So, it looks like the world is stuck inside anyways, so I thought it might be a good time to start talking about the awards this year.

I'm not going to put in my usual copy/paste explanation about the awards yet, so this is going to be a place holder. My husband had commandeered the family computer temporarily to work at home, and I have donated my tablet to my toddler so he can watch Frozen and Moana back-to-back-to-back-to-back while he is stuck indoors. So, doing all my usual post on a cell phone is more challenge than I want to take. Side note, I'm 34 weeks pregnant with my second child (another boy) and I thought it would be good to get this started early.

So, that side trip aside, let's get down to business. I've been running the annual Drunk Duck Awards since 2011. I did take a break from it last year to catch my breath. I think the awards are great fun. But they do take up a good half year from planning to presenting, and I needed a break after 8 straight years. I am not the original host of the awards, I just sort of adopted the 5th annual awards and no one wrestled them from my tyrannical grip since.

So before I run off anybody with my text wall, I better say what the awards are. They are an annual celebration of what makes this website great: the community. Think of something like the Oscars, but a lot less pretentious. Most of the awards categories are reserved for comics of course. We have genre awards like Best Horror and Best Fantasy. We have technical aware like Best Background Art or Best Layouts. We even have awards for Best Protagonist and Antagonist to mimic the Best Actor/Actress awards. We also have the user awards which recognize the individuals that work the hardest within the community to make this a fun site for all.

This undertaking will need volunteers, but for now this is just an open discussion about what has gone well in recent incarnations of the awards, and what could use some tuning up. Ask questions if you want to know more, etc. I'll come back in a few days with my usual post that has the existing categories, rough schedule, and discussion notes created from feedback from the 2018 awards.

Planning ~ Now - July

Red Carpet Submissions Accepted ~ Now - September 1st

FYC Pages Accepted ~ Now - July 18th

The Drunk Duck Award Design Contest
Submissions ~ June 27th - July 4th
Voting ~ July 5th - July 11th

Drunk Duck Awards Voting Opens ~ July 12th - August 8th

Tie Breakers (as needed) ~ August 9th - August 15th

Finalists Announced/Volunteers Assigned ~ August 16th - August 22nd

Judging ~ August 23rd - October 10th

Emergency Wrap Up ~ October 11th - October 24th

The Ceremony Begins ~ October 26th



And here is our usual list of categories:

GENRE AWARDS


Best Adventure Comic:
Quests, missions, explorations, and/or other dangerous or exciting ventures.

Best Adult-oriented Comic:
A-rated comics. XXX No one under 18 admitted! Live nudes! Or excessive violence. Or both!

Best All Ages Comic:
Child-friendly comics that the whole family can enjoy.

Best Anthropomorphic Comic:
They act like people and think like people, but they look like foxes or dolphins or toasters.

Best Community Project:
Comics and projects that bring together a variety of DD members for
massive synergy! (DD Awards are not eligible, for giving ourselves an
award would create a paradox vortex from which there is no escape.)

Best Drama:
A story focused on a real world setting and is character-driven with a focus on emotions. Courtroom dramas, medical dramas, crime dramas, romantic dramas, high school dramas (but when is high school not dramatic?), etc.


Best Fantasy Comic:
Magical, mythical, mystical, marvelous. Comics set in fantastical
settings, involving magic or mythical creatures, abilities, or beings.

Best Horror Comic:
The dark, scary, and twisted. Monsters, psychological thrillers, and
ax-wielding psychos all have their place among these wonderfully
horrific comics.

Best Humor Comic:
Gags, jokes, lols, roflmaos, and such. Format and subject matter aren't important. It just has to make you laugh.

Best Mystery/Crime/Noir:
Crime drama, police, mobsters, mysteries, hard-boiled detectives, and/or meddling kids.

Best Parody/Tribute:
Comics that use the characters, worlds, or creations of other creators. It's not copyright infringement! It's an homage!

Best Philosophical/Political Comic:
Make-you-think comics that address deep topics from the spiritual and philosophical to the cultural or political.

Best Sci-fi Comic:
A form of speculative fiction so named because the fantastical
elements are rooted in or explained by actual or fictional scientific
theory.


Best Superhero Comic:
Too super for other categories.


~~~~~


STYLE AWARDS

Best Action Within A Comic :
Chase scenes, fights, big explosions; CRASH POW ZOOM – you know the stuff

Best Manga Style Comic:
Comics inspired by the artistic style and conventions of Japanese cartooning.


Most Deliciously Offensive:
These f can be good, bad, or other.


~~~~~

USER AWARDS
Outstanding Achievement Within the Community:
The
user that will win this award is always there to participate in the
community no matter what. These people show their support for the site
within the forums and by participating in community projects.


