Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiative Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of September 21 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
Best Cartoonist (Writer and Artist)
66 Shark Teeth
K. O’Neill
Ed Piskor
Jeff Smith
Jillian Tamaki
Best Writer
Dan Abnett
Ed Brubaker
Tom King
Mariko Tamaki
Kit Trace
Best Artist or Penciller/Inker Team
Elsa Charretier
Duncan Fegredo
Abdullah Hadia
Vincent Mallié
Sean Phillips
Peter Rostovsky
Best Letterer
Clayton Cowles
Taylor Esposito
Lucas Gattoni
Stephen Kok
Micah Myers
Stan Sakai
Best Colorist
Brad Anderson
Jordie Bellaire
Tamra Bonvillain
Stephan Franck
Jacob Phillips
Rico Renzi
Best Cover Artist
Colin Griffin
Tula Lotay
Dan Parent
Chris Samnee
Bill Sienkiewicz
Fiona Staples
Best Series
Geiger: Ground Zero, Image Comics
The Night Eaters, Abrams ComicArts
Phantom Road, Image Comics
Rare Flavours, BOOM! Studios
Sirens of the City, BOOM! Studios
Tower, A Wave Blue World
Best Single Issue or Story
Animal Pound #1, BOOM! Studios
By The Horns: Dark Earth #7, Scout Comics
Etheres, Source Point Press
Rare Flavours #1, BOOM! Studios
Somna, DSTLRY
Star Trek: Day of Blood – Shaxs’ Best Day, IDW Publishing
Best Original Graphic Novel
Monica, Fantagraphics
Parasocial, Image Comics
Roaming, Drawn & Quarterly
Slightly Exaggerated, Dark Horse Comics
Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy, Abrams ComicArts
Best Anthology
The Devil’s Cut, DSTLRY
Dwellings, Oni Press
Hairology, Lifeline Comics
Ice Cream Man, Image Comics
The Rocketeer One-Shot, IDW
Swan Songs, Image Comics
Best Humor Comic
Asterix and the White Lotus (Vol. 40), Papercutz
Betty & Veronica Friends Forever: Game On #1, Archie Comics
(1) THERE WILL BE NO 2023 HUGO LONGLIST ANTHOLOGY. David Steffen says, “With all of the complications of this year’s nomination list, Diabolical Plots has decided not to produce a new volume of the Long List Anthology this year.”
We do still want to help boost readership for the amazing authors involved, however, so in lieu of the anthology, we have done our best to compile the most comprehensive list of links to the works from this year’s Short Story and Novelette categories that we could.
The Apple TV+ series Murderbot is rounding out its leading cast with Sabrina Wu (Joy Ride), Tattiawna Jones (Orphan Black: Echoes), Akshay Khanna (Polite Society) and Tamara Podemski (Outer Range). The quad will star opposite Alexander Skarsgård, who also executive produces.
Based on Martha Wells’ bestselling Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning book series The Murderbot Diaries, the 10-episode series Murderbot centers on a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable “clients.” Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe….
Brandon Sanderson, the bestselling author known for his epic fantasy novels, has already raised more than $16 million on crowdfunding platform BackerKit since launching it earlier this week.
The campaign is to fund a leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance, the second book in Sanderson’s fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The leatherbound edition will feature premium materials and illustrations, as well as a new “secret project,” Sanderson has teased. Add-ons include an audiobook, which Sanderson says will also be available on Audible, suggesting he has come to an agreement with the audiobook giant . (Sanderson had been in negotiation with the company for better terms for authors).
Sanderson’s BackerKit campaign, which has 55,000 backers and runs through March 30, is the most successful fundraising effort on the platform thus far. This follows Sanderson’s previous record-breaking Kickstarter campaign in March 2022, which raised $41.7 million from 185,341 backers, setting a new record for the most funded Kickstarter in the platform’s history. That campaign supported the release of four books.
(4) CHANGE AT KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel have updated the readers for their March 13 event. Christopher Rowe has suffered a death in the family. Therefore, Richard Butner will take his place, joining Moses Ose Utomi.
(5) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to nosh pastrami with Glenn Hauman in Episode 220 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.
When I realized Glenn Hauman, with whom I’ve been crossing paths for decades on the con circuit, was going to be a guest at Farpoint, I thought it was about time I captured some of his wit and wisdom for you. Here’s just a small taste of what Glenn’s been up to over the years —
Glenn Hauman.
