Wednesday 20 April 2016

PUMA BLUES NOMINATED FOR AN EISNER!!!

The Puma Blues
by Stephen Murphy & Michael Zulli
(Dover Books, 2016) 
Eisner Award Nominee! 
Best Archival Collection/Project: Comic Books
DAVE SIM:
Congratulations to Stephen and Michael for their EISNER AWARD NOMINATION for the PUMA BLUES!!  Absolutely sensational news! Thanks to Drew Ford, their editor at Dover Publications, and Karen Smith -- Michael's Significant Other and frequent viewer of these pages -- for their phone messages letting me know.

Absolutely no danger of a full turn-out of participants at the Awards Ceremony, of course. But picture the table!  Michael Zulli, Stephen Murphy, Steve Bissette, Alan Moore and me!  I think that Henry Higgins' mother's advice would apply:  "I suggest that you confine yourself to two subjects: the weather and your health."

But, seriously, I hope that I can persuade as many people as possible to vote for THE PUMA BLUES if only for the good karma that might compel a few more unfinished masterpieces to make it across the goal line however many decades later.

LOOK! YOU, TOO, CAN WIN...

I SAID! LOOK! YOU! TOO! CAN! WIN! AN EISNER! GRANDPA!

Karen!  Post Here Frequently, Reminding People!  With Photos of Michael and Stephen Reading Will Eisner Graphic Novels!  This! Is! No! Time! For! Subtlety!

5 comments:

Tony Dunlop said...

CRAP! That's right! I gotta hop on down to my comix shop and BUY ONE! Thanks for the reminder!

Travis Pelkie said...

And then I just saw over at Bleeding Cool that Drew Ford has left Dover to form his own imprint, It's Alive. So congrats to him! I hope the cool stuff from Dover he's been shepherding (like the forthcoming Wandering Star collection) continues unimpeded, and that he comes out with a lot of great stuff. Win-win-win!

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/04/20/drew-ford-leaves-dover-books-starts-new-publisher-its-alive/

Anonymous said...

Picked up (with a name-check of Dave) (Hi, Dave!) by the Washington Post.

Mind you, the headline seems like some kind of Yoowhoist punchline: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/04/19/2016-eisner-awards-the-oscars-of-comics-announces-record-number-of-nominations-for-women/

--Claude Flowers

Karen Pratt Smith-Zulli said...

Dave, thank you. If ever there was a friend to Puma Blues, and to all involved, it is you. I join in congratulations for Drew in his new pursuits of happiness - whatever he does will be brilliant, without question. I don't know if others involved have found themselves nominated for Eisner awards in the past, (I would assume so) though as Michael Zulli's 'other', I do know that this will be his third nomination. Of course I am proud of him for that, though I would sure like to see his name on a winning ballot this time. Every single person involved in the reprint deserves kudos. It is a beautiful book and an incredible adventure story, now completed.

May I please share my thanks again to you, Dave. Two young men walked up to you one day and you changed their lives forever. If that isn't an amazing blessing of the best kind, I don't know what is.

Thank you also, personally, for listening to my messages. You are without question one of the good guys in (what I view as) this insane industry. I know that as a non-participant/non-creator, who was introduced to the industry late in life, that I will never completely understand the process of publication and promotion (need help with history or architecture? That I understand!), though I am informed enough to give credit where credit is due - and that primarily should be directed to you. Again, thank you for everything, Dave.

Your friend,
Karen

Unknown said...

Travis - Not to put a damper on things, but that raises the always ominous possibility of losing a patron. Stephen and Michael signed with Dover, not Drew. We ALL hope that the book is selling well enough to keep THE PUMA BLUES on the "front burner" at Dover for a long time to come. But there is a definite syndrome of "a new broom sweeps clean" in ALL entertainment media: whoever "inherits" THE PUMA BLUES at Dover is very apt to see it as "Drew's book".

Hi Claude - That's really all that matters in our society now: numerical parity. A record number of women NOMINEES is fine for the moment, but it has to result in AS MANY or MORE women WINNING in their categories. If they don't, the only acceptable explanation will be entrenched misogyny.

Hi Karen! I'm not sure that I did them any great favour the way things turned out. Likewise with trying to hype them as candidates for the Eisner. We live in a Feminist Theocracy. As long as YOU -- having an obvious female name -- keep that fact front and centre while promoting THE PUMA BLUES it MIGHT offset the "guilt by association with Dave Sim the evil misogynist". But I sure wouldn't hold my breath. The best that can be hoped for is LOOONG TERM: decades after we're all dead. I'm fine with that, but, then, I've been a non-being since the mid-1990s with no sign of that improving at any time during my foreseeable lifespan.