Black Sci-Fi chats with Glyph Comics Awards Founder Rich Watson
By Robert Jeffrey II December 6, 2011
As with a host of other arenas, the comics industry often takes a moment to highlight the best and the brightest that the industry has to offer. Whether it’s the Eisner Awards, the Harvey Awards, or the Lu Lu Awards, the best works of talented creators are presented and honored at these prestigious events. The Glyph Comics Awards (GCA) is one such entity.
Founded in 2005 by Pop Culture Shock Columnist (“Glyphs: The Language of the Blacks Comics Community”)/Comics Journalist Rich Watson, the awards show has become a permanent fixture of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention or ECBACC.
The mission of the awards ceremony, as explained at the Glyph Comics Awards website, is to “recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comic’s medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact.”
As 2012 nears, creators across the world will have yet another opportunity to possibly have their work featured on the ever growing list of past recipients. In an exclusive interview with Black Sci-Fi.com, Watson recently took some time to talk about the creation of the Glyphs, its impact, its future, and his recent decision to step down as chair of the GCA.
“Maurice Waters [who was the Vice President and Event Coordinator for ECBACC at the time] emailed me and several other people to [offer] suggestions on how to improve ECBACC. I went with the idea of an awards program, of some kind, analogous to the Eisner Awards, which covered the entirety of comics in general,” Watson recalls.
“This would sort of be the Eisner’s for black comics, with the intent of getting them a little bit more recognition than they would normally get,” he continues. “Because a lot of the time, it’s easier for a book to fall through the cracks and not get noticed. Particularly, if it’s a black comic book. That was my suggestion. Maurice and Yumy Odom [President of ECBACC] liked it, ran with it and the next thing you know I started developing what would eventually become the Glyph Awards.”
Since its inception, award nominees have included a wide variety of stories, with tales encompassing your traditional superhero epics, historical fiction, biographical graphic novels, and a host of other genres. Recipients of the past awards include “The K Chronicles,” by Keith Knight; “Nat Turner: Revolutions,” by Kyle Baker; “Fist Stick Knife Gun,” written by Geoffrey Canada and drawn by Jamar Nicholas (artist); and “Stagger Lee,” written by Derek McCulloch and drawn by Shepherd Hendrix.
BlackSci-Fi.com asks: With an ever growing pool of such critically acclaimed works, is there a “Glyphs Awards” standard that prospective nominees can look towards?
“Just a good story, that’s really what it comes down to. We just want a really, really good story told really well,” Watson explains.
“That’s always been of top-notch importance, that it be something that non-comics readers can look at and appreciate for its own merits. Sometimes it can be a superhero book, sometimes it can be something completely different,” Watson further explains. “It could be a historical drama; it could be a comedy, or an autobiography. It doesn’t matter. It’s what I tell my judges every year, when they’re evaluating all the comics that we [receive].”
As the awards accomplish the goal of highlighting the works of these talented creators, Watson explained that the Glyphs have become well recognized amongst the black comics’ community, and in other areas.
“The impact; it’s been there, but I wouldn’t necessarily [say] it’s a very large impact. The recognition that I get mostly comes from creators within the black comics’ community. Although, there have been other people in other venues that have told me that they appreciate what I do, and that’s great,” Watson says.
“I remember how excited I was when the collected edition of Kyle Baker’s “Nat Turner: Revolution” came out, and on the back it indicated that it was a Glyph Award winner. To me, that was fabulous, because here was proof that someone was actually noticing what we were doing with the awards, and using the awards as a way to help promote the book. When I saw that I was very, very gratified.”
Watson continues to say that creators and editors in the industry have shown appreciation for what he’s “been trying to build these last few years with the awards.”
“Because part of what I wanted to accomplish, in addition to raising awareness to black comics to the wider comics community, was also to inspire future creators. So they could see that there is a standard that they should try to work towards. That was something that was always pretty important to me, that other younger creators could see that if they work hard enough they could one day be on that same level as all these other creators that have won Glyph Awards.”
Still, with the recognition and growing popularity of the Glyphs, Watson has decided to step down in his duties as Chair.
“I’ve been in the industry in one form or another ever since 1993, when I started doing my self-published comics. I’ve been a writer and artist, editor, publisher and even a retailer. I’ve done a little bit of everything over all that time. What I’ve found happening in recent years is that the enjoyment started to wane a little bit. Maybe it’s burnout, maybe it’s an increasing cynicism of the industry in general, [or] maybe it’s a desire to move on do different things. Maybe it’s a combination of all that,” Watson explains.
Watson expounded on the difficulty of coming to such a decision, also explaining that there was some trepidation and even a sense of freedom involved when coming to this point.
“It’s not an easy decision. It’s something that I’ve given a great deal of thought to. The awards are something that I feel very connected to. I feel it’s something that will hopefully go on long after I’ve left. I feel it’s something that I’ve given back to the comics’ community in general. It’s sad definitely in a way, but at the same time it’s a little bit liberating in a sense because now I can start thinking about other things that I want to do,” he says.
Watson plans to work on his own comic book and continue writing a film blog he’s been working on the past year.
Even with these projects in motion, Watson will continue in an advisory role to the Glyphs, stating that he is hopeful he will find a replacement that is capable and knowledgeable.
“We’ve talked about trying to improve the quality of awards night itself. We want awards night, the night before ECBACC, to be like the Oscars,” enlightens Watson. “…We want to want to make it much more entertaining, and much more appealing not just to creators, but to the fans themselves.”
In the coming weeks more information about the 2012 ceremony will become available, along with submissions guidelines for the upcoming awards.
“I see particularly within ECBACC and with the black comics community in general…how they have really embraced the awards, and that to me means so much…because there have been plenty of times, especially in the early years, where I felt frustrated or I felt that no one cared about the awards.” Watson says.
“And then I would come to ECBACC, and I would hang out with all the guys there, and they would constantly lift my spirits, letting me know that, yes, what I’m doing is important, yes, what I’m doing is a good thing…That has kept me going for these six years and that’s something that I’ll always remember. …That’s something that’ll mean the most to me. “
Robert Jeffrey II is an award-winning Atlanta-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in such publications as Ja Dore magazine, The Atlanta Voice newspaper, and Urban Voices In Comics. When he’s not ranting and raving about comic books, he’s actually writing them. Check out http://www.terminusmedia.com/ for his comic book story, Daddy’s Little Girl, featured in the anthology, Terminus Tales Presents #1: Platypus vs. Monkey.” Robert can also be found at http://robertspageofwriting.blogspot.com/.
