I'm going to open up the awards for For Your Consideration pages now. The rules are simple: keep the page rated PG or so and use the theme in your page. There were plenty of great ideas for themes this year, so it was a hard decision to pick just ones. Thousands of years in the future, archeologists are excavating the Drunk Duck Awards hall. They see the trophies and collateral damage from the awards and are trying to figure out more about the lost civilization that inhabited the area. Do they think our interdimensional comic book home is made by aliens, an offshoot of Ancient Egypt, or some sort of war zone? Please PQ your submissions to me or email niccea(a)gmail(dot)com.

Also, I am not on Twitter, but for those you do tag the Drunk Duck Twitter and use #DrunkDuckAwards

I made a quick think for twitter letting people know about the awards, made a tweet and drawing https://twitter.com/furwerkstudio/status/1510064800537067523
.

What are the dates of eligible comics pages?

Banes wrote:

What are the dates of eligible comics pages?

Let's say July 2020 to present. I don't think there will be an issue with judging the last two years worth and if there is due to a ponderous archive, we'll deal case by case and possibly only go back one year for the problem categories.

Sounds good. Thanks!

I would like to thank everyone that submitted For Your Consideration pages so far. I believe that this is the best early turn out that I've seen so far. I had a new page every day this week starting the day after I opened up submissions. I'm looking forward to a great awards season this year. There is still plenty of time to submit For Your Consideration pages, the Red Carpet Event is up and running, and the trophy design contest will be at the end of next month.

Ok. So, every year I get the same questions about the Drunk Duck Awards. Since I’m visual and kinesthetic and I have also been running the awards for 11 years, I often skimp on explanations. I’m going to try to make blog post style entries that talk about the awards.

A Brief (And Possibly Inaccurate) History of the Awards

The first Drunk Duck Awards was in 2007. It was hosted entirely within the forums of the website, and did not have an attendant comic to go with. The second awards was the first awards to be hosted within comic format. The Master of Ceremonies was amanda. The comic for the awards was very different than its current form today. It was only an opening page, presentation pages, and a credits page. amanda ran the awards again with help from JustNoPoint in 2009. JustNoPoint took over the awards in 2010. He has been an important part of the puzzle for quote some time. JustNoPoint hosted a forum site away from drunkduck.com that gave a separate place for the judging of the awards that allowed the judges to convene easily, keep an archive of the judgements, and, finally, keep the winners under wraps until the presentations. In 2011, the fifth annual awards was just in the beginning of its planning phase when tragedy struck. The Drunk Duck website crashed and was down for a period of time. When the site was back up, the planning for the awards had essentially ground to a halt and the awards did not have an MC at the helm. At the time, I was the appointed mod of the Networking and Community Projects forum. I had only helped out with the awards for my first time the previous year, but I didn’t want to see the awards disappear. I took up the MC job only planning to do it for that year. JustNoPoint was able to communicate with me on how some things were done and gave me an admin role on the forum that he had made for judging so I could continue the awards.

The 2011 awards brought forth changes to the format of the awards comic. Based on suggestions in the planning thread of the awards, I introduced the For Your Consideration (FYC) section of the comic for the first time. During the 2012 Awards, the Design the Awards Contest, which was previously contained to threads on the forum, was added to the comic. 2013 was the first time that a theme was used for the FYC section of the awards. From 2013, the format of the Awards was largely unchanged up until 2018. I was the main MC for most of the time with an exception in 2017. I had started getting the awards together, but I had some personal issues come up. Banes was able to step up, take what I had together, and wrap up the awards. 2018 was the first year that Tantz_Aerine hosted the Red Carpet event, and the event was integrated into the comic the next season in 2020.

