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Forum - View topicThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: A Spotlight on Quality or A Sticker for Sales?
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2558 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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It's hard to really look to the Eisner Awards, or even the Harvey Awards to a similar extent (though at least that has a specific "Best Manga Award"), for proper validating when it comes to manga, because it has the same inherent flaw as the Oscars do for anime: It's an award given by people who (for the most part) have little to no real knowledge of the content.
It's a similar problem with the Eisner Hall of Fame, as only three mangaka have actually been entered into it via the judges themselves (Osamu Tezuka in 2002 & the pair of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima in 2004), while all others since (Katsuhiro Otomo in 2012, Hayao Miyazaki in 2014, Rumiko Takahashi in 2018, & Moto Hagio in 2022) were entered in via voters' choice. However, at the same time, it's to be expected since this is an American award & Hall of Fame, so the judges (&, to some extent, the voters too) will have an inherent bias or preference towards what they know, which is American comic books (with some European, as well). Therefore, it's not shocking to see them give a Miyazaki book the win, despite it technically not being "manga" by any traditional definition, because Miyazaki is a name they already know. It's no different than when the Oscars keep giving the "Best Animated Feature" award to Disney because it's what they already are familiar with. By that same token, though, there are plenty of manga awards given out over in Japan, but they aren't as well known outside of the country, unless they get reported on by a place like ANN, and they aren't really expected to award comics that come from other countries, anyway. The ideal solution would be to have manga-focused awards that are acknowledged & voted on worldwide, but more than likely it'd just result in another version of the Anime Awards, which has long preferred to be more like a fusion of the Oscars & Kids' Choice Awards than something like the Eisners. I mean, the Anime Awards stopped giving out an Industry Icon Award after only three years, showing how little they care about celebrating history in place of just focusing on the present. |
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AidanClarke
Posts: 5 |
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I agree with this article and the litmus that it makes, but one thing I'd like to also point out is that voting in the Eisner Awards is open to all professionals in the comics industry, not just the panel of judges. The selection of what to vote on seems to be picked by the judges, from submissions from publishers. That can certainly explain odd inclusions like Shuna's Journey, or the relatively unknown "Francis Rothbart" which was subject to controversy (rightfully so, IMO).
As a letterer, I voted in this year's awards, but abstained from the vast majority of categories where I didn't know the material well enough to vote. But when it is open to all industry workers, recognizable names get votes, plain and simple. My other big gripe is that the award manga tends to fall under specifically calls out the "edition" of foreign material, which I would interpret as encompassing the localization effort and presentation of the material. This is my bias as a localization letterer, but there have been winners of that award over the years that have been sub-par editions of really fantastic material. Don't even get me started on the lettering award only ever going to two people. Who are phenomenally talented. But WOW is the nomination and voting on lettering myopic. |
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RickyTheRat
 Posts: 23 |
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I don't think manga needs American awards to be considered valid especially considering the state the comic industry has been in since the late 90s.
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 659 |
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From what I've heard and understand, the same is true of the Emmys, the Oscars, and other such industry awards. It's unfortunate and frustrating, but it's the nature of the beast that "niche" areas such as manga trend toward the big names more often than not when it comes time to pick a winner. Hell, some years it damn near feels like a miracle when we get a strong slate like the 2017 Eisners. For a future ANN report, it would be interesting to see if, and how, North American comics awards affect sales. Japanese industry awards like the Tezuka Cultural Prize, the Seiun Awards, and the various publisher awards hold greater weight with me than either the Eisners or the Harveys when it comes to manga, but obviously I'm much more invested in this stuff than the average generalist comics reader. |
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Big Kahuna
Posts: 44 |
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Who the hell cares? I'm sure if you give a plane ticket and free hotel stay to a mangaka who's in between publications she or he wouldn't mind getting a free vacation, but I doubt very many even know what the hell these little crappy award in a country which doesn't even care about its owe domestic comic industry is all about. I bet more mangaka know about the Angouleme than these joker awards from America. Americans don't just not care about comics except source for dumb MCU movies, but we care even less about anything outside our borders. Ask an average pedestrian what's their favorite foreign movie or music, or a simple geography question, you'll just get a blink contemptuous stare. Ask him or her about some domestic gossip or pop culture, they'll know everything. Given that, what significance does these awards have for manga? Nothing! Do Japanese readers or the manga lovers the globe over need these juvenile comic book awards to legitimize manga, which is much more mature, gigantic, and satisfying? I think not.
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lumenotaku
Posts: 19 |
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exactly and the overrated and over abundant films they make now as well |
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