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THE EISNER PROCESS: FROM START TO FINISH
PopImage: How did the Eisner Awards get started, and how did you become involved with them.?
Jackie Estrada: The Eisner Awards were an outgrowth of the Kirby Awards, which were started in 1985 by Fantagraphics, and at that time Dave Olbrich worked for Fantagraphics. He left Fantagraphics in '87 and they had had a disagreement as to what should happen with the Kirby Awards, because Dave wanted to do one thing with them and Fantagraphics wanted to do something else with them. So Dave started the Eisner Awards, which were given for the first time in 1988 in San Diego for work produced in 1987. It was set up as a non-profit organization and had a board of governors that Dave organized. He and did the awards for the next couple of years and then he went to work for Malibu. He was working more than fulltime there, and it was hard for him to keep doing the awards. There were no Eisners in 1990 because of mistakes on the ballot, so at that point Dave came to the San Diego Comic Con and set up a meeting a with the executive director of the comic con Fay Desmond, myself, Will Eisner and Dennis Kitchen to talk about the best way to continue with the awards. It was proposed that the comic con take them over under its non-profit status, and Will requested me to be the administrator for them. The Board of Director at the San Diego Comic Con approved it, and I've been doing it ever since.
PI: The judging method for the Eisners follows the blue-ribbon panel approach. Each year, five judges decide the winners. How do you select the judges? What is your criteria for an Eisner judge?
JE:I try to choose judges to represent the five basic areas of the comics industry. I try to pick one who is a creator of some kind, whether a writer or an artist - someone who has produced comics. Then I select a retailer, somebody who has a good reputation for carrying a wide variety of material - the full spectrum of comics that are out there. Then I pick a comics journalist of some type, whether it's someone who reviews comics or, does a publication about comics, someone who basically has to keep up on them in some way. I also pick someone who is a distributor, that's in the distribution end of things so they see just about everything that's produced during the year. In the last few years that's been narrowed down as a category a lot because we have fewer distributors. The fifth category I call the fan representative category. It's someone who is not just an ordinary fan who just happens to go to comics shop every week. It's somebody who has a reputation. Maybe they're an on-line reviewer of comics, or maybe they're active in putting on conventions. Because people in comics tend to a lot of things, I often have one person who may represent four of five categories. When Tony Isabella was a judge, he was a creator, a journalist, a former retailer, and an editor.
The main criteria are that they are knowledgeable on comics, they will have kept up on all the different things that came out They have a reputation for integrity and fairness. They don't have a conflict of interest in being affiliated with a particular company. They just have an open mind. Fortunately since I've been doing this, I haven't run out of people yet.
PI:Take us through the nomination process. How do books become nominated?
JE:It's multi-step. First of all, I send out a call for entries at the beginning of each year that goes to every publisher that we know of, from somebody who put out one comic during the calendar year, to DC, Marvel, Image etc. They have an opportunity to submit up to five items in every category, and there are more than 25 categories. We also send out press releases so that people who had work out that year that think maybe their publisher for some reason might not have submitted or their publisher went out of business or for whatever reason, creators can also submit things that they feel is of a high level of quality, on the chance that it might not otherwise be submitted.
If for some reason books aren't sent in that I think are material that should be considered, I personally bring my own copy, or the judges bring their own copy. I always give them a list of publishers who for whatever reason didn't send anything in so that they don't get overlooked. The companies send their comics to me with a cover letter saying what they're submitting. I make copies of all those cover letters, I send them to the judges, and the judges can then let me know things they want to see ahead of time that they haven't seen, and so I ship boxes to judges from all over the country. They then do a lot of reading before they ever show up [in San Diego for final judging]. They reread things that they read 8 months earlier to refresh their memory. The judges have all been very conscientious about trying to get through as much material ahead of time as possible.
Jonah Weiland:When I began receiving the list of material submitted to the Eisner's by the various publishers, I was a bit overwhelmed! The Eisner judging was six months away, but already I felt a huge amount of pressure. I looked at page after page of submissions wondering to myself, "How in the hell am I going to read all of this stuff?" Lucky for me I'm a voracious reader and had read a good quarter of the submissions already. I began by working on the long form categories such as mini-series or long story-arc's. I tackled those first, as it's harder to read through all that material when you're coming up close on your deadline. I then moved onto the single-issue stories. It was just a matter of sitting down and reading.
In the beginning I probably read for about 10 hours a week. During this time I read very few new comics. As we got closer and closer to the Eisner judging weekend I stepped that up to about 20 hours. Believe it or not, it was quite a challenge! While I read a lot of great books I'd never had the chance to read before, I read an inordinate amount of really bad product too. It was hard getting through some of it, but I did my best to give everything a fair chance.
