Episode 1535 Talkback: The CGS Best of 2014 Awards Nomination Show
i_am_scifi
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This is it! The Geeks, teleconferencing from secure locations, announce their (and YOUR!) nominations for the best comics, creators, and characters of 2014. Listen in as the ballot for our 'Best of 2014' Awards is set... then limber up those typin' fingers to vote for the final winners!
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And by the way, in 2014, Jordie Bellaire colored the following:
All-New X-Men #25 (one of many), Adventures of Superman, Captain Marvel #17 (January 2014), The Manhattan Projects, Pretty Deadly, Zero (Image Comics), the last two issues of Young Avengers (along with other colorists), and a few other things here and there.
I may have missed it, but did the guys say how many submissions they had from listeners?
Falcon as Cap ... not new hero for me, don't agree he should be eligible for this category.
This is in contrast to The Crime Syndicate which I agree are new iterations of old characters, plus the new additions added to the team.
Wow am I tired of hearing about Saga. And as soon as I type that Chris picks Saga for best storyline, sheesh!
C.O.W.L. as Murd's choice is the first choice I remotely agree with and the co-writer's name is Alec Siegel, though Chris's pick of Moon Knight was a good choice as well.
All the talk of Silver Surfer being good bums me out. I was a huge fan of the late 80's-90's book and I would like to check out the new book, because Slott is a great writer. Unfortunately Allred's art makes it unreadable for me. I HATE his art style. Always have, slightly worse than Romita's art for me.
Agree with Chris about Rucka and Lazarus. That book is AMAZING!!!
On the subject of schilling ... both Chris and Murd do a great job, Chris for Marvel and a select few indy's and Murd for mostly off-the-wall indy's. I myself am constantly trying to get people to give lower selling books a try and I only hope I can be as persuasive as you two.
Jordie Bellaire, wow I can't believe you guys aren't familiar with her. She is very prolific and so very good. The thing that really stands out for me is how many different styles she uses to give the different books she does different tones and distinct feels. Moon Knight, Deadpool and Manhattan Projects for example are all wildly different.
Not a bad group on nominees all in all. I do feel like the group has a bit of tunnel vision about some books. It's to be understood I suppose as you are all friends and read similar things. This even extends to the listeners to some extent with so many of the same things being nominated or mentioned over and over. I totally agree with Murd's desire to have as wide open a field as possible. For that reason I wonder if it might be a good idea in the future to have someone from outside the group participate in the nomination show. Perhaps limit the nominations by stipulating one book/team per ballot. Thus if you pick Silver Surfer for best series you can't pick any of the creators for another category. Not the best solution, but it would be nice to hear more a more diverse selection of books mentioned.
A lot of the reason I bring this up is due to the fact I am still plugging away on the old episodes. One of the things the Geeks really stressed in the old days was getting the word out on all the great books that were flying below the radar. Things like the Indy Challenge and some of the interviews that let creators try to reach out to potential readers are some of my favorite things about the old episodes. I think with a smaller number of Geeks having time to commit to comics and of course the passing of the beloved Jamie D, some of the diversity of tastes and pull lists is missing. I only bring this up out of love and respect for you guys. I want to see the show continue and I would love to have you guys read things that I like and hear your opinions on those books as well as open my eyes to new things that you all enjoy.
I appreciate all the hard work and I will mention that although it didn't feel like the same ol' CGS without music and such, the quality was adequate. I don't think that substituting a Skype episode now and then is a bad idea, especially if the alternative is to not have an episode at all.
And speaking of indies, I was especially impressed with quite a few of @Adam_Murdough's picks and will be adding The Wicked + The Divine, Supreme Blue Rose and The Mercenary Sea to my to-be-read pile as he made them all sound quite intriguing.
Also, @ShaneKelly, I'm so glad to hear that you are enjoying Justice League 3000 as much as I am. J.M. DeMatteis is my favorite writer and I wondered whether my enjoyment of that book was colored by my own personal bias. It's good to know that is not the case and that others share my love for it. Have you also been reading Justice League Dark? That book's been a lot of fun as well.
Saga does deserve the praise it recieves and I'd have nominated it more than once also.
Didn't Charles Soule actually win in the break out category last year? I know for sure he was at least nominated.
I'm glad Silver Surfer is a popular book. I've read the first six issues and thought the art was amazing. However, like the Rocker Raccoon book, this isn't the type of book I want to see the character in. I agree with the comparison to Doctor Who because that's exactly what this is, a Doctor Who comic - not a Silver Surfer book. Also, naming the board and having it act like a pet dog..eh, no thanks. Just my opinion, of course, and obviously not one shared by most.
Pale Vicars = Paling, etc.
I suppose it could be revealed that these are beings or a group that has their origin elsewhere in the Lantern mythos/continuity and have been re-purposed for this new role. (Like Star Sapphire having roots in GL but being "revealed" to be a Lantern Corps) But I somehow doubt it. Your nomination passes Lanternologist standards good sir! Proceed forth!
What is the Role of the: Writer
What is the Role of the: Penciller
What is the Role of the: Inker
What is the Role of the: Colorist
What is the Role of the: Editor
Sure, alot of these we might THINK we know the answer already but we don't WORK in the industry. And even if they're 12 minute episodes, who cares? How many of us are blaming things on the editor that are actually the writers fault? How many of us LOATHE the art on a book but it turns out the inker screwed up? How do we know what's what? Now, that's the negative side. And it shouldn't turn into, "Here's how you figure out who to blame." but I DO Like the idea of getting a better handle on who does what and why.
She still sketches, refines, and delineates the forms in black holding lines—that's all that penciling and inking is. It doesn't matter if that's done in layers of a Photoshop file or on a piece of Bristol board—the result is the same.
