The end of the Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards: a lesson in honesty

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about how the Jack Kirby Awards were established. It was a reaction to the Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards. It came from a germ of an idea from either Gary Groth or Kim Thompson at Fantagrapics Books. The goal being to establish awards based on the votes of comic professionals, ones that might be respected both within the industry and in the outside world. 

I also promised a little melodrama as well as some lying and betrayal, so strap in for this reasonably long second chapter of our adventure in comic industry awards.

A (Walter Simonson) lesson for our times

Listening to President Elect Barack Obama talk about his desire to change the way politics work in this country, I began thinking about my first encounter with comic writer/artist Walter Simonson.

Obama says (and I believe him) that he wants to change to the past political strategies of division and fear mongering with a civil discussion, a sense of civic duty and a lot of common sense. (Okay, I’m paraphrasing a bit.) How this relates to Walter Simonson will be revealed, but first a little background.

By fall of 1983, I was working for Fantagraphics Books, serving as the managing editor of a black-and-white fan magazine called Amazing Heroes. It was my second job after graduating from UW-La Crosse in December 1982. I had moved from Wisconsin to Connecticut to take the job. As some of you may remember, Fantagraphics Books is the home of The Comics Journal.