Around the beginning of 2024, Randy Tischler invited me to be a juror for the 2024 Ringo Awards, which will be presented on September 21 at the Baltimore Comic-Con. I was going to be part of a quintet scattered around America, and I would read submissions and make my choices.
I read comics and graphic novels, and I’ve toiled in the field for several decades, but this was the first such honor offered to me, and I was thrilled.
I would be judging the offerings from publishers along with Alan Gill, Sam Maggs, Annie Wu, and Jamal Igle, the only one I have actually met. (I love Jamal and was thrilled to meet him at the very beginning of his career when he interned at DC.)
Randy had the unenviable position of contacting dozens of publishers to see who wanted to submit works for consideration. In the end, he received confirmation from 65 publishers, including various imprints under one name. Once again, Marvel is conspicuously absent, which sort of skews the full review of the material published in 2023.
As publishers sent in their copies, Baltimore’s head gurus Marc and Shelly Nathan dutifully filled boxes and shipped them out, and shipped them out, and shipped them out. The picture shows all the boxes that arrived throughout the spring. But wait, there were the links to digital comics and links to PDFs of material to be read.
All told, there were 647 submissions for consideration across 15 categories. We had to read and evaluate each, fill out our individual nomination forms, and rank the top seven in each category.
When I said yes in January, I was between MICA semesters and was cruising through my high school work. I didn’t think it’d be a problem. But as each box arrived, I began to fret. Thank goodness the school year ended in early June, giving me a full month to complete my review of the material.
Despite ordering graphic novels online at Westfield Comics or Tales of Wonder, I was stunned at publishers I’d never heard of and the manner of works I had never seen before. Most were traditional graphic novels in familiar sizes and shapes, but a few were offbeat, and the range of content was impressive. I was exposed to writers, artists, colorists, and letterers I had not previously encountered.
A key takeaway is that I was very impressed by the range of material now available to readers. I didn’t realize how many memoirs and nonfiction works have come to market, along with a very healthy dose of LGBTQ+ books. Kids’ titles were plentiful, which is great for the bookstores, and I hope comic shops have been embracing these as well, as well as anything to make them accessible to all ages.
Archie’s output was perhaps most surprising in that they stretched the teen characters into a variety of styles and genres, proving an elasticity I didn’t think possible for them. It’s certainly one way to remain relevant.
I found I am the wrong generation to enjoy content designed to be scrolled on a phone. Too much space is wasted, the storytelling is somewhat superficial, and characterization and serious themes are largely absent. I also do not enjoy the current Manag or Manga-inspired works, and again, their approach is not at all to my taste. Finding suitable nominees was, perhaps, my toughest challenge.
Still, I managed to submit my ballot on schedule and now await to see how my choices stack up against my fellow jurors and then the fans when the final nominations are unveiled in the next few weeks.
As that process wrapped up, I began working on programming ideas for the rest of the con and resuming the growing pile of personal comics reading.
#Tags: Alan Gill, Annie Wu, Archie Comics, Baltimore Comic-Con, Jamal Igle, Manga, Marc Nathan, Mike Wieringo, Randy Tischler, Ringo Awards, Sam Maggs, Shelly Nathan