The Body Politic Nominated for a Hugo
Posted March 19th, 2009 by Howard TaylerI’m thrilled. I’m ecstatic. I’m nigh-uncontainable.
It’s a good thing I spent all day working. Right now I’m too tired to bounce off the walls.
Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic has been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. The competition is incredibly stiff, and I’m honored to be in the company of some fantastic teams of writers and illustrators. Let’s name-drop: Jim Butcher, Joss Whedon, and Phil and Kaja Foglio… you might have heard of some of these people.
I take dire, nigh-sinful pleasure in the fact that of the six nominees, I’m the only solo-act (writing and illustration all coming out of the same person.) This probably explains why everything else on the list is better illustrated and/or written than my own work. It also makes me extra super-happy to have made the ballot at all. I suppose this is what it would be like if I were going to swim in a race against Michael Phelps. No way can I beat him, but at least I made it to the pool, right?
I’m so excited to even be in the race I just peed in the pool. And yes, that’s probably where the metaphor falls the rest of the way apart. Goodnight, everybody.
Explore posts in the same categories: Awards, Uncategorized
March 19th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I should point out before anyone else does, yes, I know I’m not a true solo-act. I couldn’t do this without Sandra handling the business end of things.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Huzzah!
March 19th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
That’d be quite a feather in your… uh… cap. ;) “The Hugo Award winning Schlock Mercenary”. Or you could do like Evil Inc. (that didn’t win the Eisner Award) and stick up the nomination forever on the site.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Which of your fellow nominees smokes pot? Or is that where some pieces of the metaphor go missing?
The pieces that didn’t slink away in shame at the thought of Hugo nominees swimming through your pee, that is.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Congratulations, Howard! :)
March 20th, 2009 at 12:17 am
** applause!! **
Way to go, Howard!
March 20th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Wow. I don’t blame you for being ecstatic, and stuff. Although you could try to exercise more self-control in the pool :-)
seriously, many congratulations to you and Sandra, this is part of the pay-off for all the hours, days, weeks, years of plugging away and hoping that you make enough to survive.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Howard, Sandra –
Congrats!! You’re right, getting into the ool with these big fish is in and of itself exemlerary. (Lease note what’s missing in this sentence, and let’s kee it that way! *grin*)
-John
March 20th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Nice. Now all we have to do is get you the Hugo. In the words of
John Ringo: “FLY, MY WINGED MINIONS, FLY!” :)
Wow — this would be the *second* time I’ve made an offhand
remark somewhere, and had it blow up on me. The first: A fellow
I know made an anime music video using visuals from _Crest of
the Stars_ and _Banner of the Stars_ to make a “preview” for the
Honor Harrington series — I sort-of offhandedly mentioned it on
Baen’s Bar, and at the local con’s next all-night anime showing, he
mentioned that “someone told the Baen forum about it, and the
resulting load crashed the server”. Fortunately, it was loud, so he
didn’t hear the poorly-muffled expletive I uttered at the time…. :)
March 20th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Maybe your next set of business cards can do something clever with HugO aWARD — congratulations!
March 20th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Hey, awesome.
Really congratulations.
Your drawing skills have come a long way since the beginning but are still completely dwarfed by your writing skills which are IMO amazing.
Your nomination puts you among your peers in storytelling.
March 20th, 2009 at 2:58 am
I think that your drawing style has always had a certain comical flair, though it certainly has improved immensely. But I also have to admit that it was the concepts and writing that sold me on the strip from the beginning.
March 20th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Hugo Award? You should rename it “Xinchub Award” if you get it!
The award I mean, not the unfunny pun.
March 20th, 2009 at 3:15 am
I don’t think anyone could deserve this more than you guys… Congratulations!
- Oren
March 20th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Wow, congratulations, Howard! And – of course – congratulations to Sandra!
March 20th, 2009 at 5:23 am
What a Hugo dilemma! I’m a big fan of four of the six Graphic story nominees. I follow Schlock and Girl Genius religiously, and own both Better Days and Welcome To The Jungle. Can we arrange a four-way tie?
March 20th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Wow! A Hugo? Way cool.
Congratulations!
March 20th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Congratulations Mr. Taylor. We’re rooting for you all!
March 20th, 2009 at 6:14 am
So, NOW do you get an entry in Wikipedia. I mean, does a Hugo award nomination qualify as making you “relevant?”
Your success is well deserved. Kind of reminds me of the “Overnight success” (it typically only takes about 10 years.)
Soooooo, wasn’t “The Body Politic” a Schlocktoberfest creation? I know you’ve sworn off of them for this year, but I’m just saying . . .
March 20th, 2009 at 6:54 am
It’s true, The Body Politic was sort of a wrapper, a “delivery mechanism” for one of my favorite Schlocktoberfests of all time, but that doesn’t mean I can’t build equally wonderful wrappers for OTHER cool stories.
Ref: The Barsoom Circus…
March 20th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I see dead clowns! *grin*
Ok, at least smoldering, evil clowns? Pretty please?
March 20th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Don’t sell yourself short. You deserve to be on the list of nominees! And while I think it’s unlikely you’ll beat the likes of Whedon or Foglio, with their massive fanbases, I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility. I’d love to be in the room with you when/if you find out you’ve won. :-)
March 20th, 2009 at 9:17 am
wolfger, don’t count him out. I consider myself a fangirl (complete with embarrassing shrieking) of four out of six of the nominees, including Whedon and Foglio, but I’m rooting for Howard.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Woo hoo! You deserve it, sir.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Wolfger has a good point.
