Story: Digger by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)" -- I picked it off the internet earlier.
I was up for Best Fan Artist again this year, but lost as usual. The winner is somewhat controversial. A lot of older fans will just call her work "paste-ups and Photoshop filters," which is by and large true. She also has contributed to only to a single fanzine that I know of. Younger fans will no doubt see no problem with calling Photoshop filters "art." I also suspect that most of the voters never read fanzines and vote for their friends in the fan categories. "I don't know what he did, but I know him, so I'm voting for him."
So this is the 10th. time... or is it the 11th?... that I've been nominated as Best Fanartist but lost. It gets discouraging, so much so that I did't even bother to make a fuss this year. Actually, I'm not even sure I mentioned it in FurAffinity.
"Best Graphic Story: Digger by Ursula Vernon (Sofawolf Press)" -- I picked it off the internet earlier.
I was up for Best Fan Artist again this year, but lost as usual. The winner is somewhat controversial. A lot of older fans will just call her work "paste-ups and Photoshop filters," which is by and large true. She also has contributed to only to a single fanzine that I know of. Younger fans will no doubt see no problem with calling Photoshop filters "art." I also suspect that most of the voters never read fanzines and vote for their friends in the fan categories. "I don't know what he did, but I know him, so I'm voting for him."
So this is the 10th. time... or is it the 11th?... that I've been nominated as Best Fanartist but lost. It gets discouraging, so much so that I did't even bother to make a fuss this year. Actually, I'm not even sure I mentioned it in FurAffinity.
I can't argue without having read the graphic novel... or any other graphic novel published this year. Too expensive by half. I think the last G.N. I bought was the second half of DC Superman All Stars, about a year ago, and I likely wouldn't have known about it except that I bought the first volume drastically marked down and thought it was pretty good. But generally the $15 to $20 is too rich for my blood.
All of Digger is available online for free. Of the other four GN nominations, only Schlock Mercenary is on the web*, though I have no idea where the content in the volume that was up for a Hugo starts and ends.
Which is interesting, given the history of the Graphic Novel Hugo - looking at the past three years, which were dominated by Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius, we now have a consistent history of there being two web comics in the running, and the web comic that is not Schlock Mercenary winning out over all the stuff published traditionally.
Also, condolences on your eleventh consecutive loss. I can't imagine how that must feel, I mean IT'S AN HONOR TO BE NOMINATED and all but always a bridesmaid, never a bride sucks!
*discounting torrents of course
Which is interesting, given the history of the Graphic Novel Hugo - looking at the past three years, which were dominated by Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius, we now have a consistent history of there being two web comics in the running, and the web comic that is not Schlock Mercenary winning out over all the stuff published traditionally.
Also, condolences on your eleventh consecutive loss. I can't imagine how that must feel, I mean IT'S AN HONOR TO BE NOMINATED and all but always a bridesmaid, never a bride sucks!
*discounting torrents of course
I've seen a little of Schlock Mercenary. The artist was handing out sample pages in full colour at the Reno worldcon. Schlock was the word for it. Second rate art and cornball humour exactly like the sort of crap I wrote myself, when I was 17.
I never read Girl Genius, though have browsed through the pages now and then. I've known Phil from the 1970s, when he won his first Hugos. He caused quite a bit of controversy because SF fandom had just come off of seven consecutive wins by Tim Kirk. Tim had been winning the Best Fanartist Hugo even long after he stopped contributing to fanzines -- but he was still a regular in Locus, and Locus had a couple of thousand readers in those days... still an enormous number compared to the couple of hundred that most fanzines had. So Tim won every year, hands down. He finally withdrew from the awards, or was disqualified -- I forget which it was -- and fandom sighed a breath of relief. Finally, a deserving fanartist would win again. But that's not what happened. Phil won his first Hugo instead of anyone on the long line of worthies that were expected to provide the winner. Phil was new in fandom, having only been around for a couple of years, and most of his following were Trekkies ... which infuriated the old guard. Phil withdrew also, after his second win, so it didn't turn out to be the end of the world. But all that is baggage I carried around with me for many years, and made it impossible to read anything Phil did with impartiality. That's kind of behind us, now, but I still haven't read any Girl Genius stuff.
