For Your Consideration: “Best Graphic Story”
Posted January 13th, 2009 by Howard TaylerVoting is open for the 2009 Hugo Awards, the World Science Fiction Society’s annual bestowal of honor, and the most prestigious awards in Science Fiction.
This year there is an additional category, a one-time-only Award for “Best Graphic Story,” and after a careful perusal of the rules it appears that Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic is eligible for nomination.
But is it worthy? I invite you to re-read it! And for your convenience, here is Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic as a PDF. It is a 35mb download, but it should be much more convenient than re-reading the archives on the web. Feel free to pass it around, too.
In order to nominate works for the Hugos you must have an Attending membership to either Denvention or Anticipation (WorldCon 66 from ‘08 or WorldCon 67 in ‘09), or a Supporting membership. The details are here. Obligatory Ethical Note: I feel confident that my web presence and active fanbase will NOT result in ballot-stuffing, since the right to nominate costs a minimum of $50. My purpose in this exercise is to ensure that those who can vote know what’s eligible, and have the opportunity to easily review it.
Now… as long as you’re nominating things for Hugos, you should know that you can nominate up to five works for each category. There are other works equally worthy if not far worthier of the “Best Graphic Story” Hugo, and at the tippity-brass-top of that list is Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones. The Foglio’s are friends of mine, yes, but their work trancends that. Girl Genius is one of the few things on the web or in print that I look at and say to myself “Wow… I wish I could do that.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Conventions, Industry News, Awards
January 13th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Two bits of awesomeness in one day? Wow. Voting for Howard @ Hugo and flying cars! Keep it up, Howard. You’re having a positive effect on the world.
In other news, the first commercial flying car?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5489287.ece
January 13th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
I wish I could vote, but $ is so tight that I can’t even afford the $50 needed to be able to vote. Otherwise…. yes, I’d be voting for the both of you.
Luck…..
January 13th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Read the list thinking it was going to be an obvious plot to garner an award for the graphic novel a certain movie coming out this year.
Fortunately, it’s not.
But it just raised further questions:
You can get a Hugo award for *fan art?*
…and it’s a regular category.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
i’m afraid i’m in the same boat as ketira, severe lack of financial pennies, (and a genuine brass razoo to anyone remembering what comic strip that came from) just as well, i’d be torn between voting for s.m. and girl genius. zippthorne also raises a good question, when there is a hugo category for “fan art” why not one for pro art as a regular award rather than just a one off thing?
January 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
DarthReed: There have been flying cars “ready next year” since about 1950.
Technical issues aside (and they’re huge–do you really think they’ll go from a low budget animation to approved, tested flight in 18 months?), there are massive legal and liability issues.
If you’ve ever seen how people drive in DC, Boston, Chicago, or, God help you, Kuwait City or Jiddah, you’ll petition your elected officials to ban the things.
If they ever actually build one that works.
Which they won’t.
Still, Howard’s news is good enough for me:)
January 13th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Prediction: We’ll get flying cars sometime after we get computer-controlled cars.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:21 am
And since computer-controlled cars already exist…. :)
Most cars these days won’t run without a computer running things.
It’s sort-of funny to think the Anti-Car Zealots were convinced “if
cars are computer-controlled, it will end the practices of Hot-Rodding
and Auto Racing” — then the Hot-Rodders and Auto Racers got
Computer Sciences degrees…. >:)
Oh, and a Major Correction for Mr. Tayler: The Best Graphic Story
Hugo is not, Not, *NOT* a “one-time” award — it is in fact a
Permanent Award. However, it was supposed to start in *2010*;
the ‘09 Worldcon people had the option of adding a category, and
decided to start the Graphic Story one a year early.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:34 am
And once we get cars that are fully controlled and driven by computers, then they will rise up and kill us all. I’ll stick with my manual for now, thank you very much.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:26 am
BTW, Howard, I’ll have you know that I’ve got some kind of muscle damage in my shoulder which makes it hurt to cough, and, as it turns out, laugh.
I’d forgotten the bit about spitting out the stuff you have in your mouth…
January 14th, 2009 at 7:15 am
If it’s possible, I’d recommend that you submit(or recommend minio^H^H^H^H^Hdevotees to submit,’Mad Science Means Never Having To Ask “What’s The Worst Thing That Could Happen?”‘. However, I think it would be a stretch for a work published in 2004.(I don’t know what’s regarded as eligible.)
As to The Body Politic, be aware that the plotline is quite deep into the Schlock Saga. First time readers may be a little lost.
January 14th, 2009 at 7:40 am
@OMF: The rules are pretty clear. Nominations for old stuff are simply not counted. I’d really rather not have folks nominate stuff that isn’t eligible, and have their votes not count.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:12 am
@zipthorne
There’s no Hugo for “Best Fan Art”, it’s for “Best Fan Artist” - slight difference.
@gunner
There is also a category for “Best Pro Artist”, and has been for a long time. (I recall that at one point Michael Whelan was winning it so regularly that he withdrew his name from consideration for a year.)
January 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I’m not schooled in the nuances, but the differentiation between “Best Artist” and “Best Novel” seems pretty stark: One seems like a lifetime achievement award for a person, and the other is an acknowledgment of a superior single piece of work.
