Seriously.

I’ve been in webcomics for about 3 years or so now and if there’s one thing I’ve come to count on every year it’s people spazzing out over the WCCAs. Maybe it’s just because I’m more immersed in things now but I feel like this year it’s not just a few isolated spats but at every corner I turn. Creators are mad they didn’t nominated, they’re mad that they did, or if they’re not mad about themselves they’ve taken a side elsewhere.

Today I come into my home field blog here and I find three guys I like and respect getting into it too. I’m not going to comment on the particular incident here, as it’s stickier than the bigger picture I’d like to talk about and I feel all involved have their valid points.

To quantify, my thoughts on the awards:
No, the best work does not always win, but life isn’t fair and popularity contests are a fact of it. If the nominees got the votes they needed then they’re doing SOMETHING right, even if it’s just self-promotion, and I say good on ‘em. At the end of the day, I don’t have a better solution for the WCCA, and urge them to keep up the good (or at worst, well intentioned) fight that they’ve been fighting. Sure, we could have awards selected by a small panel viewing work more technically but can you imagine the shitstorm THAT would start?

So that said, the way I see it is we should all fall into one of two categories:
People who care about these awards and people who don’t.

If you’re part of the latter, then let them pass. Let the participants have their fun and spend your time working on your comic.

If you’re part of the former, then in doing so, whether you like it or not, you’re subscribing to the reality of these awards; that the majority rules them, and if you want to win, you better get off your ass and do some promotional work. Just because your comic is better than one of the nominees doesn’t mean the world is going to flock to your self-perceived greatness and if you’re the only one who thinks you’re great, then you’re not great, you’re a bit of a narcissist, and I suggest you go for the other option of not caring about awards.

I guess my point is that while the wording was certainly less than optimal (and perhaps I’m offering him the benefit of the doubt here) but as I understand it, Kurtz’s now infamous comment was intended not as “screw the medium of online comics” but in actuality it was, “this bitching is insane, and I don’t need it.”

If the latter is true, then simply letting the drama pass and saying nothing would probably have been the prudent course but I guess there are times when I wouldn’t blame him for saying it anyway, because this does seem to bring out the worst in us on an annual basis.

In short, to the WCCA committee, I salute your temperance by doing this each year. You’re better folk than I’d be in your shoes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 7:35 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.