He’s an electronic publishing pioneer who founded BiblioBytes in 1993, which resulted in him being dubbed a “young Turk of publishing” in The New York Observer. He was an editorial consultant to Simon & Schuster Interactive for many years, during which time he contributed to many Star Trek CD-ROMs, such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, plus additional projects for many other properties. He’s published fiction in the Star Trek, X-Men, and Farscape franchises.
The particular piece of fiction which has probably brought him the most fame is Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Creative Couplings, co-authored with Aaron Rosenberg, which featured the first Klingon/Jewish wedding ceremony, and ended up getting him mass media coverage from outlets such as NPR and the Jewish weekly newspaper The Forward. In 2011, Glen teamed up with Peter David, previous guest of the podcast Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, and Aaron Rosenberg to launch an electronic publishing endeavor called Crazy 8 Press. He’s also a columnist over at ComicMix.
We discussed how he shook things up during the earliest days of electronic publishing, the embarrassing high school newspaper writings of Ted Chiang, the way the assembly-line nature of comics keeps many creatives from seeing the big picture, why he’s nobody’s first choice for anything but everybody’s second choice for everything, his pre-teen encounters with another pre-teen fan who became a Marvel Comics Executive Editor, the philosophical question he asked actor Michael O’Hare just before Babylon 5 began to air, the lunch that led to his first published short story being about the X-Men, what visiting Don Heck’s house at age 12 taught him about artists and taking an art class from John Buscema at age 13 taught him about himself, the plot of the Warren Worthington novel he never got a chance to write, the free speech lawsuit which had him going head to head with the Dr. Seuss estate, plus much more.
BLADE RUNNER, TRUE DETECTIVE and HANNIBAL meld with the weird worlds of JEFF VANDERMEER in Adrian M. Gibson’s fungalpunk noir debut novel.
TWO YEARS AFTER a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its Fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, pushing the native populace toward the brink of civil unrest.
As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD Detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of Fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division and moral decay.
In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace Fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?
(7) THOMAS SADLER (1946-2023). Alexiad editor Joseph T. Major shared recently-learned news of the death last year of Thomas Sadler, longtime editor of the fanzine The Reluctant Famulus.
Thomas “Tom” David Sadler, age 76, of Owenton, KY, passed away on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at his home. Tom was born on March 3, 1946, in Piedmont, AL, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Tanner) Sadler. On October 8, 1966, he married Ruth Underhill, and she survives. He had been employed with the City of Adrian before moving to Kentucky. Tom was a published author, and enjoyed reading, writing, and gardening.
Sadler is survived by his wife, Ruth, their children, and grandchildren.
(8) AKIRA TORIYAMA (1955-2024). Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama died March 1. The New York Times tribute says a statement by his manga and design production company, Bird Studio, and Capsule Corporation Tokyo, attributed his death to acute subdural hematoma, when blood collects between the skull and brain. It did not specify where he died.
The Dragon Ball comic series debuted in 1984. It follows a boy named Son Goku in his quest to collect magical dragon balls to defend Earth against alien humanoids called Saiyans.
… Mr. Toriyama’s absurd concepts and sense of caricature “sparked a real joyful hysteria” in Japan, Matthieu Pinon and Laurent Lefebvre wrote in their 2023 book, “A History of Modern Manga.”
In 1982, Mr. Toriyama married a former manga artist who published under the pen name Nachi Mikami, Mainichi Shimbun reported. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, according to the local news media.
When “Dragon Ball” was first published in 1984, it was an immediate hit, becoming one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The adventure story sold more than 260 million copies worldwide, according to the studio that produced the anime adaptation, Toei Animation.
The manga was serialized in the Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump until 1995. In the year after the series ended, the magazine lost about one million of its six million readers, according to “A History of Modern Manga.” The story lived on through anime, such as “Dragon Ball Z,” and video games, including the “Dragon Quest” series for which Mr. Toriyama designed the characters….
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born March 8, 1921 — Alan Hale Jr. (Died 1990.) Let’s talk about Alan Hale Jr. — son of Alan Hale Sr. who played Little John in the Robin Hood a century ago with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, reprised the role in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, then played him once more in The Rogues of Sherwood Forest. We agreed that Robin Hood is genre, didn’t we?
Alan Hale Jr.
Now we come to Alan Hale Jr.’s Captain Jonas Grumby as he was referred to only in the Gilligan’s Island pilot, better known as The Skipper, which we’ve also agreed is genre. He’s owner and captain of the S.S. Minnow which ends up in the genre based lost island setting with its passengers and sole crew member.
Counting the pilot, it ran for ninety-nine episodes over three seasons sixty years ago. There would later be three television sequels in the late Seventies and early Eighties in color. I don’t remember any of them, do any of you remember them?