I suppose the Best Artist and Best Fan Artist have eligibility requirements, and only work published in the current year are to be considered, but it’s still weird.
“Best Cover Art for a Novel” and “Best Single-Page Illustration” seem like more appropriate categories for artists.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
@MadMike
>If you’ve ever seen how people drive in DC, Boston, Chicago,
>or, God help you, Kuwait City or Jiddah, you’ll petition your
>elected officials to ban the things.
This isn’t a flying car, it’s a roadable airplane. That means that it’s an airplane first and street-legal second, and you need a general aviation license to take one off the ground. It’s no more dangerous than anything else up there.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Carnildo: With that differentiation, I can eventually see one flying, though I’m not sure why. And the blind spots are hideous.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
You are both eminently qualified for nomination. I don’t get near the number of out-loud laughs from GG as from you, but the art, yeah.
Now, as to whom should get my vote, I guess that should be a matter for…discussion.
>;O
January 14th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Has anybody noticed the pun? For Howard, “The Body Politic” is pretty graphic violence. So it’s a graphic, graphic novel. If my jokes are worse than usual, blame my doctor–he’s adjusting my medicine. I can’t complain, though. I’ve lost 10% of my body weight in the last month.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
If I was eligible to vote on this I’d stick AMOS in there. But I think it’s a different year.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:23 am
The basic problem with flying cars (or roadable airplanes, a largely meaningless distinction that seems coined by Terrafugia to remove some of the stigma from what they’re working on) is that the requirements for a good car, such as crashworthiness, conflict pretty dramatically with the requirements for an aircraft (such as light weight). There’s no way i’d take my airplane on a Houston freeway. Airplanes are sculptures that fly because they have exactly the right shape to generate lift when air flows over them; any damage to that shape and things go bad quickly. A minor fender-bender in a car is enough damage to render an aircraft unairworthy.
There’s also a dramatic difference in power requirements. Cars don’t need a lot of steady power, but they do need lots of peak power. Airplanes need steady power for hours on end. An aircraft engine is normally run at 65-75% power in cruise; a car engine runs at maybe 20%, if that. This leads to different design parameters, and while car engines have been converted for aircraft use, none have been very successful. The Terrafugia Transition is using a 100-HP aircraft engine; that’s fine for an aircraft of the size and weight of that one, but 100 HP is anemic for a car.
I hope the folks at Terrafugia make it work, but I’m not going to be plunking down any $200K for one.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:02 am
@richv: I believe I’ve found your missing body weight. Or, rather, it found me. How would you like to pay for return shipping?
@Jay Maynard: Even if it was somebody else’s $200k? Or are you saying you wouldn’t borrow the neighbor’s Transition? :o)
Having lived in Houston for 17 years (up to 2007), I can heartily agree with you. Traffic on the Southworst Freeway is abominable, or either direction on the Pierce Elevated at most times of the day. Now that I’m used to riding the Ninja to work every day, I *might* do that in Houston traffic someday (if we ever move back). Maybe.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the PDF, Howard.
It really is convenient, even if I cannot afford to print it.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
@Howard
You’re right, the Artist awards are for the person, not the work, although they’re supposed to be awarded based on the artist’s works during the year of eligibility. As thehugoawards.org webpage puts it:
“There are three main types of Hugo Award category:
1. Individual works, for example a single book or film, in which case the Award is given for that work;
2. People, for example Best Professional Artist, in which case the Award is given for the work that person has done in the year of eligibility. Please note that “year of eligibility” qualification. If X happens to be the most famous SF artist in the world, but he has produced no work in the year of eligibility, then he should not be nominated.
3. Serial publications, for example Best Fanzine, in which case the Award is given for the entire run of that publication in the year of eligibility, not for a single issue.”
I’m not sure how the distinction arose,. Perhaps it’s because any single piece of artwork doesn’t tend to get the duration of attention of the observer that a novel or even short story might. (In one sitting, that is - a great work of art will keep attracting the eye over and over again, which is why we put pictures on walls rather than printouts of stories.)
In a sense the Best Artist award factors in quantity as well as quality, perhaps. Thinking back to the heyday of the pulps when this award came into being, there was a lot of interior art done for the magazines in addition to magazine and book covers. A Kelly Freas or Virgil Finlay who could regularly produce wonderful B&W line art as well as the occasional great cover illo certainly deserved the award for their body of work rather than any specific piece. It’s also the case that stories get reprinted more than artwork, so a single story is likely to have more exposure (think foreign markets too) than a single work of art, at least in the short run.
While their styles were quite different, thus difficult to compare, I’d say that for any particular work, Michael Whelan’s were better than Kelly Freas’s, for example, but that’s at least partly because Whelan spent a lot more time on it (only doing, AFAIK, book and album covers), whereas Freas routinely did book covers and covers and interiors for e.g. Analog as well. (He did at least one album cover, for a recording of Frank Herbert reading an excerpt from “Dune”.)
I’m glad there’s a category for Best Graphic Story, I hope future Worldcons end up making it permanent.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Howard -
My question is if you win, will this finally qualify you as a “relevant” artist for Wikipedia?
January 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
@rbliss: maybe. It would certainly qualify me as “Luckiest Cartoonist Alive.”
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
@rbliss: Methinks not… they’ll just declare Hugo not notable enough…
@Howard: Best of luck to you and then some!