Including the addition of the Red Carpet Event, 2020 saw several large changes. First of all, there were no awards hosted in 2019, so for many users that joined during that year, this was their first time seeing the Drunk Duck Awards. Also, in 2020 the beloved Judges Forum crashed. It was not able to be recovered. The Awards Discord server was made to be a stand in for the judging forum and it worked fairly well. This year (2022) is only the second year that we are using Discord to enhance the awards. Judging will be held on the server later this year, but the planning channel has been really active with good discourse regarding the awards.

And that is my best nutshell of the history of the awards.

The Awards Cycle

Since I took over the awards in 2011, the awards have followed the same cycle regardless of the actual events. There is a planning phase, pre-awards phase, voting phase, volunteer phase, and, finally, the presentation phase. The next year we do it all over again. For the next couple of posts I’m going to talk about what happens during these stages. Some are self-explanatory and to the point, but others are a little more involved. Also, fair warning, I’m not going to go in order.

Voting Phase

I get a lot of questions about how a comic is nominated for the awards, so I’m going to go ahead and discuss this piece of the awards first. Any comic that is actively updating on the website or has finished within the last year (two years in the event of a skip year) is eligible to be nominated for the awards.

Each year for the awards I create a ballot using Google Forms for people to nominate comics for the awards. I go over the ballots, throw out the invalid votes, and tabulate the final numbers to come to the nominees. Invalid votes are votes that break the rules. These are the rules for voting on the awards:

~One ballot per person. (Must have a valid Drunk Duck Account)
~No voting for yourself. (That means comics you work on)
~Drunk Duck hosted (or mirrored) comics only.
~Comics must be actively updating or completed within the last year.
~You may enter a comic in more than one category (however, don't enter it for all categories.)

The top 3-5 voted eligible comics in each category with more than one vote become the nominees. If there are more than 5 comics nominated, a tie-breaker vote is hosted for the comics with the lowest votes to fill the spots. However, if there is a large amount of comics that would have to be put into a tie-breaker round, amount of nominees for the comic is reduced to 3 or 4. In rare cases if only one comic receives more than one vote or there is a large tie breaker for slot 2 on, the comic with the most votes is declared the winner of the category. This category will not go into judgement, but the winner will be announced the awards presentation.

Pre-Awards Phase

Going back a step now. I have covered what the rules are for comics to secure a nomination. But how do you get people to vote for your comic? That is where the pre-awards stage comes in. Before voting opens, there are plenty of opportunities to get your name out there and start to bring attention to your comic. Why only try to promote yourself to you current followers in hopes that they will vote when you can participate in the pre-awards and possible secure new readers along with votes?

At this time there are three events that either begin or occur during this part of the awards season. All three can be used to show case your talent, and two of them can be used to bring direct attention to your comic.

For Your Consideration Pages are a very easy way to introduce your comic and what awards you would like to see it nominated for. Submitted pages will appear in the awards comic, and you can also show them on your own comic, of course. Anything that is submitted for the awards comic must be appropriate for all audiences. I usually say keep it G or PG. No nudity, violence, or swears, but tasteful implications of the three are generally ok. The only other rule for submitting an FYC page is to keep with the theme. The FYC pages usually have a loose theme to tie everything together. Some pages follow the theme super strictly, while others give it a passing nod. Because the FYCs are designed to showcase comics in hopes of being nominated for the awards, pages that do not follow the theme will still be shown, but they will not appear until the very end of the FYC period which usually end after voting has already been open for a week.
FYC page submission is not required in order to be elegible for award nomination. It merely serves as a way to advertise your comic.

Design the Awards Contest is a contest to design the trophy for the awards. The trophy design is used to create banners for the nominees and winners. Anyone can submit a design for this contest. Though it doesn’t showcase your comic, it can show off your art style and get your name out there. This contest is usually run in the weeks leading up the ballots for the awards opening. Anyone can vote for the winning design. The winning design is the trophy used for the awards winners. The runner up design is used for the awards finalists. And the other designs are incorporated as part the design for the awards comic.