There are two Filmation-produced animated sequel series which I’ve mercifully never seen. They were The New Adventures of Gilligan and Gilligan’s Planet, both short lived. Yes, he voiced his character.
Other genre appearances included Fantasy Island, My Favorite Martin, TheWild Wild West and ALF for television series, whereas films were The Giant Spider Invasion, The Fifth Musketeer, and well, and I didn’t see anything else but if I missed anything I’m sure I’ll hear about it.
(10) RINGO AWARDS 2024 NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN. The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards return for their sixth year on Saturday, September 21, 2024 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con. Access the Ringo Awards 2024 Nominations ballot at the link.
Unlike other professional industry awards, the Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with an esteemed jury of comics professionals.
More than 20 categories will be celebrated with top honors being given at the awards ceremony in September.
Fan and pro-jury voting are tallied independently, and the combined nomination ballot is compiled by the Ringo Awards Committee. The top two fan choices become nominees, and the jury’s selections fill the remaining three slots for five total nominees per category. Ties may result in more than five nominees in a single category. Nominees will be listed on the ballot alphabetically. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) between March 8, 2024 and May 23, 2024.
New in 2024, we have changed two categories based on juror, publisher, and voter submissions: The “Best Inker” category has been combined with the “Best Artist or Penciller” category to form a combined “Best Artist or Penciller/Inker Team” category. This update reflects the changing way comics are being created, with more artists working digitally and going directly to inks. When a nominated Penciller/Inker Team wins the final ballot, both individuals will receive separate awards.
Final Ballot Voting
After processing by the Ringo Awards Committee and Jury, the Final Ballots are targeted to be available to comic creative professionals for voting on July 24, 2024 and will be due by August 21, 2024 for final tallying. Presentation of the winners will occur at the Baltimore Comic-Con on the evening of Saturday, September 21, 2024.
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” the prequel play to the popular Netflix series, looks to be headed to the Great White Way after debuting in London.
Broadway World was the first to report that equity castingnotices were posted on Thursday seeking New York City-based actors and stage managers for the show with a 2025 start date. There is no venue specified yet for the show. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Daldry is listed as the director of the New York City production.
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” was written by Kate Trefry, from an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Trefry. The play debuted at the Phoenix Theatre on the West End on Nov. 17, 2023 in previews, with an official opening date of Dec. 14, 2023. Daldry also directed the West End version….
(12) MOST-WATCHED OSCAR WINNING FILMS. JustWatch has published a new report covering the most popular Best Picture winners. JustWatch wanted to see if tastes have shifted to more modern titles, or if the classics have had a lasting impact on audiences. They ranked all of the Best Picture winners since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929.
Key Insights: Modern titles like “Everything Everywhere all at Once” and “Parasite” ranked highest in our study. Meanwhile, classic titles like “Titanic” and “Forrest Gump” managed to break into the top 10. The genres of the top 10 varied between thrillers, dramas, and even one romance.
We created this report by comparing the Best Picture Oscars winners from 1929-2023. JustWatch Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity, including: clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as ‘seen’. This data is collected from >40 million movie & TV show fans per month. It is updated daily for 140 countries and 4,500 streaming services.
(13) SUCCESSFUL NETFLIX SFF LAUNCHES? JustWatch has also assessed how well three of Netflix’ anime live action remakes did right out of the gate.
Netflix has seen a lot of success with this format, and as their latest production, Avatar: The Last Airbender, is probably their most anticipated release to date, we wanted to see how it stacked up against previous attempts.
Developments relevant to this report include Netflix’s release of Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece’s second season announcement in September 2023.
Key Insights:
Death Note topped the charts in almost 3x more countries than One Piece, and 10x more than Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar has an above average rating, but by far the least ‘successful’ launch
One Piece had a lower popularity score, but the highest rating out of all three titles
(14) FLOOD WARNING US. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] My reportage of the coastal flood risk to US homes yesterday was a bit dry as I jumped straight to the research paper. This is what comes of speed scanning the electronic version of the journal. When I got home and saw the paper edition, I found its cover story was that very research and it came with a far more readable descriptor…
The cover shows homes under threat from rising sea levels in Summer Haven, Florida. In this week’s issue, Leonard Ohenhen and colleagues suggest that a considerable amount of land in 32 US coastal cities could be at risk of flooding by 2050. Combining models of changes in land elevation with projected rises in sea levels, the researchers estimated the flooding risk in the cites, including Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco. They note that a combination of coastal subsidence and rising sea levels could put an additional 1,006–1,389 km2 of land at risk of flooding by 2050, which could affect up to 171,000 properties. As a result, they call for improvements to flood defences and subsidence control to bolster current coastal protection.
