Saw your April 24th post at SEQUENTIAL regarding the CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR AWARDS' HALL OF FAME 2006 inductees and I thought I should correct a couple misconceptions in your following statement ---

"The Hall of Fame is picked by the awards organizers, whereas the actual awards for "Best Comic Book Penciller" etc are determined by a popular vote by fans."

First off, the H of F inductees were chosen this year, and last year, not by the "awards organizers" but by a learned committee of comic book historians that debated their choices over a number of months until they arrived at a final selection that they felt were most deserving of this honour. These are the members of this committee, many whose names I'm sure you're familiar with ---

HALL OF FAME SELECTIONS COMMITTEE

John Bell is the author of the book, CANUCK COMICS, and the man behind the National Archives’ two comic book websites: GUARDIANS OF THE NORTH and BEYOND THE FUNNIES

Phil Latter is an avid comic collector with a particular interest and knowledge of comic book history (and one of the world’s biggest Zorro experts).

Stephen Lipson is a longtime comic collector with probably the biggest collection of “Canadian Whites” outside of the National Archives.

Henry Mietkiewicz is a former Toronto Star reporter (known for his final interview with Joe Shuster in 1992) and comics expert.

Robert Pincombe is a writer for Roy Thomas’ ALTER-EGO magazine and a comic collector with a particular interest in the history of Canadian creators (also, the man that found Fred Kelly, the creator of the original Mr. Monster --- much to Michael T. Gilbert’s delight!).

Secondly, I'm not sure which awards event in Canada has a "Best Comic Book Penciller" category but it's definitely not the CCBCA / the JOE SHUSTER AWARDS and as for being determined by a "popular vote by fans" that's true, to a certain extent, but that's only after the final nominees on the ballot have been hotly debated and rigorously determined by a nationwide nominating committee made up of comic journalists, collectors, retailers, and, yes, "fans" that burn up the internet with their emails as they narrow their choices down to a manageable list of finalists to be voted on.

It's not a perfect system, to be sure, but so far it seems to be working okay --- though we're always looking at ways to improve it in the future.

In closing, thanx for taking an interest in the CCBCA and for taking the time to post the news about our latest H of F inductees.

JAMES WALEY
Chief Coordinator: CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR AWARDS ASSOCIATION / the JOE SHUSTER AWARDS.