For the record, I think Staples is the total package and a "best artist" win would make me happy because the visuals are 100% a product of her work.
I'd have an easier time seeing Staples as a colorist. Frazier Irving is one of my favorite colorists, and his work is entirely digital. Within the digital realm I just don't think there's as clear a demarcation between "pencil" and "ink". I could be totally wrong. I think it would have to be a case-by-case basis, depending on how each individual artist works and how the steps of their process are... delineated.
I dunno, that's just me. I certainly don't mean it as a slight to Staples. I think she's a fantastic artist and one of the very, very best in the business right now.
My hardcover of Saga says the the lettering was done by Fonografiks, btw. So I don't think Staples does the lettering, unless she works for them.
Nice episode, by the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I didn't send in any preliminary votes this year, and I might not vote in the finals either. Just didn't feel strong enough about enough of the categories to really justify voting for enough of the categories. Swamp Thing has been my favorite title. Jordie Bellaire (who as done a TON of stuff, guys!) would certainly be my favorite colorist. Not much else really jumps out at me. I LIKE a lot of stuff, but right now there are precious few titles that I think of as more than "good".
Oh, I would nominate the Morrison/Quitely issue of Multiversity ("Americana") as the best single issue of the year (though I guess that isn't even a category?). Despite my qualms about the series, and despite the many disclaimers I'd give about its being a little too derivative of Alan Moore and a little too naive in its JFK-worship, it was without a doubt the smartest, most interesting, most impressive, and most memorable single comic I've read in years. Absolutely a work of true genius. Despite my misgivings, I cannot argue with its greatness. (Then I think back and remember, "Oh yeah, Moore and Morrison and Gaiman USED to make me feel this way all the time many times every YEAR!")
Murd, I think you answered your own question about why more people don't rave about Jamie McKelvie art. He draws stories about snotty club kids whose dialogue is render extra obnoxious by Kieron Gillen. McKelvie's a GREAT artist, though, I just wish he was drawing other people's stories. I did buy Wicked + Divine #1, though -- I couldn't resist -- and I did find the proceedings tolerable for one issue. I didn't continue because I didn't want to sour my experience. No hate, though. It is very impressive and mature of you to acknowledge why others might not like Gillen. If you like what he does, good.
She does all the lettering for Hazel's narration and the graphic design for all the graphics that appear in the art (a job increasing given to letterers), but the speech bubbles are Fonographiks.
By the same token, the majority of artists who ink themselves don't pencil as tightly as they would if someone else were inking them. They tend to leave at least some of the detail drawing for the inking stage—some much more than others.
I'm glad you brought Frazer up, as he helped Fiona get started working digitally. Frazer still works in roughly the same way a traditional artist does. He starts with a loose sketch—his layouts. Then on a second layer, he does a more refined drawing on top of that sketch—his pencils. Then that first layer is hidden and he get the second layer exactly how he wants it—his inks. And then he does his coloring on more layers. He's still building up the drawing the same way he would with a pencil and brush, he's just able to make changes more easily, plus save time (no erasing stray pencil marks, no scanning, etc.).
Comics are often collaborative, and while these awards don't mean much, nominating someone who's art is impressive, which includes the procress of "inking" as opposed to someone who's ink work is impressive seems like a wasted nomination. I think the spirit of my argument can be found in the categories. There is Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Writer/Artist because there is a difference between collaborative work and solo work.
I think it's important to note that Penciling isn't just how pretty you draw a figure. Penciling also includes storytelling. In fact, that should be job #1 of the penciler.
Inking, at its most basic, is finishing a drawing to make it as readable as possible for print. There are many factors that go into making that happen, but that’s what the job boils down to in the end.
So are there any artists I think are great inkers but not great pencilers? I don't know. I mean, I see some bad storytelling in comics, but those artists aren’t generally inking themselves. And I see a lot of bad figure drawing in comics, but, again, those guys aren't generally inking themselves.
Wally Wood was such an outstanding inker, perhaps that aspect of his work outshines the rest.
And there are several artists whose pencils are barely more than breakdowns, and their work doesn't fully come alive until they get to the inks. Butch Guice would be one of those. So maybe Guice?
Then you have Guy Davis, one of my absolute favorite artists, and while I do love his pencils, they are very, very loose. He does most of his drawing in the inking stage. So does that give his inking the edge over his penciling? I don't know, because I love his storytelling too.
Looking at it in a different way, there are great artists whose pencils I like, but whose inks I do not. Gil Kane, for example, sometimes inked himself, but I do not like his inks at all. If we kept to this strict separation of categories (and assuming he were still alive and working), would I be able to nominate him for Best Penciler even though he penciled and inked, or would he just be out of luck?
But here's the thing: Wally Wood, Butch Guice, Guy Davis, I consider them all to be better inkers than this year's nominees. (And that's no offense to those nominated, because I think they would all agree.)
As for any of the criticisms that the nominee field isn't varied enough... hey, you can only vote for what you know, right? And if only 3 or 4 books rose to the top for you this past year, hey, so be it. Some years are like that. With so much product out there each and every month (each and every week!) and only so much time or money to devote to it, good works (or at least works you think are good) are always going to get overlooked. That's just how it is.
As for Jordie Bellaire, yeah, she's the Beast Mode of color artists right now. Even if you think you're not familiar with her work, I guarantee you've seen it. She's something of a chameleon, too... it's not like Laura Allred where you know you're always looking at a Laura Allred book. Bellaire changes up her style to match the book. Moon Knight and Flash Gordon looked very, very different, but each coloring job was excellent in its own and appropriate way.
What do you say @Pants?