Brian Saner Lamken: I have no idea just how many hours I spent reading. But I *did* toy with the idea of weighing it all -- seriously. When I started getting packages from Jackie, or was reading stuff that I already owned, I'd wait 'til a big stack had accumulated and put it on our nicely swept bathroom scale. I forget at what weight I stopped, but I eventually realized that, since I was reading a bunch of stuff like, so help me, POKEMON at the local comics shop, and I'd be reading still more once at the judging weekend, this was just an impractical indulgence that would've made for a nice anecdote and that's about it.
I'd already read a fair amount of the submitted material throughout the previous year, although probably not a *majority* of it, but I felt obligated to read much of it again. Despite my careful planning, as the judging weekend approached, I was just whipping through a lot of stuff -- not reading as carefully as I'd have liked, ideally, but still stopping to smell the roses when I thought that I'd found some. I wanted to make sure that I honestly considered everything, which meant not just relying on my memory for stuff that I'd already read and also not allowing my prejudices towards material that I hadn't read to stand in the way of my reading them.
One thing that I really enjoyed was having an "excuse" to sit down and read long runs of certain titles, or go back and try other titles that had been recommended by friends or colleagues in the past.
JE One misconception about the Eisners is that it's only material that was distributed in the direct market that's eligible. And that's not true because there are several things on the ballot that were never in comics stores. One of them being the Ethel and Ernest graphic novel, which was published by a mainstream book publisher, and I made sure to bring it for it to be seen. Every year I try to go out into real world book publishing and if there's anything that wasn't distributed in comics stores, I'll bring it in. Last year, it was the Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom. That book was never in comics stores. I try to make sure that everything gets considered that should be considered.
PI: How diverse/extensive did you find the books that were submitted for nomination?
BSL The list of potential nominees was extremely diverse and extensive. In terms of "extensive": There was a bunch of material that was, frankly, nowhere near contention, but I can't blame the people involved for submitting their material, and it was actually a relief to be able to eliminate on Saturday of the judging weekend as much as we did, since it left us less to read or reread that night and to vote on Sunday afternoon. We have top-notch material for all ages, such as CLAN APIS, which I just loved; we have top-notch material created by women, even though they remain a minority within the industry, from Ariel Schrag to Laura Allred to Jill Thompson; and we have both top-notch non-superhero material as well as top-notch superhero material, everything from JET LAG to STRAY BULLETS to GOTHAM ADVENTURES, so I really believe that there's comics stuff out there from just about every man, woman, & child on the planet.
JWThe only folk I recall not submitting books were some of the larger Image studios, oddly enough.
PI: In April, all five judges are flown to San Diego for a weekend and are put up at a hotel, at Comic-Con International's expense. The actual judging takes place at the Comic-Con offices, where copies of all the books up for consideration are kept.
Now that the judges are together in one place, what happens next?
JE: I put together a master list by category of everything that's been sent in and so we spend the first day of the judging just going through the categories and they have a chance at that point to change the categories if they want to, add or delete any. For instance, in the last couple of years, there hasn't been a Best Editor category because they judges decided they didn't feel it something they could judge or that the voters could judge. Also, last year there were two categories for Best Comics-Related Items, and this year there's one. So, we discuss them, and they determine the categories.
Then we go through the master list and just eliminate all of the items that shouldn't be in the final group to be considered, because if they had to vote on everything single thing, it would take a week instead of a weekend. We look at every single item that's been submitted, and if one judge says yes that should stay on the list, then it stays on the list. Then they spend a lot of time talking about "You haven't read that yet? Well, you have to read that before we vote". Everyone gets a chance to include favourites that they think might be overlooked, to say "okay be sure to read this one".
JW:I really pushed a couple of books and one made it onto the final ballot. One of the judges brought in a bunch of books to be considered for best coloring from folks who hadn't submitted themselves, and they got on. The process is a very open one and everyone was allowed to voice their opinions and offer up suggestions.
BSL:I know that I suggested items that weren't originally included on the list of creators' and publishers' submissions. The other judges were very receptive to my suggestions, and I'm proud to say that some of my suggestions even made it onto the final ballot - which doesn't mean that the other judges voted high on them just to make me feel good. First of all, by the time we did the final judging, our heads were so full we could hardly tell you who published what, let alone who suggested what, because all we were thinking about was whether this was better than that. And second of all, if you'd been there during the voting you'd *know* that nobody voted high on things just to placate the other judges, believe you me.
