A couple times a year, my ma meets up with the parents of my childhood friends and they drink decaf coffee and eat tea biscuits or whatever and brag about their childrens’ accomplishments in adulthood. Having been raised in a small town in a very religious/churchy environment, it is of no surprise that most news involves traditional milestones such as engagements, weddings, births, homeownership, etc…Now, allow me to make it clear that I do not view those things condescendingly, I’m genuinely happy for all of them and sometimes even envy that type of security, however since I took a more schismatic route, my poor ma is bereft of traditional offspring showboatin’ opportunities. One might assume that she could harvest material from my fairly extensive accomplishments in comics industry or the fact (and I say this with a disgusting amount of pride) that I am a completely self sufficient, grown ass woman in my 30′s with my own apartment in NYC. However, my ma let those facts lay dormant last February during the lastest update of my old pals’ current lives. When I asked my ma what she said about me, she replied, “oh, I don’t like to brag, so not much; I tell them you’re a late bloomer. Although I did tell them all about your asshole ex-boyfriend and the terrible things he did!” GEE THANKS, MA.
So, Ma, you reading this? I hope so because that unfortunate story was leading up to my announcement that my last book, The Infinite Wait & Other Stories, was nominated for an Eisner Award this year, under “best reality based work.” Since the book I did before that, Drinking at the Movies, was nominated and lost in 2011 under the “best humor publication,” I was hoping to play the pity vote on this one since The Infinite Wait involves such Serious Matters as chronic illness, alcoholism and a lot of other bummers, but I realized it’s a dubious hope when I saw the other books I’m up against. But that’s not going to stop me from shamelessly asking you, ‘comic book industry professionals,’ to vote for my book if you’re so inclined. Give my ma something to brag about! And if I win, I get to put a STICKER on my book, badadadum!
Voting is open until June 12th. If you’re wondering if you’re a ‘comic book industry professional,’ you might be if you are any one or more of the following, as listed on the site: Artist, colorist, editor, letterer, publisher, retailer, writer, other. That’s pretty broad, seems to me like if you ever went to a comics convention and farted and someone noticed, you can probably vote. So hop on it!
But in all earnestness, I’m up against some really solid books and even though everyone rolls their eyes right off their face when someone says, “it’s an honor just to be nominated,” I really do mean it. I worked hard on this book, it’s the one I’m the most proud of and it was a great experience working with Annie Koyama, who published the book at Koyama Press. I most likely will not be at the award ceremony since the San Diego ComicCon is its own hot realm of fresh hell but congratulations to everyone nominated and best of luck!
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