The holy grail of exoplanets research is to find an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone around its star (where it’s not too hot and not too cold for life to exist) and then study its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to determine if life is present there. But to do that, we have to find these planets first. This is where the TESS mission comes in; this month a research paper was published claiming to have found TWO possible Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. The hope is that we can use JWST to study at least one of them.
…Tyson explained that the film takes place in the sand dunes on the planet of Arrakis. The dunes are home to massive, very hungry sandworms that will appear wherever a thumper — a device that sends repeated vibrations through the sand — is placed.
“Somebody didn’t do the research on that,” he stated. When Colbert asked if that’s because that’s not how sandworms — which are fictional creatures — actually behave, Tyson said, “I’m saying you can’t thump sand.”
He noted that if someone hits sand repeatedly, it’s not audible because it’s sand. “You can’t hear it, but a sandworm can. They hear things differently than we do, Neil Tyson,” Colbert retorted, jokingly. “If you wanted to insulate yourself acoustically from your surroundings, fill the volume with sand,” the astrophysicist responded. “No one will hear you. I’ve got to let it go because there’s no movie without it.”…
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Robin Anne Reid, Ryan H., Joseph T. Major, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]
The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)
Kate Beaton
Best Writer
Ed Brubaker
Best Artist or Penciller
Evan “Doc” Shaner
Best Inker
Klaus Janson
Best Letterer [Tie]
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Stan Sakai
Best Colorist
Jordie Bellaire
Best Cover Artist
Greg Smallwood
Best Series
Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios
Best Single Issue or Story
Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press
Best Original Graphic Novel
It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, Image Comics
Best Anthology
Young Men in Love, A Wave Blue World
Best Humor Comic
The Illustrated Al: The Songs of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Z2 Comics
Best Webcomic
Lore Olympus, WEBTOON
Best Humor Webcomic
Evil Inc., evil-inc.com
Best Non-fiction Comic Work
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Drawn & Quarterly
Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel
Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press
Best Presentation in Design
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition—Last Call, IDW Publishing
The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Ringo Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
Fan Favorites
Favorite Hero: Sam Young from Let’s Play (Rocketship Entertainment)
Favorite Villain: Adam from The Guy Upstairs (WEBTOONS)
Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiative Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of September 9 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)
Kate Beaton
Wes Craig
Alexis Deacon
Jenny Jinya
Snailords
Stan Sakai
Zoe Thorogood
Best Writer
Ed Brubaker
Anthony Del Col
Drew Edwards
Scott Snyder
Brian K. Vaughan
Best Artist or Penciller
Fahmida Azim
Kate Flynn
Molly Mendoza
Nicola Scott
Evan “Doc” Shaner
Best Inker
Gigi Baldassini
Scott Hanna
Sandra Hope
Klaus Janson
Mark Morales
Best Letterer
Justin Birch
Jerome Gagnon
Todd Klein
Micah Myers
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Stan Sakai
Best Colorist
Daniela Barisone
Jordie Bellaire
Chris O’Halloran
Jacob Phillips
Dave Stewart
Ellie Wright
Best Cover Artist
Wylie Beckert
Jason Muhr
Bryan Silverbax
Greg Smallwood
JH Williams III
Best Series
Fractured Shards, Comics2Movies
Parker Girls, Abstract Studios
Saga, Image Comics
Season of the Bruja, Oni Press
Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios
Best Single Issue or Story
88 Days of Hell: One Ukrainian Man’s Experience in the Russian Filtration, Insider
A Hunter’s Tale, Elephant Eater Comics
Finding Batman, DC Comics
Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press
Punisher #1, Marvel Comics
Thieves, Nobrow
You Were My Joker That Night, Anatola Howard
Best Original Graphic Novel
Chivalry, Dark Horse Comics
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Drawn & Quarterly
It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, Image Comics
Tokyo Rose—Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman’s Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II, Tuttle Publishing
The most honored work of the night was Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, winner of three categories including Best Original Graphic Novel.
The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Ringo Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
2022 RINGO AWARD WINNERS
BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)
Jeff Lemire
BEST WRITER
James Tynion IV
BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER
Filipe Andrade
BEST INKER
Sal Buscema
BEST LETTERER
Taylor Esposito
BEST COLORIST
Dave McCaig
BEST COVER ARTIST
Simone Di Meo
BEST SERIES
Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY
Something is Killing the Children #20, BOOM! Studios
BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL
Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks
Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiative Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of October 29 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
We are making AMAZING progress on our work to #SaveWisCon, thanks to your help!
