Eisner Awards (Re: Disney-comics digest #740.)

[Torsten Wesley Adair]

On Tuesday, 1 Aug 1995 Don Rosa wrote:

> Date: Mon, 31 Jul 95 08:41 EDT
> From: donrosa at iglou.com (Don Rosa)
> Subject: Re: Disney-comics digest #739.
>         Todd Klein won (as always) the Best Letterer award, and since he
> stated in his brief acceptance speech that it was his work lettering "The L
> & T of U$" that he was proudest of, I think we can claim that as an award
> for $crooge.

Considering that Todd Klein also letters DC's Sandman, this is no small
quote.  

>         And speaking of "The Life and Times of Uncle $crooge", it won the
> award for "Best Serialized Story" of the year, the most important category
> of the 6 awards it was nominated for. In fact, "Best Serialized Story" is
> the penultimate award of the evening -- only the award for "Best Single
> Issue" is considered a higher award for the year(1994). I was stuck right
> beside Will Eisner in the group photo for the winners -- if you see that
> photo somewhere, see if I don't look mildly thunderstruck by the surprise of
> actually winning!
...
>         Anyway, I STILL find it hard to believe that a Disney comic won such
> an important award in the Eisners. As poorly as these Disney comics sell and
> as little attention as they get in America, I'm just so tickled to see
> $crooge getting this sort of an honor! What a moment!
>         Happy day. Happy day.
> 
Congratulations, Don! (And everyone else involved with Lo$.)

This award is not surprising, considering that the Eisner Awards are voted
on by members of the industry, and not by fans (although it appears that
U$ has a lot of fans in the industry).

Also, off topic a bit, but for those of you unfamiliar with Will Eisner:
He is the elder statesman of comics.  Mr. Eisner started producing comics
back when comics were nothing more than comic strip reprints.  In the
1940s, he published a comic book which was distributed in Sunday editions
of newspapers.  The Spirit, his creation, revolutionized comics design. 
Will Eisner continues to draw and write, producing graphic novels (a term
he created) of a more literate nature than standard comics.  

In 1994, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award (Max und Moritz Preis)
at the International Comics Salon in Erlangen, Germany.

I recommend anything of his, even the training manuals he drew for the
U.S. Army

Simply put:  what Jack Kirby is to superhero comics, what Carl Barks is to
funny animal comics, Will Eisner is to comics.

And if you really want to know more, his biography is on the Disney Comics
Web (click on Eisner Awards, and search from there).

Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE, USA