Erfworld Eligible for 2010 Hugo Award

[Jimorian]

That's right. When the World Science Fiction Convention travels to Melbourne, Australia Sep 2nd-6th in 2010, one of the Hugo Awards will be for "Best Graphic Story". This year, the winner was webcomic Girl Genius.

The way the eligibility works for serial comics like Erfworld, OOTS (which is also eligible next year), or Girl Genius is that the eligible year is determined by when a story unit ends. Thus with the end of the first book of Erfworld earlier in the year, book 1 as a whole is the story in question.

Nominations start after the first of the year and run until around April IIRC, and members of either the previous convention or the current convention can nominate up to 5 choices in each category. Then once the top 5 finalists are calculated, members of AussieCon4 then vote for the winner.

You don't necessarily have to GO to Australia to nominate and vote, if you sign up for a "supporting" membership that costs a fraction of the attending membership, you still get to vote for the awards and get all the updates and convention books.

Anyway, just thought I'd let people know.

More info at: http://www.thehugoawards.org/
and: http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/

[Innis Cabal]

Eh, its good but not that good

[Justyn]

Eh, its good but not that good

Eh, it's better than most of the other comics and/or graphic novels I've read; that said, I haven't read many print comics, mostly webcomics, and I would have to say that Erfworld is my favorite of 2008. Aside from Keychain of Creation, but I think that that is illegible, anyway.
Erfworld is no Watchmen; but it's not competing against Watchmen.

[SandyCaesar]

But Watchmen isn't up and running 2010, hence I doubt it's eligible.

Agreed with the evaluation: it's decent, but personally I think that Schlock Mercenary has a better shot at it than Erfworld does.

[Justyn]

But Watchmen isn't up and running 2010, hence I doubt it's eligible.

Which is why I said that it wasn't competing against Watchmen. Watchmen changed how the world looked at Superheroes, and fundimentally changed an entire genre, with consequences that are felt to this day. Erfworld hasn't done that.

Agreed with the evaluation: it's decent, but personally I think that Schlock Mercenary has a better shot at it than Erfworld does.

As a whole? Yeah, I'd agree there; but I don't think any of the singular arcs from this year can compete with Erfworld. Schlock et all vs Erfworld? Schlock wins, no question.

[Trazoi]

The World Science Fiction convention will be in Melbourne next year? I'll have to remember to attend.

[pclips]

Hey I appreciate the thought. But I think Erfworld and OOTS are both ineligible just because we aren't SF. I'm tremendously proud of Howard and Phil & Kaja for the recognition of their great work, though.

It's just unfortunate that the World Fantasy Awards have no category for graphic novels and are actively hostile to comics. Oh well.

[Porthos]

Hey I appreciate the thought. But I think Erfworld and OOTS are both ineligible just because we aren't SF. I'm tremendously proud of Howard and Phil & Kaja for the recognition of their great work, though.

It's just unfortunate that the World Fantasy Awards have no category for graphic novels and are actively hostile to comics. Oh well.

http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-faq/

Aren’t Hugos just for Science Fiction?

While the organization sponsoring the Hugos is named the World Science Fiction Society, our charter explicitly makes fantasy as well as SF eligible for our awards. Works of fantasy have often won Hugos, and, in fact, Hugos have been won by works that some people consider horror or even mainstream. There will never be universal agreement about the precise distinctions between genres and sub-genres, so WSFS’s position is that eligibility is determined by the voters. To paraphrase the great SF editor and writer Damon Knight, a Hugo winner is what the Hugo voters point to when they award a Hugo.

A bigger problem might be "vote spliting" due to some people nominating "Erfworld'" vs. "whatever the book is actually called when it gets announced/published".

See some commentary (+ make sure to read the responses) on the subject here.

[Jimorian]

Yes, fantasy is explicitly allowed, and has just as much chance at winning, if not moreso, as science fiction. A couple of the Harry Potter books won as Best Novel for example.

As to vote splitting, there's enough leeway for the organizers to make sure that people who just say "Erfworld" and those who specify the particular name of the first book are added as one. And with the preference system used for the final vote (Australian ballot, which has nothing to do with where it's held this year), even when there are multiple entries from the same franchise, as there have been for Dr. Who lately, there is NO handicap towards those individual entries.

EDIT: (Reading the above link, it does look like for nominations, "Erfworld, Book 1" or it's full title would be much better than just "Erfworld".)

The biggest hurdle in all this is simply letting people KNOW that Order of the Stick and Erfworld are eligible. Because it's a new category, a lot of the regular members of WorldCon are going to be less aware of what's out there for Graphic Story, and may mistakenly think of print comic books from the major companies as the only option. Fortunately, with Girl Genius' win, that isn't as much of a problem this year.

So spreading the word is the single most important step in all of this. Once its common knowledge about which webcomics are part of the mix as eligible nominees, then it's just a matter of letting the process take care of itself and may the best comic win.

[pclips]

Wow. I really did not know that. Seems weird.

Well, if it ever happened, being nominated for a Hugo would be a major highlight of my entire life. I don't want to be campaigning for it, but if making people aware that webcomics (in printed volume form) are eligible would help, I will see about making some news posts or something.

First, though, gotta get a book in print.

[Porthos]

First, though, gotta get a book in print.

Actually, you (might) not even need that, tho it probably helps a great deal.

The winner of the inaugural award was Girl Genius. Vol 8 to be specific. And said volume was recieved from the printers about one or two weeks before the award was announced, and long after they recieved their nomination.*

Now while I don't have the bylaws/consitiution in front of me (and not being an Worldcon member I really wouldn't know where to look), I think it is the case that simply having published on the internet a set series that is destined to be publsihed is good enough (as is certainly the case for Book One). Heck, just being published on the internet itself might be enough (see Dr. Horrible for Best Short Form), though I'm not sure about that. I'm sure someone will come around and correct me if I'm wrong.

Probably just saying "This is the end of the story" and this is the chunk that I think should be eligible would be enough. After that it's up to people actually voting for you to be nominated.

But now were getting into minutiae and would probably be best left to people who know what they're talking about (ie. members of AussieCon 4.... and not me. )

* Of course, GG is a bit interesting in that they publish page numbers at the bottom of each update which clearly deliniates which Volume the story is taking place in. However, I don't know how the guidelines were set for Schlock Mercenary, which was the other webcomic to make the cut.

[Jimorian]

Yes, pure internet comics are completely eligible. What important is that there is an identifiable story arc that ENDS during the current calendar year. Thus Erfworld: Book One, or Order of the Stick: Book Whatever Just Ended are eligible even if the planned print editions don't hit shelves until next year.

It's not really campaigning to let people just know about the eligibility and the detail about specifying the "book" so that general votes for the comic don't get thrown out. One good way of avoiding that impression is to list other potential nominees in a news post as well. For example Dr. McNinja recently had a story arc conclude as well.

[Evil DM Mark3]

As much as I enjoy Erfworld, I don't think that it is worthy of a Hugo nomination.

Yet.

And that yet is important. I think it has all the hallmarks of something that could do one day and I wish it all the best for it's future. Who knows what the future holds, unless certain nuts are right and the 21st of December 2012 is the end of it all.

[General Valter]

I'd say that the biggest problem with Erfworld is that for the majority of the first book the plot was in full exposition mode. It's hard to just jump into a world as unique as Erfworld, so a large amount of time and dialogue was dedicated to explaining the mechanics of each action taken. Once you've explained everything in at least a rudimentary fashion, you can move onto developing the characters and overarching plot more easily. You can see this in the last few pages of book one, which were notably more active, plot and action-wise, than the first three quarters of the book.

If the first book isn't nominated for a Hugo, I'm expecting book two will be.

[Harr]

You don't necessarily have to GO to Australia to nominate and vote, if you sign up for a "supporting" membership that costs a fraction of the attending membership, you still get to vote for the awards and get all the updates and convention books.

A “supporting membership” will be sufficient to make you a member of the World Science Fiction Society and get you voting rights for both the nomination stage and the final ballot. A supporting membership costs CA$55, US$50, or the equivalent in several other currencies.

When you say "a fraction" it kinda sounds like you're implying something a good bit lower than $50 for a vote. Might have said that and saved me the trip over there

(Besides which, no offense but were I to spend $50 on a vote anytime soon, I'd do so for Order of the Stick Book Whatever Just Ended way before I'd do so for Erfworld Book One, I'm just saying.)

[Felixaar]

The world science fiction convention is coming to Melbourne?

The town where I live?

[tribble]

The world science fiction convention is coming to Melbourne?

The town where I live?

bring us pictures!