Comics : Spotlight

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THE EISNERS: EYES ON THE PRIZE By Leroy Douresseaux Jul 21, 2005 - 5:10:00 PM

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Mr. Charlie Opens the Door #63:


The 2005 Eisner Awards (or properly The 17th Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards) were announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International on Friday, July 15. Many people refer to the Eisners as the comic book industry’s version of the “Oscars,” which are handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and that comparison is wrong, of course. All Eisner nominees are picked by a small committee, which is not the case with the Oscars. The Oscar nominees in the technical categories (excluding the acting and best picture categories) such as special effects, cinematography, foreign film, etc. are chosen by committee. In theory this is because only specialists in film photography, for instance, know what is really good film photography. I don’t think this carries over to comic books because (arguably) many creators and fans can discern good writing, penciling, inking, coloring, etc. You’re laughing, aren’t you?

If I had to compare the Eisners to another “artistic” or performing arts award, it would be the Grammys because the Eisners seem as silly and as inconsequential as the Grammys. Grammy tends to ignore many important, revolutionary, and/or cutting-edge recording artists, especially when they are in their formative years. The Grammys favor well-respected and popular veteran acts. For instance, one year U2 won an award for alternative performance, and Bono accepted the award, clearly appearing either embarrassed or perplexed or both. U2 hadn’t been “alternative” (at the time) for over half a decade; they were clearly a mainstream band. In fact, it could be argued that they were the most popular band in the world at that time.

Another example is Luther Vandross. Grammy ignored honoring him with a win for his early work, which is considered his best work and is what made him a legendary figure in R&B/Soul music recording. Starting in 1990, he won eight Grammy’s, four of them coming for his final studio LP, Dance with My Father, which was released after he had a debilitating stroke – a stroke that would eventually cost him his life. I’m not being cruel when I say that his final Grammy wins were based on the sympathy vote, less about merit and more about honoring a respected industry vet who had fallen on hard times in terms of his health – in other words, the final four were like career achievement awards.

Another silly thing about the Grammys is how they honor well-made, entertaining, but mostly inconsequential music crafted in state-of-the-art recording studios with high-powered record producers at the helm. This is the same kind of music pushed on the public by the small and super powerful cabal of the five major record companies (not record labels – they’re something different) in the United States. This is the kind of vacuous and pleasant pap from acts like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, all of which have received nominations over the last five years or so. Recently, Grammy has honored such middling corporate pap by Justin Timberlake, Metallica, Audioslave, Usher, John Mayer, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Puff Daddy, etc. with trophies. They all make good music; some have made exceptionally good music over their careers, but quite a bit of their music is basically corporate product. Acts like The Killers or Mos Def don’t stand a chance; they’re lucky if they get nominated because they aren’t comfortable Top 40.

Anyway, back to the Eisners: I don’t really follow them as much as I used to because they seem so bigoted towards art and alternative comics. In fact, the Eisner white citizen’s council… I mean nominating committee refuses to include what is arguably the best magazine about comics (or one of the best in the world), The Comics Journal, in the category of “Best Comics-Related Publication” because the Journal is critical of mainstream (i.e. superhero) comics. The committee is, of course, composed of lovers of superhero comics, and take the Journal’s frequent criticism of mainstream comics and the mainstream publishing business as a slight against them. Why do they feel this way? That’s for another column. In fact, the award winner in that category is the Comic Book Artist, a anally nostalgic magazine that digs every bit of minutia out of the superhero comic graveyard or historical junk heap for in depth examination. I do read the magazine on occasion, but even I know that by making the awarding of CBA an annual event, the Eisners lose credibility.

For me, the Eisners seem like an excuse to give trophies to and fawn over Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore and the creators lucky enough to collaborate with them. The Eisners make up for the lack of black representation in the comic industry (and therefore in industry awards) by giving Kyle Baker, a Negro who creates fantastically funny and bizarre comics, the same two or three awards every year – usually something in a “humor” or “children’s” category.

As you know, both the Eisners and the Harveys (that other industry award; if the former is the Oscars, then, the latter must by the “Golden Globes.”) were born of a split that occurred when the short-lived, mid-80’s comic book awards, named “The Kirbys” died because of strife between the people overseeing the awards. The Kirbys were an attempt to honor Jack Kirby who seemed to have been forgotten, at least by most people who bought and read superhero comics in the early to mid-80’s, and who was, at the time, somewhere in the midst of his struggle with Marvel to get the company to return his original art for all the comics he’d drawn for Marvel in the 1960’s. It was appropriate because so much about the way comic book stories were told then was either directly or indirectly influenced by Kirby’s work.

It’s good that there are no comic awards named after him. Very few industry awards honor revolutionary or groundbreaking work, which is what Kirby was about; the Eisners certainly don’t. Go here: 2005 Eisnters if you want to see a list of this year’s Eisner honorees.

Discuss this column in the Mr. Charlie thread

Read good movie reviews at Negromancer

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