We have now raised just over $32,000 in donations of which $30,000 will be matched, for a total of $62,000 raised to support WisCon! This is absolutely incredible, and we are so grateful for everyone who contributed and helped spread the word.
70 people have completed our Volunteer Interest Form to help out with pre-con volunteering. Thank you all!
We’ve gained 252 new email newsletter subscribers since November, which is helping us make sure everyone gets the latest con news and updates. Not getting the newsletter? You can sign up here.
We have a total of 418 registrations (in-person and online). Our goal is 1,000! Please registerand tell your friends about WisCon, too.
PLUS we are receiving a total of $5,500 in grants from:
We deeply appreciate their support and encourage everyone to learn more about these excellent organizations.
Thanks to your donations and these grants, we’re at roughly $67,000 in total funds raised!
Is this the end of #SaveWisCon fundraising? Are we just done now, forever?
Well…probably not, y’all, for a couple of reasons…
The two main reasons are: (1) It’s “basically impossible” for them to book enough rooms to meet their contract so they will owe a big penalty. That’s an effect of the pandemic and people’s assessment of the risk of in-person events. (2) They have sold only a fraction of the 500 online memberships that are an expected revenue source.
…Audible/ACX’s New Tax Reporting Policy: What Authors Should Know
As of January 1, 2021, authors who publish their own audiobooks on ACX and use ACX producers must now declare the producers’ portion of the royalties as income and then deduct those payments as business expenses when they file their taxes. This is because Audible/ACX now reports all of the net earnings from ACX audiobooks on the authors’ 1099-MISC forms, including the earnings it paid over to producers, as the authors’ royalty earning. It has also stopped issuing 1099-MISCs to producers and instead now issues 1099-Ks to producers that meet the income threshold.
With these new accounting practices, Audible/ACX is treating the payments it makes to voice actors, audiobook producers, and studio pros (collectively referred to as Producers in the agreements) as part of the royalties payable to the authors (referred to as Rights Holders in the agreements)—on the notion that it is the authors, not Audible/ACX, who hire the Producers and owe the Producers a share of their own royalties as compensation for recording the book. The new structure makes clear that Audible/ACX is limiting its role to that of a third-party payment settlement service, even though it makes the Producers’ services available to their authors, sets the terms of that engagement (a 50/50 royalty split), and is the one to send payment to the Producers….
(3) MOURNING STAR. [Item by Andrew Porter.] Last night’s episode of Young Sheldon starts with the momentous news, related by the young version of Sheldon Cooper, that Isaac Asimov has died. (Which happened in 1992.) His parents are monumentally dismissive, but others not as much. I can honestly state that more Asimov works are mentioned there than on any other TV show, ever.
All I can say is, hilarity ensues!
It’s Series 5, Episode 18, “Babies, Lies and a resplendent Cannoli,” with the description on my TV, “Sheldon copes with the death of a hero; Missy wants to babysit; Georgie struggles with a big secret.”
Likely available On Demand.
(4) THE ANSWER IS 47. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Sarah Hemming reviews The 47th, a Shakespearean pastiche by Mike Bartlett about the 2024 presidential election which is playing at the Old Vic Theatre (oldvictheatre.com) through May 28. (I reviewed Bartlett’s previous near-future Shakespearean pastiche, King Charles III, here in 2017 “King Charles III”: A Review”.)
(5) RINGO AWARDS 2022 NOMINATIONS OPEN. The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards return for their sixth year on Saturday, October 29, 2022 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con. The Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with a jury of comics professionals. Fans are welcome to nominate until June 30 at the website here.
Fan and Pro Nominations: Fan and pro-jury voting are tallied independently, and the combined nomination ballot is compiled by the Ringo Awards Committee. The top two fan choices become nominees, and the jury’s selections fill the remaining three slots for five total nominees per category. Ties may result in more than five nominees in a single category. Nominees will be listed on the ballot alphabetically. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) between April 15, 2022 and June 30, 2022.
Final Ballot Voting: After processing by the Ringo Awards Committee and Jury, the Final Ballots are targeted to be available to comic creative professionals for voting on August 31, 2022 and will be due by September 28, 2022 for final tallying. Presentation of the winners will occur at the Baltimore Comic-Con on the evening of Saturday, October 29, 2022.
(6) NO VIVIAN IN 2022. The Romance Writers of America have postponed the next Vivian Award to 2023. The announcement was made last October – but it was news to me. The decision came in the aftermath of RWA rebranding its annual award (formerly the Rita), and the organization’s decision to rescind one of the inaugural Vivian Awards.