Most Dedicated Creator:
That creator who seems to be a page-making machine, every day on
time – or maybe the one who has been at it forever and has a thousand
pages of the most amazing quality – or the one who is updating five
different regular comics on a schedule. Whatever they are doing, they
sure are DEDICATED.

Most Supportive Reader:
Maybe they leave the most comments or the most insightful ones, or
they draw wonderful fanart, or they are always available to discuss your script ideas or send you cards when you're on hiatus.


Best Newcomer Award
Awarded to a newcomer who has come to the site who has really stood out. They could be creators or dedicated readers

~~~~~

THE BIG ONES

Best Completed Comic:
Comics that were concluded sometime between July 2017 and now. (Indefinite hiatus doesn't count.)

Best Overall Comic Strip:
Best webcomic with stand-alone updates or short, unrelated story arcs, usually in a horizontal or vertical strip format.

Best Overall Story Comic:
Best webcomic that tells a continuous story, usually in full page format.

~~~~~

Create Your Own Award
Didn't see the proper award for the comic/person you were thinking of on this
list? Make one up. Create your own award and give it a winner. Best
awards will be chosen by a dedicated team of judges.


~~~~~

OTHER AWARDS

Readers' Choice Award: Presented to the comic that received the most votes overall.

Best Presenter Award: Presented after the regular awards. Readers vote for their favorite presenter.

Niccea wrote:
placeholder for my usual awards copy/paste

How do I enter?

Hurrah for DD Awards! I'm all for it, to contribute in all the ways I did last time, including a Red Carpet :D

I'm happy to help in usual capacity too. Definitely judging. Possibly “judge wrangling.” Maybe presenting.

I loved doing all those presentations. It was great fun:D Judging is a great way to discover new comics.

Might even do another awards after party comic with more crossovers this time and definitely Kirk Douglas.

My second post has been edited to show the rough (very rough) schedule of events. In 2018 I had at least one person ask about altering the schedule because the month I usually devote to volunteering was during their busy time. Since we live all over the world, it is hard to find a time frame that really works for everyone. When I started hosting, I was still in college, so I shoehorned the majority of the events into what was my summer break. But our demographics do change so I just wanted to bring it up. I'm busy year round now since I work the Monday-Friday 8-5 grind, so it doesn't matter to me.

So, about some of the events. I guess I better explain the non-obvious ones.

I open up planning for the awards pretty early to give plenty of room to modify the schedule and the categories. I always what to give some time to discuss these so things can be hammered out before we start accepting FYCs. So please review the list of categories and make suggestions if you feel like it.

So, I use the acronym FYC. This stands for: FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. Just like studios lobby their movies to be nominated for certain Oscars, we have FYCs so authors can show of their comic(s) and provide categories suggestions that they would like to be nominated for. We have done this many ways throughout the years, and I look forward to what we go with this year. During this phase of the awards, we would usually discuss how we would like to do them. We have done themes and free-for-alls before.

We also have contest to design the award. I (or someone else)use the winning designs to create the trophies.

During the judging phase, I provide the judges with the top 3-5 nominees for each category, and they decide a winner from the selection. Simultaneously people that volunteered to present make presentation pages to announce the winner for each category.

For examples of how all of this looks, please feel free to review the archives under my comics.

With all this isolation there's no excuse for anyone not to volunteer for the DD awards. You're home anyway, just get away from the gaming console and drop by DD.

bravo1102 wrote:
With all this isolation there's no excuse for anyone not to volunteer for the DD awards. You're home anyway, just get away from the gaming console and drop by DD.

My thoughts exactly.

Other news:
We now have a channel on the Discord server to facilitate real time conversation. I'll reiterate anything that is said over there for those that haven't joined.

On that note Tantz has volunteered to head up s red carpet event for the awards just like she did in 2018. For now it is slated to be simultaneous with the FYCs.

Since I really don't have an updating comic, well at least one that anyone would remember to nominate :D I should be available for everything.

I love doing presentations. My kind of creative challenge and fun.

Niccea wrote:
Here is the usual schedule of events in a very rough form:

Planning ~ Now - July

FYC Pages and Red Carpet Submissions Accepted ~ May - June

The Drunk Duck Award Design Contest
Submissions ~ First Week of June
Voting ~ Second Week of June

Drunk Duck Awards Voting Opens ~ July

Tie Breakers (as needed) ~ First Week of August

Finalists Announced/Volunteers Assigned ~ Second Week of August

Judging ~ Second Week of August - September

Emergency Wrap Up ~ Last week of September - First week of October

The Ceremony Begins ~ Second Week of October



And here is our usual list of categories:

GENRE AWARDS


Best Adventure Comic:
Quests, missions, explorations, and/or other dangerous or exciting ventures.

Best Adult-oriented Comic:
A-rated comics. XXX No one under 18 admitted! Live nudes! Or excessive violence. Or both!

Best All Ages Comic:
Child-friendly comics that the whole family can enjoy.

Best Anthropomorphic Comic:
They act like people and think like people, but they look like foxes or dolphins or toasters.

Best Community Project:
Comics and projects that bring together a variety of DD members for
massive synergy! (DD Awards are not eligible, for giving ourselves an
award would create a paradox vortex from which there is no escape.)

Best Drama:
A story focused on a real world setting and is character-driven with a focus on emotions. Courtroom dramas, medical dramas, crime dramas, romantic dramas, high school dramas (but when is high school not dramatic?), etc.


Best Fantasy Comic:
Magical, mythical, mystical, marvelous. Comics set in fantastical
settings, involving magic or mythical creatures, abilities, or beings.

Best Horror Comic:
The dark, scary, and twisted. Monsters, psychological thrillers, and
ax-wielding psychos all have their place among these wonderfully
horrific comics.

Best Humor Comic:
Gags, jokes, lols, roflmaos, and such. Format and subject matter aren't important. It just has to make you laugh.

Best Mystery/Crime/Noir:
Crime drama, police, mobsters, mysteries, hard-boiled detectives, and/or meddling kids.

Best Parody/Tribute:
Comics that use the characters, worlds, or creations of other creators. It's not copyright infringement! It's an homage!

Best Philosophical/Political Comic:
Make-you-think comics that address deep topics from the spiritual and philosophical to the cultural or political.

Best Sci-fi Comic:
A form of speculative fiction so named because the fantastical
elements are rooted in or explained by actual or fictional scientific
theory.


Best Superhero Comic:
Too super for other categories.


