Eisner reactions

What if they announced a set of awards nominations and nobody complained?

This seems to be the year. Even the mainstream comics folks seem to be pleased, and the manga community is delighted, especially because the Eisner people created a special category just for us. Shaenon Garrity explains why this is important:

voters will no longer be placed in the schizophrenic position of trying to choose between, say, Osamu Tezuka and Joann Sfar. (Obviously, if Tezuka and Sfar have to fight, they should have one three-page slugfest, then realize a common goal and team up against Michael Turner.)

Also three of the books nominated in that category were featured in her Overlooked Manga Festival, which sort of begs the question of whether they can be regarded as “overlooked” any more.

Meanwhile, Journalista‘s Dirk Deppey shows off the silver-tongued fluency that helped him win his nomination:

Waking up to the news this afternoon, my first reaction was, “The fuck…?” Hours have since passed, and I’m not sure I can improve upon that one.

Tokyopop editor Tim “Beedlejuice” Beedle is understandably delighted to learn that Becky Cloonan’s East Coast Rising, which he edited, got a nomination.

Yaoi Suki points out that nominee Antique Bakery has a scratch-n-sniff feature. I had forgotten about that.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, commenter Huff points out that Walking Man came out a couple of years ago and questions whether After School Nightmare merits its nomination. David responds “It’s a surprisingly complex, thought-provoking work,” and I agree.

At The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon modestly posts his own nomination without comment but inexplicably links it to a video of Schooly D’s “I Don’t Like Rock’n’Roll.”

Oh, wait, did I say nobody was complaining? At Irresponsible Pictures, Pata makes some sports analogy that I don’t get (my brain doesn’t process sports) but concludes that adding a Japanese manga category is fair. But then:

What isn’t fair is this year’s choice of nominees. I can think of at least 5 series that outrank the Oldboy manga, and at least 10 that would be better picks than the schlock-horror of After School Nightmare. Unless by “Best U.S. Edition” they mean who wrote the best English script and uses the best paper and ink and does the best cultural notes, in which case I would like to know why Del Rey got shut out.

Thanks for breaking the monotony! Actually, Matt Brady has a few complaints as well in his detailed commentary. He questions whether Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Ode to Kirihito merit “archival collection” nominations, given that both are flipped. But regarding the manga nominations, he confesses he hasn’t read them (a refreshing admission!) and adds

I could complain about the absence of my favorite series (Death Note, Nana), but there’s so much manga out there, it’s easy to miss large swathes of good stuff.