In an effort to provide the VIVIAN Task Force the time needed to thoroughly examine the 2021 VIVIAN contest, the RWA Board has approved the task force’s recommendation to postpone the 2022 VIVIAN Contest. This postponement will give the task force time to conduct a thorough analysis of the inaugural contest and make recommendations for changes to be implemented for the 2023 contest period. Under normal circumstances, our contest period begins in October with marketing and advertising campaigns followed by the recruitment and training of judges and accepting contest entries. However, the Board recognizes that the VIVIAN Task Force needs more than a couple of weeks to break down all aspects of the contest to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses outside of those revealed this year.
Veteran actor Frank Langella has been fired from Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” following a Netflix investigation that found Langella acted inappropriately on set, a source close to the production confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday evening.
Netflix had no comment on the situation and a rep for Flanagan did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
TMZ reported on Tuesday that Netflix was looking into allegations that the 84-year-old had been accused of sexual harassment, including making inappropriate comments to a female co-star on the set of the limited series….
(8) OH GIVE ME A HOME, WHERE THE PORTAL HAS COME. A new sf western begins today on Amazon Prime: Outer Range.
Outer Range centers on Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin), a rancher fighting for his land and family, who discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness. A thrilling fable with hints of wry humor and supernatural mystery, Outer Range examines how we grapple with the unknown. At the onset of the series, the Abbotts are coping with the disappearance of daughter-in-law Rebecca. They are pushed further to the brink when the Tillersons (the gaudy owners of the neighboring profit-driven ranch) make a play for their land. An untimely death in the community sets off a chain of tension-filled events, and seemingly small-town, soil-bound troubles come to a head with the arrival of a mysterious black void in the Abbotts’ west pasture. Wild revelations unfold as Royal fights to protect his family; through his eyes, we begin to see how time contains secrets held in the past and unsettling mysteries foreshadowed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MzAFrTEWSQ
(9) CHRISTINE ASHBY OBIT. Australian fan Christine Ashby, the 1976 Down Under Fan Fund delegate, died at her home on March 29. She was 70 years of age. In 1976 DUFF she attended that year’s Worldcon, MidAmeriCon. Her trip report, The Flight of the Kangaroo, was published about a decade later.
(10) ESSAY: JO WALTON’S SMALL CHANGE TRILOGY. [By Cat Eldridge,] Doing alternate history right is always hard work, but Jo Walton’s the Small Change books consisting of Farthing, Ha’penny and Half a Crown get it perfectly spot on. Set as you know in Britain that settled for an uneasy peace with Hitler’s Germany, they are mysteries, one of my favorite genres. And these are among my all-time favorite mysteries of this sort.
The audiobooks are fascinating as befitting that there being shifting narrators with Peter Carmichael whose presence in all three novels is voiced by John Keating, and Bianco Amato voicing David Kahn’s wife in Farthing, but Viola Lark being played by Heather O’Neil in Ha’penny and yet a third female narrator, Elvira, is brought to life by Terry Donnelly in Half a Crown.
Now I’m fascinated by what awards they won (and didn’t) and what they got nominated for. It would win but one award, the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel for Ha’Penny which is I find a bit odd indeed given there’s nothing libertarian about that novel.
Now Half a Crown wracked an impressive number of nominations: the Sidewise Award for Best Long Form Alternate History, Locus for Best SF Novel, Sunburst award for a Canadian novel, and this time deservedly so given the themes of the final novel a Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel.
Farthing had picked up nominations for a Sidewise, a Nebula, Campbell Memorial, Quill where Ha’Penny only picked a Sidewise and Lambda.
Not a single Hugo nomination which really, really surprised me.
There is one short story set in this series, “Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction” which you can read in her Starlings colllection that Tachyon published. It is is a fantastic collection of her stories, poems and cool stuff!
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born April 15, 1918 — Denis McLoughlin. No, he didn’t do any genre work that you’d know of. (And I’m not interested in it anyways. This is not about a genre artist.) His greatest fame came from work doing hard-boiled detective book covers produced for the London publishing house of Boardman Books spanning a career that lasted nearly eight decades with other work as well. And oh what covers they were! Here’s is his cover for Adam Knight’s Stone Cold Blonde, and this is Henry Kanes’…Until You’re Dead. Finally let’s look at his cover for Fredric Brown’s We All Killed Grandma. He was in perfect health when he took a revolver from his extensive collection of weapons and committed suicide. No note was left behind. (Died 2002.)