~~~~~


STYLE AWARDS

Best Action Within A Comic :
Chase scenes, fights, big explosions; CRASH POW ZOOM – you know the stuff

Best Manga Style Comic:
Comics inspired by the artistic style and conventions of Japanese cartooning.


Most Deliciously Offensive:
These f can be good, bad, or other.


~~~~~

USER AWARDS
Outstanding Achievement Within the Community:
The
user that will win this award is always there to participate in the
community no matter what. These people show their support for the site
within the forums and by participating in community projects.


Most Dedicated Creator:
That creator who seems to be a page-making machine, every day on
time – or maybe the one who has been at it forever and has a thousand
pages of the most amazing quality – or the one who is updating five
different regular comics on a schedule. Whatever they are doing, they
sure are DEDICATED.

Most Supportive Reader:
Maybe they leave the most comments or the most insightful ones, or
they draw wonderful fanart, or they are always available to discuss your script ideas or send you cards when you're on hiatus.


Best Newcomer Award
Awarded to a newcomer who has come to the site who has really stood out. They could be creators or dedicated readers

~~~~~

THE BIG ONES

Best Completed Comic:
Comics that were concluded sometime between July 2017 and now. (Indefinite hiatus doesn't count.)

Best Overall Comic Strip:
Best webcomic with stand-alone updates or short, unrelated story arcs, usually in a horizontal or vertical strip format.

Best Overall Story Comic:
Best webcomic that tells a continuous story, usually in full page format.

~~~~~

Create Your Own Award
Didn't see the proper award for the comic/person you were thinking of on this
list? Make one up. Create your own award and give it a winner. Best
awards will be chosen by a dedicated team of judges.


~~~~~

OTHER AWARDS

Readers' Choice Award: Presented to the comic that received the most votes overall.

Best Presenter Award: Presented after the regular awards. Readers vote for their favorite presenter.

This all sounds super creative and fun! Admittedly I still don’t know exactly how this all works though. Do we nominate our comics and/or other people’s comics on this forum thread or somewhere else? And are we supposed to draw our characters wearing red-carpet dresses and such?

There will be a ballot of nominations in a few months. You can make a For Your Consideration page to highlight your work to encourage people to vote for you. The top 3 - 5 comics that receive the most nominations are the finalists.

Right now we are just on planning stages. Hammering out categories, deciding themes, and whatnot.

Okay, cool!

I want in. I’ll draw something for this.

I'm looking for more stuff to do and I'd love to help out with this wherever I can👍 I've never volunteered in an awards event before, but I do have some IRL-experience of nomination from my past as an active member of a drama association in my hometown. Count me in on this👍

cdmalcolm1 wrote:
I want in. I’ll draw something for this.

So how do I enter, I really want to be a part of this. :)

Checking in and I'm very glad to see the Awards are back. I would like to volunteer as a Presenter. Thanks :)

MegaRdaniels wrote:

cdmalcolm1 wrote:
I want in. I’ll draw something for this.

