Congrats to our Eisner-winning friends!
This past weekend at the San Diego International Comic-Con a number of our close friends were able to take away some hardware at the 24th annual Eisner Awards. We always joke about the Canadian infiltration of the comics industry but this year proved that to be case!First off, congrats to Ramon Perez for winning two Eisners for his great Jim Henson's Tale of Sand book. For those that don't know Ramon is/was a studio-mate of Andy's and the two have worked together for a number of years. And a big congrats to Darwyn Cooke for his work on Parker: Martini Edition. Darwyn has served as a mentor for all of us (and was great enough to write a forward for us in our first volume).
And the biggest congrats to Jennifer and Robert from The Dragon in Guelph, Ontario, which won the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award! The Dragon has been great to us (despite our boos....) and we're really happy for their success.Congrats to all!
Nominated for Joe Shuster Award (Best Writing)!
Just announced this morning is the news that we (Conor and Anthony) have been nominated for a 2012 Joe Shuster Award for Best Writing! This is the second-year in a row in which we have received a nod and we're quite pleased and touched by the nomination. We were nommed for our work on Issues 9 - 12 of the series, all of which were released in the first-half of 2011. Thanks to Kevin Boyd, who does a fantastic job organizing the entire process, the nominating committee, and everyone else associated (even Robert Haines... Boo...). And congrats to all of the nominees.A full list of the nominees can be found by clicking on the logo.
We'd be remiss for not expressing our disappointment that artist Andy Belanger failed to receive a nomination for his artwork for the series. Andy has done a superb job on the series (especially the last four issues - see sample below) and it pains us that he's not recognized. He definitely deserves to be - his layout and art is on the cutting edge and much stronger than most comic creators today.
AintItCool News @$$IE Awards: Best Writer!
We've received a number of positive reviews for our series on AintItCool News, which is still one of the top comic review websites. But yesterday we received a further plaudit from them: Conor and I were listed as one of the top comic writers of 2011 in their 8th annual @$$ie Awards!
It's a very distinguished list that includes fellow Canadians Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) and Ray Fawkes (One Soul), as well as industry stalwarts like Scott Snyder (American Vampire) and Mark Waid (Daredevil). We're honoured to be included with these other talents, and for the recognition for the series!You can read the write-up on us by Lyz "Lizard" Reblin by clicking on the trophy image above or clicking here.
We're nominated for a Harvey Award!
Just released today is the nominees list for the 2011 Harvey Awards, which celebrate outstanding work in comics and sequential art and are voted on by industry professionals. And we are nominated! We are up for BEST NEW SERIES.
Click on the Harvey Awards logo above to see the full list of nominees.The awards will be handed out August 20th at the Baltimore Comic-Con. We have already been making plans to attend the show based solely on how popular the convention is according to people we talk to. This nomination will just add to the Baltimore experience.Thanks to everyone that put our name forward for consideration. Seeing as how this is voted on by industry professionals - and not a small committee of a few people - this is so much more special for us. We will, of course, begin preparing our For Your Consideration campaign for the award...And, of course, thanks to everyone on our team that made this nomination possible - my co-creator Conor, the fantastic artist Andy Belanger (who really deserved a nomination in the Best New Talent or Best Artist category), similarly-deserving colourist Ian Herring, cover artist Kagan McLeod, our published IDW, and every other member of the team. And, most importantly, to every reader of the series - thanks for following us as a new series!
Consider us for a Harvey Award nomination!
Today is the deadline for the Harvey Awards, the North American comic book awards driven exclusively through comic professionals. Unlike other awards, like the Shusters or Eisners, which are committee-based, nominations and awards are voted on by only comic professionals.
If you are a comic book professional - or know one - please consider us for the following categories:BEST NEW SERIES: KILL SHAKESPEARE (IDW PUBLISHING)BEST PROMISING NEW TALENT: ANDY BELANGER (KILL SHAKESPEARE)BEST COLORIST: IAN HERRING (KILL SHAKESPEARE)BEST COVER ARTIST: KAGAN McLEOD (KILL SHAKESPEARE)BEST ARTIST: ANDY BELANGER (KILL SHAKESPEARE)BEST WRITER: CONOR McCREERY, ANTHONY DEL COL (KILL SHAKESPEARE)You can vote at the Harvey Awards website or by clicking on the image.
Reactions on the Shuster noms (and a glaring non-nom)
It was absolutely fantastic to get nominated for a Shuster Award for writing earlier this week. Conor and I are still on cloud nine for that distinction. What is also cool is to have read a couple blogs/sites that comment on our nominations.The first was The Fabler Blog, a "web comics portal", which ran through some of the nominees. Kevin de Vlaming, the writer, goes through some of that categories and also points out some nominations he's excited about. The top of the list is Kill Shakespeare, and he says: "They’re up against some big names in the Outstanding Comic Book Writer category, such as Lemire, J. Torres, and Kathryn Immonen, but I think they can hold their own.... It’s clever, well-written, and ultimately filled with nuanced originality that sets it apart from a lot of what’s out there at the moment." You can read the full blog post here.And over at ComicBookDaily, two writers (Andrew Ardizzi - who has done a few reviews of our work - and Pete DeCourcy) comment on some of the nominees. Andrew approves of our writing nomination but adds, "I do think however that’s it’s a colossal mistake to have omitted Andy Belanger’s contributions to Kill Shakespeare. He has consistently offered some of the most dynamic, creative and altogether violent I’ve seen in the last year. It’s truly beautiful, and a crime that he’s not on there anywhere."Pete also comments on this, stating, "Yeah, I totally agree – Kill Shakespeare wouldn’t work half as well without Belanger’s very distinct art style, he lends an air of distinct menace to some of the scenes that rewards multiple readings."You can read the whole article here or by clicking on the link below.
I'm really glad that some people recognize that Andy should have been nominated. Andy's doing some really original and incredibly dense things in this series - especially his work on Issue #7 (check out some of the incredible pages here - and below). I know that the artist category is very competitive and applaud Kevin and Robert and everyone at the Shusters for doing a very good job on making the process transparent. It's just too bad that Andy didn't make the final list for some reason.
Nominated for a Joe Shuster Award!
Fresh Off the Presses!It was announced earlier today that Conor and I have been nominated for a Joe Shuster Award in the category of Outstanding Comic Book Writer(s)! The Shusters are the Canadian comic book creator awards. We are very happy for the nomination, especially since we're in the same category as great pros such as Kathryn Immonen (one of Andy Belanger's mentors), Jeff Lemire, J. Torres and Jim Zubkavich (for the excellent and highly-recommended Image series Skullkickers).You can click on the logo below to go to the official press release.I'd like to say, though, that I'm disappointed that our artistic team failed to receive any nominations. Ian Herring has been doing great work as our colourist and Kagan McLeod as our cover artist. However, the work that Andy Belanger has been doing is phenomenal and really should have been recognized by the nominating committee. He has received glowing reviews from so many comic and mainstream pres, especially for an indie title like ours. He deserves a nomination FAR more than Conor and I do.The awards will be announced at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo on Saturday, June 18th. So let's get the campaigning to begin (I'm going to try to out-do Harvey Weinstein with this one...)!
