Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards

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Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards
Author(s) Various webcartoonists
Website http://www.ccawards.com/
Current status / schedule Yearly
Launch date 2001
Genre(s) Awards

The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) are annual awards in which online cartoonists nominate and select outstanding webcomics. The awards have been held since 2001, and were featured in a New York Times column on webcomics in 2005.[1]

The WCCA represent a form of peer recognition, with voting rights granted only to creators working on online webcomics.[2] Winners of awards receive an individualized web banner for their site,[1] although in 2007 a live presentation is being made for the first time at MegaCon.[3] In 2003, 2005 and 2006 the awards were presented in an online ceremony depicted in comic strip form and involving a number of creators.[2]

The WCCA were started by Scott Maddix and Mark Mekkes in 2000, with the first awards made in 2001. Mekkes noted his motivation as being to "create a webcomic award process that would do the most to help the webcomic community and encourage creators to strive toward greatness." Mekkes set up a committee to run the awards, initially known as the Cartoonists' Choice Awards, assuming the position of chairman, a role he still holds today. Silver Bullets has described the committee as "an independent organization dedicated to the promotion and recognition of online comics and their creators."[4] However, committee member Lewis Powell[5] has criticised the awards as being "horribly mismanaged, they are not well organized and they don't do what they are supposed to" and that "Problems with the WCCAs [include] making people aware of them, getting people to care about them."[6]

Other problems with the awards include Eric Millikin's horror/romance comic Fetus-X being disqualified in 2006 after cartoonists voted it one of the five finalists for "Outstanding Romance Comic." The WCCA committee wrote that "Foetus-X's [sic] nomination for "Outstanding Romance Comic" does not comply with the Outstanding Romance Comic category's genre criteria"[7] of "addressing issues of love and romance in their stories, settings and characters."[8] Fetus-X was disqualified despite the awards committee's position that "We never want to limit the voters choices in any way. ... It's been very important that we not 'water down' these awards by controlling the results ..."[9]

The 2006 award ceremony also found itself delayed due to technical issues, and was not ready until five days after the winners had been announced.[10][11]

Although there are numerous categories, a fact the New York Times criticised in 2005, noting that at 26 there "were too many award categories",[1] no comic has managed to win an award, or even a nomination, every year since the award's inception. The comic strip to have achieved the most awards is the now-defunct Mac Hall with 9, followed by Chopping Block and The Perry Bible Fellowship which have received 8 awards, and Penny Arcade and Count Your Sheep which have won 7 awards.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c Boxer, Sarah. "Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out", Critic's Notebook, New York Times, 2005-08-17. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. "The fifth annual Web Cartoonists Choice Awards took place at http://www.ccawards.com/2005_ceremony.htm last month. The master of online ceremonies was a Web cartoon character and so were all the award presenters. Otherwise, it was much like the Oscars. There were too many award categories (26) and some commercial breaks, and all winners were rewarded with the Web equivalent of Hollywood fame: a live link to their sites." 
  2. ^ a b Xerexes, Xaviar (February 2007). And the WCCA Goes To... An Interview with WCCA Chairman Mark Mekkes (Interview). Comixpedia. Xaviar Xerexes. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
  3. ^ MegaCon Convention. MegaCon Convention. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. “The 2007 winners of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards will be announced for the first time in a LIVE ceremony to feature presentations by some of the most prominent personalities of the internet.”
  4. ^ Olsen, Kevin Noel (2006-06-15). Scott Christian Sava’s The Dreamland Chronicles Nominated For Awards. Silver Bulletins. Silver Bullets. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
  5. ^ Executive Committee of the Web Comic Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
  6. ^ Powell, Lewis (January 30, 2007). WCCAs (blog post). Wax Intellectual. Lewis Powell. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
  7. ^ Mekkes, Mark (2006-07-21). Final WCCA Voting Begins! (blog post). Comixpedia. Xavier Xerexes. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. “after extensive review, it has been determined by the WCCA Committee that Foetus-X's nomination for "Outstanding Romance Comic" does not comply with the Outstanding Romance Comic category's genre criteria”
  8. ^ Web Cartoonists' Choice Award Categories. Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards Committee. Retrieved on 2007-10-21. “Outstanding Romantic Comic - This award recognizes comics that reach a high level of quality in addressing issues of love and romance in their stories, settings and characters.”
  9. ^ Xerexes, Xaviar (February 2007). And the WCCA Goes To... An Interview with WCCA Chairman Mark Mekkes (blog post). Comixpedia. Xavier Xerexes. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
  10. ^ Bowley, Eddie (2006-07-21). Master Of Ceremonies (blog post). bolloxcomics.co.uk. Eddie Bowley. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. “Finally, 5 days after the winners were announced, the award ceremony of the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards is now up. But, it is not even on the WCCA website. Ryan Estrada has taken it upon himself to put up the ceremony on his own site because apparently the person in control of the WCCA site is MIA.”
  11. ^ Mekkes, Mark (2006-07-21). WCCA Ceremony is ON! (blog post). Comixpedia. Xavier Xerexes. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. “Ryan Estrada has been kind enough to do an end run around our technical difficulties and has posted the ENTIRE ceremony on his own site.”

[edit] External links

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Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards