Comments on: 2006 Quill Awards nominees up - UPDATED

by: MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Quick links

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 03:13:55 +0000

[…] Naruto and Hellsing have been nominated for Quill Awards in the Graphic Novel category. That means two of the five nominees are manga, which isn’t bad, but Fun Home, which I’m reading now, will be tough to beat. (Via The Beat.) Click on the link on the Quills site to cast your vote. […]

by: Ali T. Kokmen

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 02:17:23 +0000

As for the ceremony, if I recall correctly, last year the graphic novel category wasn’t televised. (I think the winning book was shown, but the fun reading-the-nominees-”And-The-Envelope-Please” stuff wasn’t.) Here’s hoping we make the cut this time ’round!

by: Darren J. Gendron

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:43:22 +0000

With the voting open to the public, Naruto will win, hands-down.

by: Calvin Reid

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:25:59 +0000

Actually I think Steve hit on part of the problem with Max FF. It may be an artbook, but its also an unusual artbook, because it’s also a relatively complete fictional narrative. It’s the full first issue of FF#1. It’s not a “graphic novel”, I guess, but it is a work of graphically rendered fiction. In fact it’s not so much that Max FF is a terrible graphic novel as much as graphic novel is a really terrible term in general and a really terrible term for an entire category that includes nonfiction.

Indeed Max FF is an “artbook” only in the sense that it’s actually an art project in the form of a book. It’s a conceptual art project by Walter Mosley to visually highlight the power of Jack Kirby’s art. It is in fact, a quite remarkable art project. So whatever Max FF may be, I won’t blame it for being bad at a term that no one much likes or understands anyway.

by: Anun

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:36:33 +0000

FUN HOME is the obvious choice here. Dang, it’s good.

by: George Khoury

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:35:11 +0000

Maximum FF is an art book, not a graphic novel. That’s the problem.

by: Steve Flack

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:19:50 +0000

Max F4 was a gpood idea, but horrible execution. It’s original solicitation made it seem like there was going to be panel by panel commentary on the art, but instead, all we got were a few decent editorials, and a poorly designed art book, with way too much blank space, and a hard to read narrative.

It’s an ok art book, but a terrible graphic novel.

-Steve!

by: Calvin Reid

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:17:19 +0000

I’m biased about Maximum FF. I wrote a feature story for PW about Walter Mosley’s efforts to produce the book. I still think its a wonderul book and an imaginative project. It’s an innovative tribute to Jack Kirby and you can’t have to many tributes to Jack Kirby, if you ask me. Thats one of the nice things about the potential of the Quills (which are sponsored by RBI, parent company of PW–full disclosre). Since the nominations come from the votes of 6,000 librarians and Booksellers, these books are chosen with a view beyond just hard core fan interest. In this instance they’re giving an inventive and unusual comics works a chance to be seen, appreciated and bought by readers beyond the comics community. Like most art books, this one does just what it should–offer a new way to see and appreciate the genius of Jack Kirby.

by: George Khoury

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:58:13 +0000

Maximum F4 was a poor concept. Never would have ever thought that it would be nominated for anything.

Looks like the was a contest via straws.

by: Augie De Blieck Jr.

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:47:11 +0000

MAXIMUM F4 is a, er, nicely designed book, I suppose. It’s a classic case of what happens when you give a book designer free reign with a comic book — he produces something that looks nice on a coffee table, but is otherwise completely worthless and overblown at the same time. Waste of money.

by: Jackie Estrada

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:39:04 +0000

So a novelization is now a “graphic novel”? How are the criteria determined for this category?