JE:They then spend the first night at the hotel with piles of comics and just read. They pretty much sit in the lobby until 3 or 4 in the morning reading. Sunday of the judging is when category by category we go through and start the voting process where each judge gives a score from 1 to 5 for each item in a category. Say it's a short story and they've got 20 items left on the list. They give a score of 5 if they think 'yes this must be on the ballot', and then down to 1, which is 'why is this still even on the list?'. But they can only give 5 fives, and give whatever numbers of other things they want to give. But they can only give a maximum of five fives.
After they each privately vote, then I ask them for their scores and I add them up and we see where we are in the categories. Usually, if something gets a 20 or higher it ends up on the ballot. It means it got at least a 4 from everybody, averaged out. If there ends up being 10 books with that score, then do a revote to back and cut it down. Generally, in most categories we end up with 5 or six to start off. There usually aren't a lot of situations where there are too many. In a couple of categories, one in particular we ended up with only 3 books, that scored over 20, and everything else got a 16 or lower. So there's no reason for us to make it have to be five nominees no matter what. As they do each category, the judges can refresh their memories on things, especially on things like colouring and lettering, when they're doing their actually voting they can pick up the comic and look at it. It's not just like okay everybody vote on this, and then 5 minutes later you're done, so voting on a category can take a half hour, and we've somehow managed to take a whole day going through all the categories. And then after the judging, I go through and add up all the numbers again to make sure everything is right. If there are any discrepancies I let the judges know. There might be one category where two things end up being tied. So the judges can change their vote, and I also verify the eligibility of everything. Sometimes judges will add a book, and I'll check and it will have come out in January of this year.
PI: How did you each find the weekend of judging?
JW: I drove down [to San Diego], since I live in Los Angeles, with another judge who was local to me. They put us up in a hotel for the weekend, paid for our meals and took really nice care of us.
The experience was an amazing one and it's a weekend I look back on with very fond memories. We met Friday night for dinner, then headed over to the Con offices to pick up any books we may not have read or late submissions. We all went back to our hotel rooms and read until the wee hours of the morning (I think I got 5 hours of sleep that first night). On Saturday we got together at 9am and began the process of eliminating books that didn't make the cut. We worked through the day. There was much debate and discussion on many of the books. Some books only a few of the judges had read, so we kept those and the judges who didn't read those particular books read them that night. We worked through 6pm at which point we broke for dinner. We finished dinner around 9pm and headed back to the con offices, picked up huge stacks of comics to go over. The five of us got together in the hotel lobby and read until 4:30 in the morning! I read a LOT of books that night! Sunday morning we were back at it with the final nomination process and this is where the debate started heating up. Some judges really advocated for their favorite books. There was never any anger, but some heated debate at times. There was one book I was REALLY big on that another judge didn't think deserved being on the ballot. When we voted on the book it ended up on the ballot, despite the
one dissenter.
By Sunday night, when we finished, it was time to relax. We did so by celebrating at a local Irish pub.
BSL: The actual judging weekend in San Diego was one heck of a trip, and I don't mean because I was traveling cross-country from Philadelphia. I'd never met any of the other judges before, but by the end of the weekend we'd bonded in the way that only platoons, camp bunks, theater companies, and Eisner judges do. It was my sincere pleasure to have judged alongside Pam Noles, Alex Amado, Joe Ferrera, & Wayne Markley. As long as all Eisner judges are as passionate about the medium, respectful towards one another, and open-minded about the wonderful variety of genre, creative approach, & packaging as we were, I'll have no qualms about the Eisner method of blue-ribbon panel nominations, which I admit to having had before participating in the process myself.
JWI think I can speak for all the judges and say we did a fair job and came up with a representative list of good product available. We were all very proud of the job we did, and all the seriousness paid off.
PI: What about the Awards ceremony?
JE:This year it's held on July 21st at the Hyatt-Regency in San Diego. We do a ceremony that includes not only the Eisners Awards, but also the comic-con's own awards. They do the Inkpots, the Bob Clampett Award, and the Russ Manning Award. Will Eisner himself is always there to congratulate and hand the trophies to the Eisner winners. We do a whole multi-media presentation with 2 screens. One has the slides of the nominations; the other one has live video. I handle the emceeing, and we have celebrity presenters. The Eisner Awards are free to anyone with a comic-con badge.
PopImage would like to thank Jackie Estrada, Jonah Weiland and Brian Saner Lamken for taking time out of their busy schedules to speak with us.
 Staff Writer Francis Lord was not at this year's Eisner Awards, but celebrated nonetheless at a local Irish pub..
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