The fan Hugos seem to be a complete mess this year, with a pro writer winning Best Fanwriter and an online SF news site winning Best Fanzine -- this despite creating a separate award for online stuff.
Not even the Long and Short Dramatic Presentations worked out very satisfactory -- a TV episode won the Best Short category and a TV series won the Best Long category. I'm told the Crown of Games or Throne of Crowns or whatever it was is a very good mini-series, so that's not the problem. The problem is that it opens both categories to any single TV series. There is nothing stopping a season of Dr. Who and a Dr. Who episode from winning both. This doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the awards.
I never read Girl Genius, though have browsed through the pages now and then. I've known Phil from the 1970s, when he won his first Hugos. He caused quite a bit of controversy because SF fandom had just come off of seven consecutive wins by Tim Kirk. Tim had been winning the Best Fanartist Hugo even long after he stopped contributing to fanzines -- but he was still a regular in Locus, and Locus had a couple of thousand readers in those days... still an enormous number compared to the couple of hundred that most fanzines had. So Tim won every year, hands down. He finally withdrew from the awards, or was disqualified -- I forget which it was -- and fandom sighed a breath of relief. Finally, a deserving fanartist would win again. But that's not what happened. Phil won his first Hugo instead of anyone on the long line of worthies that were expected to provide the winner. Phil was new in fandom, having only been around for a couple of years, and most of his following were Trekkies ... which infuriated the old guard. Phil withdrew also, after his second win, so it didn't turn out to be the end of the world. But all that is baggage I carried around with me for many years, and made it impossible to read anything Phil did with impartiality. That's kind of behind us, now, but I still haven't read any Girl Genius stuff.
The fan Hugos seem to be a complete mess this year, with a pro writer winning Best Fanwriter and an online SF news site winning Best Fanzine -- this despite creating a separate award for online stuff.
Not even the Long and Short Dramatic Presentations worked out very satisfactory -- a TV episode won the Best Short category and a TV series won the Best Long category. I'm told the Crown of Games or Throne of Crowns or whatever it was is a very good mini-series, so that's not the problem. The problem is that it opens both categories to any single TV series. There is nothing stopping a season of Dr. Who and a Dr. Who episode from winning both. This doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the awards.
What comes around goes around, I guess - after winning the GN Hugo for all of the first three years of its existence, Phil stated he'd be declining a fourth nomination. He's the old guard now. IMHO he should get points for stepping down to give other people at that Hugo a lot sooner than Tim did.
(Of course, I'm also biased by having become a fan of his work when I was reading "What's New!" in the back of Dragon in my pre-teen years; he's one of my early influences as an artist, and he was one of the creators whose work I dissected when I was figuring out how to make comics myself.)
Personally I think that having separate categories for online stuff versus traditional media is getting to be the wrong thing. This year's Eisners, for instance, pit short stories against continuing series for "best digital comic", which is nonsense - either create a second set of digital categories for all the different forms a work can take, or admit that the world has changed and let, say like Homestuck go up for "Best Continuing Series"*. The pitting of web-first series like Girl Genius, Schlock, and Digger against things put out by DC/Marvel/IDW/Humanoids/whatevs for "Best Graphic Novel" is a GOOD thing in my mind, so's the fact that Randall Munroe was in the "best fan artist" category with you.
(I may be biased here by the fact that I'm very much a digital creator nowadays, using digital distribution methods. I'd much rather have a "Best Whatever" award than a "Best Online Whatever" award.)
The only explicitly ONLINE category I see in the Hugos this year is "Best Fancast"? Which is pretty much the twenty-first century version of "Best Radio Show". I don't see any other DIGITAL WORKS ghettos in the Hugos and I applaud them for that.
And yeah, a TV series getting in as "Best Dramatic Presentation (Long-Form)"? That's… I dunno, I mean it IS an ultra-detailed adaptation of a single book in this case, so one could argue that it SHOULD be considered as a single unit (maybe, I haven't actually watched it so I can't speak to how well single episodes would stand alone - if, say, part 4 is pretty much completely incoherent without having seen parts 1-3, then I think it does qualify). People have definitely been apeshit about it, so arguably it definitely should get SOME kind of acknowledgment. Maybe as "best miniseries" or something although I don't think there's really enough of those each year to actually merit that as a continuing category. It's an edge case, and hopefully one that has caused a lot of discussion for the folks who administer the awards.