(From Locusmag.com)
“The Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award will be presented at the 67th Worldcon, Anticipation, August 6-10, 2009 at the Palais de Congrès in Montreal, Québec.”
I’m seeing a party at DK. Anyone else see that?
March 20th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Now the rest of the world knows what we’ve known for years: The best hard SF humor is right here.
–GD
March 20th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Congratulations! :D
March 20th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I’m not actually posting to congratulate you (since I already did that over on TWG). I’m just here to revoke your metaphor privileges.
…
Actually, you know what, you deserve it. Congratulations. Twice!
(All right, NOW hand ‘em over.)
March 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Congrats! If I was a voter, I have no idea who I’d vote for. I find you just as entertaining as the Foglios, Whedon, and Butcher… It’s like asking Schlock to decide between his plasma cannons.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Okay, so this evening I logged on to get my Schlock fix and I have seen TWO things that are fighting for space in my brain…
1. The Hugo nomination. Howard, that’s awesome. Even if you DON’T win, you’ve taken your dream and made it a reality. That’s something most people will never hit.
2. Mall Security??? MALL SECURITY??? In no way will this end well, but I sure will enjoy the ride. Heck, you could probably could get enough material for a month’s worth of updates just by going to the mall on a Saturday for a couple of hours.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Rbliss – I WISH I could see that. :( You’ll have to party without me.
Congratulations, Mr. Tayler! I’ve no idea if you’re going to win, but the moment I read your post about being eligible I knew you deserved it. Fortunately now we don’t have to plan the Schlock Riots of 2009, because you’ve now gained the credible, official, and public recognition that you deserve. Gaining the Hugo right now would only be icing on the cake.
Granted, as it’s a really really BIG cake, a lot of icing would hardly be amiss. I hope you’ll save me a piece. ;)
March 20th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Brenaventi said:
“It’s like asking Schlock to decide between his plasma cannons. ”
… okay, now I SO want to see a wallpaper based on this, with Schlock doing one of his “big, teary-eyed” expressions. ^_^;;
March 20th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Having read the collections authored by Butcher, Foglio, and Whedon, I’d honestly say that the only real competition is between Tayler and Foglio. I can’t decide, objectively. I think that The Body Politic has the edge when it comes to a better story, but Girl Genius #8 has the edge on presentation.
(Subjectively, I want Mr. Tayler to win. As much as the Foglios deserve it, I like Schlock just a teeeeeeeny bit more.)
In a slightly-unrelated topic . . . should anyone wish to spread Schlock readership around using “Hugo Award-Nominated . . .” as your leverage, I’ve just written a review with that in mind. It can be found at Randym Reflexions on Blogspot. Feel free to spread the link around if you like it.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Argent Tree: Two words — “MALL NINJAS”…. >:)
March 21st, 2009 at 4:48 am
Congratulations, Howard and Sandra!
March 21st, 2009 at 6:57 am
Now that I am back in town, I can offer proper congratulations rather than just a text.
Congratulations Howard! You deserve to win if for no other reason than your own tenacity. Heck, even the Foglios have been late in updates from time to time.
Don’t be afraid to jump on in that pool and swim for all you’re worth, (that is the cue for all you fans going to Worldcon to start stuffing the ballot box) after all, even Michael Phelps can get a cramp and let you slip past to achieve Hugo gold.
Even without the cramp, I still think you can take them.
There had better be a repeat of the Writing Excuses podcast panel session with the Foglios where you guys can toss references to your Hugo nominations back and forth until Dan or Brandon snap like twigs stepped on by an elephant.
I would pay money to see that. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough money to pay for the plane ticket. Dang!
March 21st, 2009 at 8:43 am
That’s wonderful, Howard! Congratulations! You totally deserve it, and it’s great to see you getting that recognition. Like you said, even if you don’t win, it’s an honor. Though you should totally win.
The others are already well-known. It’s Howard’s turn to bask in the limelight.
(Besides… I think… I think I like Schlock best. Sorry, Buffy and Dresden. We had some good times, but I’ve been seeing Schlock every day for a long time now. It’s not you; it’s me. Schlock just really gets me, you know? Gee, I hope we can still be friends.)
March 21st, 2009 at 11:21 pm
re: Sunday’s comic.. Why am I thinking Ghostbusters?
“We should split up.”
“Yeah, we can do more damage that way.”
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 am
I have to admit that “The Body Politic” was pretty graphic. I’m hoping you win Howard. You and Sandra certainly deserve recognition for all your hard work.
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
You deserve it. Let the Realpolitik and cynicism rock on.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:53 am
Congratulations Howard, and to Sandra and the rest of the family who have supported you in the journey to this point.
I’ve looked at the competition, and over the past few years I’ve also looked at a lot of other webcomics.
Shlock is head-and-shoulders above the rest in storytelling, and the artwork has improved as you’ve taken us all on this entertaining journey.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Looks like you’ve just been boinged: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/hugonominated-webcom.html#comments
Hope your webhost is up to the challenge!
March 25th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Just want to drop my congratulations too.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Bravo Howard! All the best… I’ve been following Schlock now for years n in my opinion its the best web-comic on the net… Finally its getting d recognition it deserves! Congrats man!