The Red Carpet Event has run by Tantz_Aerine since its creation. Anyone can submit to Tantz images of their comic characters in casual dress and in gala dress on transparent background. The casual images are public posted on the Red Carpet thread in the forms. The formal dress pictures are sent to Tantz privately. She uses the images to make composite wallpaper of all the participants. This even has a little longer scope and the due date is after the nominees for the awards are announced. Once again, this serves as a great way to introduce yourself and your art style prior to the awards.


Once again, participation in these events is not required to be eligible for the awards. However, it does help keep interest up throughout the awards season and hopefully bring more readers for your comics.

Planning Phase

The planning phase is between the previous years presentation and the pre-awards for the following year. There isn’t much to explain about it. Feed back is provided about the previous year and plans are made for the following. Sometime categories are added/cut/modified. The FYC theme is discussed and there is a lot of Q Do you like telling other people what you think? Do you quietly observe comics like a stalker in the corner? Consider judging. The judges are the heart and soul of the awards. It is up to them to decide the winners from each category. Judges, though they are not expected to be professional art critics, are required to put some thought behind their decision. The best way for judges to show this is to do a pro and con comparison of the nominees. Though anything is all right as long as it is easy to see that some thought went into picking the winner. Judges are only responsible for reading a year or two worth of pages depending on when the last awards were. The only exception to this is the Best Completed Comic where the judges are encouraged to read the entire comic.

Judging takes place on the Discord server for the awards. Each category is assigned 2 to 3 judges to read the comics and debate on the winner. Usually, a third judges is only brought in if the original two judges cannot come to consensus. The judges have private threads for each category on the Discord server that only the assigned volunteers can view. There are also Judge Wranglers on the Discord server to help keep the judges in line. Sometimes, the help mediate disputes between the judges or even ask the judges neutral questions that help them during the process. Other times a Judge Wrangler has to track down the judges and bring them back to the server to finish their category.

Presentation Phase

You would think that this would be pretty self-explanatory and straight forward phase, however there is more than simply showing the comic. The presentation phase actually begins in the background of the volunteer phase, and is here that everything begins to come together. Once a winner is declared by the judges, I create a trophy for the winner. Hopefully, by this time, the presentation for the category is also completed and I can add the winner’s name to the presentation page. If the presentation page is not ready yet, I notate to go back to it.

By the time of the presentation, ideally, a lot of the work is already completed and all that is left to assemble the comic. Each presentation page in the comic will have the winner’s name. Also, in the author’s notes, links to winner comic, a winning banner, credits for the presenter, and statements from the judges. After a page is posted, I go back and make sure that all the links work, and that the image for the trophy shows up.

Interspersed before, during, and after the presentation pages are extras pages that include behind the scenes moments, acceptance speeches, and concession speeches. Once again, these pages help keep the momentum of the presentation phase going and allows the winners to give their thanks.

At the end of the awards presentation credits are usually released to notes who the judges and presenters were as well as shout out to other roles such as the brave people that provided input in the planning phase and the participants of the award design contest. I was unable to make one in 2020 because of personal issues and a comedy of errors.

And, hopefully that sums up all the end and outs of the awards.

Ballots are open!

The awards are in need of volunteers. Please let me know if you would like to present or judge.

Is anyone going to slap anyone else?

Dave Mire wrote:

Is anyone going to slap anyone else?

@Dave Mire - only if there are volunteers in the slap-someone category!



I'll do presentation pages. For an opening salvo – I'll take four presentations if needed. Might manage more if needed (throws gauntlet down at bravo's feet)

Banes wrote:

Dave Mire wrote:

Is anyone going to slap anyone else?

@Dave Mire - only if there are volunteers in the slap-someone category!



I'll do presentation pages. For an opening salvo – I'll take four presentations if needed. Might manage more if needed (throws gauntlet down at bravo's feet)

Feel free to slap me if I go past three-four presentation pages.