*and oh god I would LOVE to see the hue and cry that would result if THAT happened, as Homestuck is almost completely INCOHERENT to anyone over 30 - go to comic/anime cons, though, and you will see a TON of Homestuck cosplay on twentysomethings.
(Of course, I'm also biased by having become a fan of his work when I was reading "What's New!" in the back of Dragon in my pre-teen years; he's one of my early influences as an artist, and he was one of the creators whose work I dissected when I was figuring out how to make comics myself.)
Personally I think that having separate categories for online stuff versus traditional media is getting to be the wrong thing. This year's Eisners, for instance, pit short stories against continuing series for "best digital comic", which is nonsense - either create a second set of digital categories for all the different forms a work can take, or admit that the world has changed and let, say like Homestuck go up for "Best Continuing Series"*. The pitting of web-first series like Girl Genius, Schlock, and Digger against things put out by DC/Marvel/IDW/Humanoids/whatevs for "Best Graphic Novel" is a GOOD thing in my mind, so's the fact that Randall Munroe was in the "best fan artist" category with you.
(I may be biased here by the fact that I'm very much a digital creator nowadays, using digital distribution methods. I'd much rather have a "Best Whatever" award than a "Best Online Whatever" award.)
The only explicitly ONLINE category I see in the Hugos this year is "Best Fancast"? Which is pretty much the twenty-first century version of "Best Radio Show". I don't see any other DIGITAL WORKS ghettos in the Hugos and I applaud them for that.
And yeah, a TV series getting in as "Best Dramatic Presentation (Long-Form)"? That's… I dunno, I mean it IS an ultra-detailed adaptation of a single book in this case, so one could argue that it SHOULD be considered as a single unit (maybe, I haven't actually watched it so I can't speak to how well single episodes would stand alone - if, say, part 4 is pretty much completely incoherent without having seen parts 1-3, then I think it does qualify). People have definitely been apeshit about it, so arguably it definitely should get SOME kind of acknowledgment. Maybe as "best miniseries" or something although I don't think there's really enough of those each year to actually merit that as a continuing category. It's an edge case, and hopefully one that has caused a lot of discussion for the folks who administer the awards.
*and oh god I would LOVE to see the hue and cry that would result if THAT happened, as Homestuck is almost completely INCOHERENT to anyone over 30 - go to comic/anime cons, though, and you will see a TON of Homestuck cosplay on twentysomethings.
I sure as hell don't appreciate having to run against Munroe... He may be funny -- I dunno, I don't even like Larsen much -- but he isn't much of an artist. But because he has 100 times the exposure I do, he kicks my butt. Not much I can do about it since I can't afford web space of my own, and in any case have no interest in doing a story/strip. That's what brings in the viewers -- continuing stories. I've tried various dodges to get around not having my own web page... such as joining DeviantArt and FurAffinity. I have art in a number of Yahoo Groups and in galleries in other people's web pages. But that tends to serve one fetish group or another -- not a general audience. So I posted extensive collections of my art and fanzine covers I did as pdfs at eFanzines.com... but it doesn't seem to do any good. SF fans don't for the most part bother with looking for art online, no matter how easy it is made for them. They may have favourite comic strips that they watch, but that's all. Art has to be stuck under their noses while reading a book review or the latest news about Game of Thrones. So, I've exhausted all approaches I can think of, and have grown rather sick of trying.
If I believed in a God I'd say that he long ago wrote in my Book of Life, "won't go anywhere much, live poor, die poor" and short of overthrowing God there isn't much more to expect of my four-score and seven.
If I believed in a God I'd say that he long ago wrote in my Book of Life, "won't go anywhere much, live poor, die poor" and short of overthrowing God there isn't much more to expect of my four-score and seven.
I just googled up her DA gallery and I sure see a lot of hand-drawn stuff there. I'm also not sure if how many fanzines she's contributed to really means anything in this day and age, when so much fandom activity happens online. The first thing in her gallery's a conbook cover, though!