Born April 15, 1922 — Michael Ansara. Commander Kang in Trek’s “The Day of The Dove” as well as a lot of other genre work including a recurring role as Kane on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, multiple roles on I Dream of Jeannie andmyriad voicings of Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze in the Batman series. (Died 2013.)
Born April 15, 1926 — Jerry Grandenetti. In my opinion, his greatest work was as the illustrator who helped defined the look of The Spirit that Will Eisner created. He also worked at DC, mostly on war comics of which there apparently way more than I knew (All-American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces and Star Spangled War Stories) though he did work on the House of Mystery and Strange Adventures series as well. (Died 2010.)
Born April 15, 1933 — Elizabeth Montgomery. She’s best remembered as Samantha Stephens on Bewitched. Other genre roles included being Lili in One Step Beyond’s “The Death Waltz” which you can watch here. She also had one-offs in The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and voicing a Barmaid in the “Showdown” episode of Batman: The Animated Series. (Died 1995.)
Born April 15, 1959 — Emma Thompson, 63. Professor Sybill Trelawney, Harry Potter franchise. Men in Black 3 and Men in Black: International as Agent O, I am Legend, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle as Polynesia, the extraordinary Tony Kushner derived HBO series Angels in America, Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts, the castle’s motherly head housekeeper who has been transformed into a teapot, Brave, Beautiful Creatures and Treasure Planet voicing Captain Amelia.
Born April 15, 1974 — Jim C. Hines, 48. [Item by Paul Weimer.] Writer, and blogger. Jim C. Hines’ first published novel was Goblin Quest, the tale of a nearsighted goblin runt and his pet fire-spider. Jim went on to write the Princess series, four books often described as a blend of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with Charlie’s Angels. He’s also the author of the Magic ex Libris books, my personal favorite, which follow the adventures of a magic-wielding librarian from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who happens to have the same pet fire-spider lifted from the Goblin novels as his best friend. He has two novels in his Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. Jim’s novels usually have the fun and humor dials set on medium to high. Jim is also an active blogger on a variety of topics and won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer at Chicon 7.
Born April 15, 1997 — Maisie Williams, 25. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark of Winterfell in Game of Thrones. She was Ashildr, an immortal Viking woman of unique skills, the principal character of “The Girl Who Died”, “The Woman Who Lived”, “Face the Raven” and “Hell Bent” during the time of Twelfth Doctor. She was also Lucy in the Netflix SF iBoy. She is set to star as Wolfsbane in the forthcoming Marvel film New Mutants, due for release sometime, well who knows, as it keeps getting delayed.
… There are a lot of hobbits in “Lord of the Rings.” So many, in fact, that we’ve decided to round them all up into a good ol’ worst-to-best ranking. After all, what good is this iconic race of hole-dwellers if we can’t subjectively compare them to each other? Here are all of the hobbits who play at least a minor role in the story, ranked by a general conglomeration of heroics, accomplishments, humor, toughness, and overall importance to Tolkien’s world….
16. Ted Sandyman is a pathetic excuse for a Hobbit
…While he plays a similar part in the book, Sandyman’s role is a bit bigger on-page. He’s in a lengthy scene in “The Fellowship of the Ring” where he verbally spars with Sam, rebutting his romantic notions of the world. Then he reappears at the end of “The Return of the King,” where it’s revealed that he’s gone over to the dark side, helping Saruman’s minions overrun the Shire and turn it into an industrialized police state….
Ted Sandyman is eventually put in his place, but during his time in the story he proves to be nothing more than a troublemaking bully who runs at the first site of trouble. To the bottom of the list he goes…
(13) WE’RE DOOMED, DOOMED! [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] An analysis announced by Nature this week reveals that even if all the agreed actions from last November’s COP26 UN climate change summit were implemented global temperatures could not be kept below the target 1.5°C warming.
The researchers say that to meet this target we are going to have to actively remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Since 2009, there has been a growing body of research pointing in the same direction, of which this Nature paper is but the latest.
Quantifications of the pledges before the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) suggested a less than 50 per cent chance of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius…
Limiting warming not only to ‘just below’ but to ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius or 1.5 degrees Celsius urgently requires policies and actions to bring about steep emission reductions this decade, aligned with mid-century global net-zero CO2 emissions.
(14) REPEAT AFTER ME. If you have eight minutes to spare you can watch a “Giant ‘Live Long and Prosper’ Supercut” with every appearance of the Vulcan phrase in every Star Trek series. Nerdist gives a rundown —
…This montage (which we first saw at Laughing Squid) includes all the times someone said that phrase, from the franchise’s first days to right now. Characters first told others to “live long and prosper” on the original cast’s show, animated series, and movies. Since then Star Trek characters in The Next Generation, First Contact, Voyager, Enterprise, Lower Decks, and Prodigy have said the phrase, too.
