RICH WATSON ON THE GLYPH COMICS AWARDS

[Z. Julian Cenac]

Rich Watson on the Glyph Comics Awards
Interview conducted by Z. Julian Cenac, Comixfan staff

The Glyph Comics Awards are held annually as part of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. Founded by Rich Watson, the GCAs celebrate quality and diversity in comics. The ceremony will be held on May 15th, and the ECBACC itself will be on the following day.

Please be sure to follow news on the Glyph Comics Awards as well as the black comics community at Mr. Watson's blog - Glyphs.

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Comixfan: How did you come up with the idea of the Glyph Comics Awards?

Rich Watson: Well, in 2005, I began Glyphs, my blog, which I saw - and still see - as a way to promote good comics that don't get the attention they deserve. In that sense, it was an extension of an online comics column I had been doing for years prior to that, which focused primarily on independent comics. Glyphs sort of shifted the focus a bit. Anyway, that year I attended the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention for the first time. It's a con in Philadelphia devoted to black comics and creators, and though it was tiny, it had a camaraderie and sincerity that I found appealing. Later that year, the ECBACC committee solicited a number of media people, including myself, on ways to improve the con. I wanted to help, and the first thing I thought of was an awards program, not unlike the more mainstream Eisner Awards, only this one would showcase black comics. They agreed, and the rest is history.

CXF: Why are the Glyph Awards necessary?

RW: We need more black readers. Actually, we need more readers period - "we" meaning the comics industry in general, but since the awards are about black comics, that's the area I'm concerned with. We also need more black creators actually making comics, so that the world can see that there's far more to black people than the images they see on their television every night.

CXF: Are you surprised that no one came up with the same idea before?


RW: Hmmm. I don't think so. I mean, in the early 90s, when we had Milestone and a tremendous spurt of black comics from the independent ranks, one could say that the time would've been right for the awards, but then the speculator market went bust, and comic shops closed left and right. Now, thanks to Hollywood and the mainstream media, the other 99 percent of the world is slowly beginning to warm up to the idea of comics, if not the actual comics themselves - even if people still tend to equate them with superheroes.

CXF: What kind of feedback do you get from the nominees and recipients?

RW: Oh, they're definitely thrilled about it, from what I've seen. Certainly the small press creators tend to be more vocal, but I know that people like Reggie Hudlin, Dwayne McDuffie, Keith Knight, Gail Simone, they appreciate being part of this.

CXF: And what of the comic book community in general – have they been welcoming?

RW: Comics media coverage of the awards has improved - this interview is certainly proof of that - and I'm deeply appreciative of the sites that do write about the awards, even if it's just running my press releases. Some sites ignore us, though. I don't know why; maybe these comic book sites don't have the resources to devote to black comics. I can't say for sure. As for the fans, well, I see them at the awards ceremony and at ECBACC every year and they definitely appreciate what we're doing.

CXF: The topic of segregation is surely a criticism launched towards the awards, even though the GCA is about diversity. Still, has anything been done to reduce this false segregation assumption?

RW: I wanna make this absolutely clear about the awards: they're all about black comics, but they're not just for black creators. Gail Simone has won a Glyph. Greg Rucka has won a Glyph. Grant Morrison has been nominated several times; he's up this year in fact. Brian Michael Bendis has several nominations. So has Alex Ross. And these are just the big name creators. It is indisputable that black creators can speak about the black experience better than anyone, but a large and necessary part of fiction writing in general is the ability to write about things outside one's comfort zone. For many years, white creators stuck to the basest stereotypes when creating black characters, and these include some of the giants of the industry. Now that has slowly but surely begun to change, and to not recognize the positive strides being made by non-black creators in this area is wrong. Grant Morrison has bent over backwards to include people of color in Final Crisis - and obviously, I don't just mean blacks - and he has been recognized by this year's judges for that.

If the GCAs truly were segregated, you wouldn't see non-black creators at all, anywhere. Practically speaking, that's not feasible, but it's also morally wrong, and the GCAs will never be about that.

As for the whole notion of having awards for black comics separate from the more mainstream Eisners, well, it's simple: young black creators need a model of excellence that speaks directly to them. Sure, the Eisners have recognized black comics in the past, and I expect them to continue to do so, but they only see a portion of what's out there. The GCAs aspire to be more encompassing. To that end, the Rising Star category is especially important to me because of the opportunity it provides small press creators of color to receive recognition equal to that of Kyle Baker and Dwayne McDuffie and Keith Knight, if only for a moment.

CXF: Does the idea of a black comic book awards put off some people from submitting their work, or does it encourage them?

RW: I don't believe it puts them off in any way, not from what I've seen.

CXF: I would have assumed that the media would have been all over something like the Glyph Awards (for a variety of reasons), but it has not received as much attention as other awards. How hard has it been to publicize the event?

RW: First of all, I should emphasize the fact that the Philadelphia media has been quite good regarding ECBACC and the GCAs. They've been covering the show for the past couple of years, and that is due to the stalwart efforts of Maurice Waters, the ECBACC director, who does an outstanding job every year of not only bringing in talent for the convention - of which the GCAs is a vital part - but also getting the word out locally. The GCAs would not be what they are today without him and everyone on the ECBACC committee.

