This weekend I won the Special Award for Humor from the Harveys, a thing I talked about earlier when I was nominated. It’s nice having people realize how special I am and how humor I am, and I truly appreciate everyone who voted for me, but the award, as it stands, doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The fact that I was nominated for a humor award for SEX CRIMINALS without the writer of said series, my beloved chum, Matt Fraction, is wrong. On every level. I pointed this out to the Harvey Awards and told them I wished to have Matt on the ballot with me, or to remove me completely, and they declined to do either.
They said, and I quote; “We believe any collaborative process which the creators believe is equally divided makes this difficult. It’s unfortunate this is not a judgment call for us to make - but it’s not.”
Except for the fact that it is. They created a category designed to highlight individuals, sometimes out of a team, with no recognition of what has been contributed and by whom. The writer of our comic supplies 90% of the humor! This is the Harvey Awards’s category, so the ultimate judgement call is theirs.
Suppose a group of people successfully nominated me for my work on Green Lantern, a comic I’ve never worked on (YET). Would the Harveys simply shrug and go, “Oh well, out of our hands?” Of course not. Because it would be erroneous. Just like nominating me for the humor in Sex Criminals without Matt Fraction is erroneous.
I put forth the idea to the Harveys that the category simply be changed in the future to “Best Humor Publication,” in order to recognize the end result, instead of imagining who contributed what in a team effort. They could do that or just keep the nominations to creators who do all the work on their books, like Ryan Browne or Kate Beaton. They never responded to me, so I’m putting this idea out to you, the people who vote and are voted on. In an industry that daily has to contend with lopsided credits in the media, how can we allow ourselves to contribute to it with this award? Let’s make this category reflect the teams who deserve it.
Until then, I can’t accept the award. I love the people who voted for me, but I can’t abide by the rules set in place to allow such a thing. If, for some reason, it’s already en route to me, I’ll just carve Matt’s name into it and raffle it off for the HERO INITIATIVE.
-Chip
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