(Uh, can we go back and edit one into Deep Space Nine? Now that we know zero characters ever said the Vulcan salute, it seems weird, right?)
(15) MIXED MEDIA. Daniel Greene’s “Best of the Year 2021” rankings are unusual in that he includes written as well as filmed media, so there’s some nice shout-outs for several notable SF/Fantasy printed works in here.
(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] The How It Should Have Ended gang takes on the Snyder cut in this video, which dropped Thursday. “How The Snyder Cut Should Have Ended”.
[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Jennifer Hawthorne, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Irwin Hirsh, Joyce Scrivner, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jeff Smith.]
The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
2021 RINGO AWARDS
BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)
Stan Sakai
BEST WRITER
James Tynion IV
BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER
Jamal Campbell
BEST INKER
Sanford Greene
BEST LETTERER
Aditya Bidikar
BEST COLORIST
Tamra Bonvillain
BEST COVER ARTIST
Peach Momoko
BEST SERIES
Usagi Yojimbo, IDW Publishing
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY
The O.Z., self-published
BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL
Pulp, Image Comics
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Be Gay, Do Comics, IDW Publishing
BEST HUMOR COMIC
Metalshark Bro 2: Assault on Hamzig Island, Scout Comics
Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
The Ringo Awards, the Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot, and The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony on Saturday, October 23 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.
2021 RINGO AWARDS NOMINEES
BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)
Derf Backderf
Mongie
Stan Sakai
Rachel Smythe
Adrian Tomine
Sophie Yanow
BEST WRITER
Penelope Bagieu
Anthony Del Col
Jason Douglas
N.K. Jemisin
Marjorie Liu
James Tynion IV
Ram V
BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER
Josh Adams
Jamal Campbell
Elsa Charretier
Hanza Art
Sana Takeda
BEST INKER
Sanford Greene
Brett Hobson
Jjolee
Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Tonci Zonjic
BEST LETTERER
Deron Bennett
Aditya Bidikar
DC Hopkins
Micah Myers
Chas! Pangburn
BEST COLORIST
Toyin Ajetunmobi
Laura Allred
Tamra Bonvillain
Aladdin Lee Grant Rutledge Collar
Jacob Phillips
Joe Todd-Stanton
Christian Ward
BEST COVER ARTIST
Gian Carlo Bernal
Stephanie Hans
Maan House
Steve Lieber
Peach Momoko
Kevin O’Neill
Joe Todd-Stanton
BEST SERIES
The Department of Truth, Image Comics
Far Sector, DC Comics
Lore Olympus, WEBTOON
My Deepest Secret, WEBTOON
Usagi Yojimbo, IDW Publishing
Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, DC
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY
All-America Comix #1, Image Comics
Firefly: The Outlaw Ma Reynolds (BOOM! Studios)
Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” from Ice Cream Man Present Quarantine Comix Special #1, Image Comics
The O.Z., self-published
Parallel, Source Point Press
BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL
Buried But Not Dead, Source Point Press
Kent State, Abrams Books
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Drawn & Quarterly
Moms, Drawn & Quarterly
Pulp, Image Comics
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Be Gay, Do Comics, IDW Publishing
Hey, Amateur! Go From Novice to Nailing It in 9 Panels, IDW Publishing
Maybe Someday: Stories of Promise, Visions of Hope, A Wave Blue World
Pandemix: Quarantine Comix in the Age of ‘Rona, self-published
Votes for Women: The Battle for the 19th Amendment, Little Red Bird Press
BEST HUMOR COMIC
Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
ArkhaManiacs, DC
Billionaire Island, AHOY Comics
Love and Capes: The Family Way, Maerkle Press/IDW Publishing
Metalshark Bro 2: Assault on Hamzig Island, Scout Comics
The 2020 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards winners were revealed in a virtual ceremony during the Baltimore Comic-Con on October 24.
The Ringo Awards were picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.
Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)
Stan Sakai
Best Writer
Mariko Tamaki
Best Artist or Penciller
Sanford Greene
Best Inker
Sandra Hope
Best Letterer
Nate Piekos
Best Colorist
Jordie Bellaire
Best Cover Artist
Sana Takeda
Best Series
Bitter Root, Image Comics
Best Single Issue or Story
Usagi Yojimbo #6, IDW Publishing
Best Original Graphic Novel
Snow, Glass, Apples, Dark Horse Comics
Best Anthology
Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Sirens, Archaia (BOOM! Studios)