YMMV, of course.
YMMV, of course.
Mo's best stuff, in my opinion, were the art she did for Drunk Tank before Chris bean his interminable sci-fi flick issues. She did more drawings and paintings then. But since then she's mostly done mash-ups from movie posters and stills.
Fanzines hardly matter to the Hugo voters anymore. Even going digital hasn't helped. While in theory a million people could download my fanzine, the simply fact is that they won't. They'll be busy downloading Harlan Ellison's blog, or Neil Gamon's blog, or any pro's blog. Having a reputation predetermines how many readers or viewers you can reach, even on the internet.
So far as being published on paper matters at all, you will reach more people by contributing to convention program books, progress reports, flyers and other such ephemera. I never cared for this -- such stuff is much of a muchness. This con's program book is pretty much the same as the next, except it has a bio of Harry Turtledove instead of Lois McMaster Bujold. The rest is just information that will be of no interest to anyone the moment the con is over. And if anyone collects con publications, their collection is limited to the cons they can actually attend (or buy supporting memberships for). You also have to ask, "how many bios of Jo Walton does anyone need?" Basically, con pubs are throw-aways, and I always aspired to publication in fanzines that had lasting value.
Ironically, that seems to have been a losing strategy. Better to have your work seen once by a thousand people, then thrown away, than seen by a hundred who preserve it. We live in that sort of a world, apparently.
Fanzines hardly matter to the Hugo voters anymore. Even going digital hasn't helped. While in theory a million people could download my fanzine, the simply fact is that they won't. They'll be busy downloading Harlan Ellison's blog, or Neil Gamon's blog, or any pro's blog. Having a reputation predetermines how many readers or viewers you can reach, even on the internet.
So far as being published on paper matters at all, you will reach more people by contributing to convention program books, progress reports, flyers and other such ephemera. I never cared for this -- such stuff is much of a muchness. This con's program book is pretty much the same as the next, except it has a bio of Harry Turtledove instead of Lois McMaster Bujold. The rest is just information that will be of no interest to anyone the moment the con is over. And if anyone collects con publications, their collection is limited to the cons they can actually attend (or buy supporting memberships for). You also have to ask, "how many bios of Jo Walton does anyone need?" Basically, con pubs are throw-aways, and I always aspired to publication in fanzines that had lasting value.
Ironically, that seems to have been a losing strategy. Better to have your work seen once by a thousand people, then thrown away, than seen by a hundred who preserve it. We live in that sort of a world, apparently.
I just came back from Mo's DA gallery -- some of it I recognize as covers for Drink Tank, before Chris started doing his "52 Weeks of Sci-Fi Films" series. I suspect Mo creates the covers for those from recognizable stills on purpose, because it looks more like movie posters. Whatever the reason, I don't like them much. The earlier stuff *is* best, as I figured.
I don't know how much exposure Mo as had online, either. That's one of the problems with the web -- unless you go looking, you probably don't know a thing about anything. The old fanzine network was like a small town -- you knew everyone and everything going on, nearly. The internet is just about exactly like the rest of the world. The best fanartist ever might be somebody in Manilla, painting on the sides of glass bottles to sell to tourists. Maybe they have a website even. But I'll never know about it except by accident. There are disadvantages to being too connected, I think.
Maybe the ideal is to be connected to different things. Being online is great for being connected to the whole world, but I would'nt want that to be the only sort of network I belonged to. Ideally I'd also belong to a number of smaller nets, including the one I spend most of my time in which would likely be the smallest.
I don't know how much exposure Mo as had online, either. That's one of the problems with the web -- unless you go looking, you probably don't know a thing about anything. The old fanzine network was like a small town -- you knew everyone and everything going on, nearly. The internet is just about exactly like the rest of the world. The best fanartist ever might be somebody in Manilla, painting on the sides of glass bottles to sell to tourists. Maybe they have a website even. But I'll never know about it except by accident. There are disadvantages to being too connected, I think.
Maybe the ideal is to be connected to different things. Being online is great for being connected to the whole world, but I would'nt want that to be the only sort of network I belonged to. Ideally I'd also belong to a number of smaller nets, including the one I spend most of my time in which would likely be the smallest.
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