As for the comics media, as I said, coverage has improved, though it could be better. I've found comics blogs to be very helpful in spreading the word. I admit, when it comes to promotion I'm constantly adjusting and readjusting my approach, so I haven't found the "right" technique yet. Fortunately, I have a support network that I rely on. Also, I've begun to reach out to the black literary community this year, and that's something I want to build on.

CXF: On the one hand race relations should be on the up, but comics are not as popular as they used to be. Is the Glyph Awards in some ways fighting a battle that can never be won?

RW: Well, I try to stay positive about the whole thing, though it's certainly not easy. As we've seen with the recent news about Diamond raising their sales threshold for comics, survival of the fittest is the name of the game in the 21st century. I self-published a number of comics in the 90s, and I've recently started a webcomic for the first time, and I've had to relearn so many things about self-publishing, only this time on the web, and I know I have a long way to go before I get the hang of it, but that's how things are now. The traditional models of publishing and distribution are evolving, and for comics to survive it's incumbent on us as artists to evolve as well.

As far as black comics goes, there's no question that the market is there. When you have people like Sam Jackson, Public Enemy, DMC, RZA, 50 Cent, Shaquille O'Neal, and now the President of the United States - a black man - all expressing their love of comics, a public face is out there in support of comics and that face looks like us. We saw Marvel attempt to tap into that market with their Obama story in Amazing Spider-Man and you saw how well that went. Still, though, I've always advocated less reliance on the corporate publishers, not more.

We should support our own, especially the small press creators, the webcomics creators, and the comic strip creators. When the corporates see more Keith Knights, more Aaron McGruders, more Spikes, more Marguerite Abouets being successful with their work and being embraced by a wide audience, I believe that'll get their attention. We've seen Marvel work with non-black independent creators in the past few years, but their careers are not dependent on Marvel. They've got their thing and they've got an audience that supports their work, but they can also get a boost from doing a Spider-Man comic if they choose. That's the approach black creators need to take. Hopefully, Marvel and DC will eventually see that tapping into the black audience is worth their time financially, beyond the occasional event comic.


The GCAs do its part by pointing out which books and which creators are worth paying attention to and worth supporting, because as we all know, it's difficult to find the good stuff when the crap dominates. I do not believe in blindly supporting black comics simply because they're black comics. They need to be good. They need to be really good. When young black creators use the crap as their model, they tend to produce more crap, only it's a watered-down version of the dominant model. I've read enough mini-comics to know this! That's why young black creators need a new model to follow, especially one that has an air of legitimacy to it. And as a result, hopefully, less crap will be made.

CXF: What is the submission process like?

RW: It's real simple. For roughly two months, anybody - any publisher with either a black comic or black creators or both - can submit their comics to the panel of judges, who are selected from throughout the comics media, the comics blogosphere, and anyplace where there are knowledgeable comics people. And when I say anybody, that means the humblest self-publisher as well as Marvel and DC, plus webcomics creators and editorial cartoonists. I provide them with the mailing addresses of the judges, they mail their comics out to them (if it's a webcomic the judges get links to the website), and the judges come up with nominations for the categories. The five nominations in each category that get named the most make the list of finalists and then the judges pick the winners from the finalists.

In addition, there's a Fan Award in which the fans get to vote on their favorite black comic (I select the nominations) at the ECBACC website, plus there's a Pioneer Award which goes to a classic black creator whose work paved the way for others, selected by the ECBACC committee.

CXF: Can you tell us about this year’s panel of judges?

RW: The most important criteria in choosing judges is whether they know good comics, regardless of who makes them, and this year we've been fortunate to have another rock-solid lineup, beginning with the current president of Friends of Lulu, Valerie D'Orazio, and a former Lulu president and long-time comics reviewer, Elayne Riggs. It's vitally important to me to have women on the panel every year, and to have two of the most influential women in comics on the panel in the same year is quite an accomplishment. Tim O'Shea is someone I've known for many years, and I've had the pleasure of watching him slowly grow into a quality comics reporter. Mathan Erhardt and Ed Mathews are two guys I've known more recently, and mostly at a distance, but the fine work they do at their respective sites, Comics Nexus and Pop Image, convinced me they would also make perfect judges.

CXF: And can you give us a description of how the ceremony goes?

RW: It's not too different from the Eisners or Harveys or Ignatzes. It's held the night before ECBACC - in the past it was held at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, but this year it will be in the Skyline Room of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central branch. That's on 1901 Vine Street. The ceremony is open to the fans. There's a pre-show mixer where the fans can meet the nominees and other ECBACC guests, and then the ceremony starts. We have been extremely fortunate to have had the multi-talented Jamar Nicholas as emcee since the 2007 show, and he'll serve as emcee this year too. Very warm, very funny guy who does a terrific cartoon called Leon: Protector of the Playground which you should all check out. We have presenters, a combination of nominees and ECBACC guests. Sometimes we have live entertainment. There's a video of highlights from the 2008 show that'll give you an impression of the whole thing.