Sorry Banes, after doing half the presentations last time I'm done. There's just no beating that and why would you want to?
I made good on my threat of previous years that if no one else did presentations, I'd do them all. I made good on the threat. Let's give others a chance to come forward.

@bravo -

well, I was just funnin' around…and also flattering myself I guess, with the
notion that we were ever in competition; you've done WAY more presentations than I, and I don't think I'll ever catch up. Nor would I want to! xD

Banes wrote:
@bravo -

well, I was just funnin' around…and also flattering myself I guess, with the
notion that we were ever in competition; you've done WAY more presentations than I, and I don't think I'll ever catch up. Nor would I want to! xD

Then this is your year to catch up! xD

And don't fool yourself, we were in competition and quantity can never make up for quality. ;)

Only a week and half left to vote for you favorite comics in the Drunk Duck Awards. Creators, you are more than welcome to put a link to the ballots in your author notes or in your comic links. The ballots will close 11:59 PM CDT on July 9th.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qScoM3wYpignIoqFBfBT2tzhTgDO2VxKnL3QH_KAMS8/

Also, we always need volunteers please consider volunteering if you haven't already.

Just asking, in the google voting doc:

“Best Completed Comic
Comics that were concluded sometime between July 2018 and now. (Indefinite hiatus doesn't count.)”

I'm guessing that should be July 2021 not 2018?

dpat57 wrote:
Just asking, in the google voting doc:

“Best Completed Comic
Comics that were concluded sometime between July 2018 and now. (Indefinite hiatus doesn't count.)”

I'm guessing that should be July 2021 not 2018?

I knew I missed one date change. It is 2020 to now

Your finalists are Here! Please consider volunteering. We have plenty of room.

I have PQ the presenters their assignments and the Judges now have access to judging threads on the Awards Discord server. Not too late to volunteer!

Okay it's done! The mega thread with all the #DDAwards nominees is now up on the DD Twitter! You can find it here https://twitter.com/DrunkDuck/status/1549399469061447681

Please have a look-see. Comment and retweet the entire thing and single posts from it. Use the hashtag #DDAwards when you do it (because I forgot after the first tweet, I know I'm sorry, I was in pain) and watch out for occasional retweets of chunks of it by me!

If there is anything I got wrong or if I didn't tag anyone (because I had no PQ from you) do it yourself by quote retweeting! Add more images under your comic's tweet.

If you have been nominated for more than one award, the same tweet has been posted under the different categories, so look out for that as well, and if you want to post extra images, it could be a nice thing to make them relevant to the award they're nominated for!

Now excuse me while I go back to my old-lady back-pain woes.

Hey guys, we are off to a great start for this year's awards. We started the presentations and judging assignments a week ahead of schedule and I have already got several back. We still have until September to get everything done, so I think we are doing great. I still have 7 presentations available and I'm currently fighting off bravo1102 with a stick. Please let me know if you would like to take few and give the poor guy a break.

After bouncing some ideas around in Discord. I decided to revamp how the character awards are awarded. In the case of Best Protagonist this year I got just under twenty characters submitted, but no character received more than one vote, so I had originally dropped the category. After much thought on the best way to continue to recognize the varied characters, I have decided to do a tie breaker for Best Protagonist from the nominations received. Going forward, the Character Awards are just going to be decided by popular vote.

Please vote here by August 6th, so we have enough time to get a presenter on this one.

We have reached the halfway point of the volunteering portion of this year’s Drunk Duck Awards. I do have a couple of categories that had no nominees, but one winner that need presenters. Also, the Awards always accepts extra pages the feature behind the scenes shenanigans.

Still one presentation up for grabs.

Time to figure out where in the closet you put your formal wear. The Drunk Duck Awards ceremony kicks off on Monday with the Red Carpet Event, organized by the lovely Tantz Aerine and commentated by yours truly. There will be a special preview on Sunday with a group picture composed of the pictures summited to the event thread. Hope to see you there!