“You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”
---Albert Camus
The Eisner Awards 2013
In Stephen Spielberg’s film Lincoln, viewers have a chance to see and to hear what it might have felt like to witness Abraham Lincoln tell one of his infamous stories. Legendary and mysteriously gifted at telling a tale, the Lincoln storytelling mythology has intrigued nearly every single person interested in our nation’s greatest president and his ability to capture the imagination.
Although I am no Lincoln --- by any stretch of the imagination --- writing this op-ed piece reminds me of Lincoln’s storytelling struggles and abilities. Despite Lincoln’s ability to tell all kinds of stories, he was often misunderstood, often unable to use his words to paint a picture for all of his listeners to easily imagine. Sometimes it had to do with poor timing. Other times it had to do with trying to help his listeners feel hope --- maybe even discover a moment of laughter --- during our nation’s most contentious and deadly struggle. A true storyteller can make the surreal feel real, and more often than not, Lincoln was able to do that. In this op-ed piece I intend to do the same, shedding light on a rare experience I myself misunderstood and wondered about before I had a chance to experience it for myself. So I set out to tell you this surreal story that happened to an everyday person like me.
Let’s start at the beginning: Over the last year, I have been asked the following question about a million times (OK, maybe a couple hundred, but you get the idea): “What’s it like to be a judge for the San Diego Comic-Con Eisner Awards?”
My gut reaction is to tell you that it felt like an immediate and natural high. One of those natural highs where you are so honored you read the invitation to be a judge about 50 times until you really believe it’s true. To make it even more real, I phoned my parents and asked them to put me on speakerphone. Even in my thirties, I still rely on my parents to tell me when I’ve truly accomplished something; when I was young it meant scoring goals in a soccer game. Over speakerphone I heard myself reading them the email invitation to be a 2013 San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) judge. Their reactions and support ultimately made it real for me. Hearing what they had to say, their encouragement and congratulations allowed me to leave the surreal world of disbelief and enter the real-world reality of the invitation and its significance.
The 2013 Eisner Award Judges
Feeling insecure no matter how flattering the invitation, I knew the next step was to get to know my fellow judges. Each of my fellow judges for the 2013 Eisner Awards was and is an esteemed expert in various and overlapping angles devoted to comics and graphic novels. With their impressive credentials and expertise I realized that I too belonged to this group:
· Just like my fellow judges I too have written many books about comics and graphic novels.
· I too have written articles and scholarly research about comics and graphic novels in the 21st century.
· I too have willingly devoted and enjoyed serving the comic book and graphic novel communities in multiple efforts to promote these two formats as literary-level 21st century texts (locally, nationally, and internationally).
· Last but not least, I too have made my childhood dream come true (I am still reading comics and graphic novels, just as I did as a kid, but now I am an adult who can take that knowledge and share it with today’s young comic book and graphic novel readers and writers), just like my fellow judges.
In short, this year’s group of judges (and now friends) do have a lot in common. Each of us sincerely love, appreciate, study, support, serve, advocate for, and continuously plan and passionately pursue the promotion of comic books and graphic novels as the most valuable literary-level texts of the 21st century.
Beyond what it felt like to be a judge, and realizing why I was considered to be a judge, many people have also asked me to tell them about the process. “How does a comic book, graphic novel, author, or artist get nominated for an Eisner Award?” When my parents were on speakerphone and had completed their duty in making the surreal real, they too asked me just that question. At the time I didn’t know the answer.
A year later, I do know the answer to that question. I also know that that question can be very contentious. As eyebrow raising as people want to make it, however, the answer lies in the experience alone. Before becoming a judge I had no idea how uppity people have been, how unfair and harsh the critiques of the process have been, both publicly and on social-networking sites. But now I know the truth. And if I may, I would like to weigh in as someone who has been there and done that. I would also like to weigh in as someone who --- year after year --- hoped her work would’ve been nominated for an Eisner Award.
First of all, if you want your work considered, make sure you or your publisher gets it to the address publicly advertised on the San Diego Comic-Con website (http://www.comic-con.org/cci). Second, be patient. With literally thousands of submissions this process takes some time. Trust me, we do indeed read everything, for we too hope our work will someday get the time of day as well. As I read, I remembered what many wise parents have taught their children: “Treat others how you would like to be treated.” For me, I treated and read every single submission as if it were my own work, which made me very sensitive to giving every submission a fair chance and a nod of appreciation and esteem. Third, be realistic. If your work is published, you are in a rare and fortunate group of the population already. Congratulate yourself.
Personally, after experiencing the process myself, I no longer feel shunned by the Eisner Awards (Yeah, I own that! For I too felt suspicious of the process in the past!) But let me explain why I no longer feel that way.
Try to imagine your favorite thing in the world. Got it? Now picture yourself with a thousand of whatever it is you imagined in front of you, every single thing you imagine just as tempting and awesome as the next. Now pick your top five or six out of the thousands you can see.
Finally, imagine yourself in a room with five other people with the same exact favorite-thing-image and number of choices in front of them. Each judge just as passionate and tempted as you are. Each judge just as smart and well-versed in your favorite thing in the world as you are. Now imagine that each of your new friends/judges has chosen their own top five or six out of the thousands of favorite things each of you envisioned. With those very hard to choose favorite submissions in mind, all of you must now agree on five or six nominees. Now you’re an Eisner judge.
The process has nothing to do with playing favorites or whom you may know. I cannot count the number of my friends (favorite writers and artists) I left on the cutting-room floor. I cannot count the number of high-quality submissions that just didn’t make the cut, by a very thin margin. One or two votes and you would have had it. Hugs to all of you, but it’s not personal. It’s a process --- a very fair process. Your work is probably indeed worthy of the attention you and your readers think it deserves. And I can pretty much guarantee that my fellow judges and I spent many hours commending your excellent submissions. But we are only allowed to settle on five or six.
All of you and your submissions are given a fair chance. But it’s the job of the judges to discuss and narrow down their selections to a short list.
And to quote my idol, Abraham Lincoln, please remember: “It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Eisner nomination or not, we are all contributing to the most significant rise in comic book and graphic novel readership during the 21st century. Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep editing. Keep trying. According to contemporary literary scholars, you are part of the greatest communication revolution of all time, with a nomination or not. Today’s readers find themselves not only reading more visually dominant literacies, but also from various screen-like environments (which comic books and graphic novels embody in their movement from one panel to the next, and gutters that allow you and your readers to take single snapshots of ideas and merge them into one seamless story).
The Eisner Awards and nominations may be in your future. Keep reaching for the stars --- as I will too. In the end, we are all winners. And someday a few of us will win an Eisner, but Eisner Award or not, you are part of (and contributing to) what literacy scholars claim to be the greatest shift in reading and writing in the history of literacy learning education. That alone is an award worth treasuring.
For a full list of 2013 Eisner Award winners, click here.
-- Katie Monnin
