DCML Digest, Vol 17, Issue 29

[Olaf Solstrand]

Sorry late answer, been away from my e-mail program for a while, but I  
can't help on commenting this:

Don Rosa wrote:
> "Finally"? Surely you knew that UNCLE $CROOGE comics won several awards  
> in the past, including the prominent "Best Serialized Story of the Year"
> in which all the other (so-called) "adult" comics were nominated -- even
> beating out "Hellboy" which is now no less than a top-box-office motion
> picture.

I agree - Best publication for a young audience is not exactly the best  
award Disney comics has ever recieved. However, it is still an award. More  
than that, it's an EISNER award - which should be considered pretty huge  
regardless of younger audience or not. If I made a movie and it won the  
Academy Award for Best Sound, I would cheer for that rather than grumble  
that I didn't get "Best Movie". Hey, I would probably even write "Academy  
Award Winner" on the cover too.



> I'm afraid that I see this new "Best Publication for a YOUNG
> Audience" award as a nail in the coffin of Disney comics in America.

To that I disagree. In Norway, Disney Comics have been made especially for  
children for 55 years. Not from a comic award's point of view, but from  
the PUBLISHERS' point of view. Still, more than 50% of the subscribers are  
adult. Being pinned to a young audience can't scare the older audience  
away. Besides, couldn't this award actually make youngsters pick up an  
Uncle Scrooge and get addicted to it like we all were? I was addicted to  
Disney comics when I was six - I know you weren't very old either, Don -  
and THAT is why we still read it! We decided on our own when we grew up  
that these comics was just as good when we read them as grown-ups.



> Do you not realize that there is also an comics award titled "Best
> Humor Title"? *That* would have been the award that would have been
> notable in the overall industry. "Best... for a Young Audience" indicates
> that the nomination committee did not consider a Disney comic in any of
> the other categories of the Eisners as they had during the Gladstone days
> -- indeed (in case you were not aware), there were no Disney titles or
> stories or creators mentioned in *any* of the other award category
> nominations as they had been mentioned repeatedly in years past.

*cough* OR it indicates that this year's Disney comics simply weren't good  
enough to be nominated to the other awards. Or (correct me if that is not  
the way the Eisner award works) there were lots of other good comics  
nominated, meaning there simply wasn't room to nominate Gemstone because  
they had another bunch of nominees which they found better.



> I see this as setting a precedent for the future Eisners that no
> Disney comics will be considered for any other nominations other than
> this single "Best for a Young Audience" award;

I hope everybody on this list crosses their fingers you will be proved  
wrong.



> furthermore, any American comic reader who sees these awards will also  
> have his notion confirmed that he should personally NEVER consider  
> reading
> a Disney comic, knowing that an institution no less revered than the  
> Eisner
> Awards has labeled them definitively *for youngsters* as if they were  
> "Hello Kitty" comics or something, even though they are written on a  
> level
> easily equal to that of all those "adult" American superhero comics (if  
> not
> rather *above* that sort of stuff).

Disney comics are written on such a level that it's suitable for kids. And  
it _is_ made for children, isn't it? Yes, I agree. It's suited for adults  
too. But ... it is a kids comic. It's made for kids, and it's definitely  
suited for kids. And I have no problem seeing it winning an award for  
being best for a younger audience.



> It will be nice if Gemstone can use this award for publicity/leverage  
> into the bookstore markets that they crave and which may insure their  
> continued existence... but other than that, I saw the award as bad news
> for the future of American Disney comics. Perhaps a Disney title or
> story could have won in another category, as in the past, if the
> committee had given voters the chance to consider it. You see, it's
> the nomination committee which decides what stories the voters will be
> allowed to vote on. Perhaps the next Eisner award nomination committee
> will be more enlightened and turn the trend back to how it was in the
> past. Time will tell...

That is not only a job for the Eisner award nomination committee. That is  
also a job for Gemstone.



To everybody in Gemstone: Congratulations on the award! You deserve the  
award, and you deserve the congratulations. I don't want to be in a bad  
mood because you DIDN'T win any of the other awards. I'm assuming those  
awards too went to people who deserved them?

Off-topic: If any non-Disney Eisner winners read this, congratulations to  
you too. I'm very sure you deserved what you got.



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O l a f   S o l s t r a n d

http://www.andebyonline.com/olaf/
    My web page

http://www.andebyonline.com/olaf/stories.php
    Index of Disney comics I've written