So how do I enter, I really want to be a part of this. :)

You have entered the awards zone. At this point it's mainly offering to help in whatever way you can.
When it comes to the voting stage people may vote for your comic, but if you create a FYC page then it could encourage votes. The FYC pages get posted on the awards comic prior to voting stage.
You can offer to help judge nominees, don't worry ant conflict of interest will be avoided.
You can offer to do awards presentations, which is essentially making a (usually) single page comic that announces the winner of a category.
The planning stages are pretty loose so don't worry, just try and keep up to date and let Niccea know in what ways you're willing to help.

I wouldn't mind helping however/whenever I can. Just either send me a message letting me know what I can help with or just reply to this.

I would love to enter my 2 comics to the DD awards too, but if I understand correctly, as long as you're already on the Duck and updating you're automatically entered?

Seems like fun and would love to participate either way. :)

The following categories were only able to scare up two or less nominees last year:

Best Adult Oriented

Best All Ages

Best Anthropomorphic

Best Community Project

Best Drama

Best Manga

Best Use Of Medium

Best Supporting Character

Best Overall Comic Strip

Most of these could probably be cut. Adult and All Ages should probably be cut, which I guess completely eliminates the age-specific brackets.

Best Anthropomorphic is probably not necessary anymore. Anthro comics should be able to be judged on the same footing as non anthro titles.

Best Community Project could be replaced with a Community Spotlight presentation instead.

Best Drama and Best Manga are a deep enough field that they should probably stay regardless.

Best Use Of Medium, I dunno… It's gotta be hard to get enough voter consensus on that one, but it's important to highlight quality artwork. Is there something else we can do here?

Best Supporting Character, that's also a tough one to get nominations for and to judge… I think it would make sense to lose this one.

Best Overall Comic Strip: This probably needs to stay; there's still a decent number of comic strips updating on this site.

Genejoke wrote:

MegaRdaniels wrote:

cdmalcolm1 wrote:
I want in. I’ll draw something for this.

So how do I enter, I really want to be a part of this. :)

You have entered the awards zone. At this point it's mainly offering to help in whatever way you can.
When it comes to the voting stage people may vote for your comic, but if you create a FYC page then it could encourage votes. The FYC pages get posted on the awards comic prior to voting stage.
You can offer to help judge nominees, don't worry ant conflict of interest will be avoided.
You can offer to do awards presentations, which is essentially making a (usually) single page comic that announces the winner of a category.
The planning stages are pretty loose so don't worry, just try and keep up to date and let Niccea know in what ways you're willing to help.

Ohhhh….okay…okay. I'll script something for this award show.

I'll be up for helping this year, I can't remember if I did last year, probably no given what last year was like for me.

Genejoke wrote:
I'll be up for helping this year, I can't remember if I did last year, probably no given what last year was like for me.

There were no 2019 awards. I think 2019 was like that for all of us.

I can help out judging. I fear I might be too busy to work on a presentation, but we'll see..

Remember the best use of medium was the combination of the best 3/D poser and Best Photographic categories. So it's a compromise.

Fur anthropomorphic, I feel like we'll get rid of it and a dozen new comics about toasters and straws and happy animals will pop up.

I can't really think of an alternative for the Best Use of Medium (Traditional) category. It probably got so few nominees because the voting was very scattershot, with a lot of comics getting a vote but few getting multiple votes. The only fix for that I could see, would be breaking it back up into multiple subcategories, but then that becomes a judging nightmare and in some cases the nominee pools become too thin.

I'm ok with removing the age based awards. I'm getting tired of weeding through the votes for comics that don't match the age rating.

I would keep the best adult so DD can promote its friendliness to adult content.

And you know the last all ages comic won the award and then changed its rating to “teen” . Great irony there.

Hi again.

I posted on this thread like one and a half month ago that I was looking for more stuff to do and that I wanted to volunteer for the awards. My priorities have changed. I would like to spend more time on my writing these coming months, so I hereby would like to withdraw my availability as a volunteer. It seems like you got plenty of people volunteering anyway, so I'm sure this will be great without me having an active hand in it. Cheers!

Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
Hi again.

I posted on this thread like one and a half month ago that I was looking for more stuff to do and that I wanted to volunteer for the awards. My priorities have changed. I would like to spend more time on my writing these coming months, so I hereby would like to withdraw my availability as a volunteer. It seems like you got plenty of people volunteering anyway, so I'm sure this will be great without me having an active hand in it. Cheers!

The awards won't get going until June-July.

From my experience writing a brief awards presentation is a great writing exercise. Like how to present and explain a topic briefly, doing a whole story in a page and setting up a gag and a payoff.

Last time around I did a pile of presentations and doing the characterization and a story around the award show provided me with a lot of insight into the storyline of the comic I was doing.

I also had to do a couple last minute to fill in and that was a great exercise is working on a tight deadline. I feel like I really challenged myself doing all those presentations.