First of all I am so sorry for getting started so late. I have made several attempts to get started, but found many different distractions.

The Awards celebrate the comics, authors, and users that make this site great. For a faster paced discussion (and frequently off topic), we do have a Discord
here.

Please look at this year's schedule and tell me what you think. I had to move a couple of deadlines out because I will be out of town on a couple of weekends and don't want to worry about meeting any deadlines. I also have a list of categories that may or may not need some sprucing up.


Planning ~ Now - June

FYC Pages Accepted ~ Now - June 7th

Red Carpet Submissions ~ May 10th - August 10th

The Drunk Duck Award Design Contest

Submissions ~ May 25th - June 3rd

Voting ~ June 4th - June 7th

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

Tie Breakers (as needed) ~ July 13th - July 21st

Finalists Announced/Volunteers assigned ~ July 22nd - July 26th

Judging ~ July 27th - September 13th

Presentations Due ~ September 13th

Emergency Wrap Up ~ September 14th - September 27th

The Ceremony Begins ~ September 29th



Here are the categories from last year.

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 Atypical Art:
Comics that use 3D rendering, Photography, Sprites, or Macaroni Art or anything use that breaks the mold.

Most Deliciously Offensive:
These f&%#@ comics might p^@(# you the f*^^@* off.

~~~~~

TECHNICAL AWARDS

Best Background Art:
The background, setting, environment, and surroundings. Including architecture, scenery, furniture, vehicles, etc.

Best Character Design:
The artistic design of the characters. This includes anatomy, facial
expressions, and clothing (but not speech, mannerisms, or
personality/actions).

Best Comic Layouts:
The components of visual storytelling that harmonize the artwork
into a page and direct flow and pacing. Includes panel shape and
position, placement of speech balloons, lettering, and general
readability.

Best Dialogue:
It's all about what they say and how they say it.

Best Plot Development:
The overall story composition and pacing, and the use of storytelling elements.

Most Improved Art:
The comic that shows the most artistic improvement between July 2023 and now.

~~~~~

CHARACTER AWARDS

Best Protagonist:
Contrary to popular belief, the protagonist is the main character of the story whether they are good or evil.

Best Antagonist:
Opposes the protagonist. Doesn't necessarily have to be evil
incarnate, it could be Superman in a comic about Lex Luthor for example.



~~~~~

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 2024 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

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. 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.

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 and A about the awards.

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.


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.


Volunteer Phase

This the most important phase of the Drunk Duck Awards, and it is also the longest, with exception to the planning phase which is spread out. Without the help of awards volunteers, the awards would not make it. The main volunteer roles are outlined below, but there are many “see a need, fill a need,” items that may crop up and anyone that wishes to help is welcome.


Presenter Do you like being in the spotlight? Do you want the everyone to see your art? If so, being a presenter is right for you. The presentation pages need to have the nominees for the award, and leave a space for the name of the winner to be placed on the page. Some people leave a white space at the bottom and others leave speech bubbles. Either way it is up to you. The only rule regarding the presentation pages is that they have to be viewable by everyone. So, keep the pages PG at the worst and no slanderous/insulting remarks against other users/comics.


In addition to presentations, extras for the awards comic can be submitted to keep the momentum going and show what is going on behind the scenes of the awards.


Judge 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.

FYC Theme Suggestions:
Life's Twists and Turns
Jumping the Shark
Whodunnit Mystery

This will be an interesting year to vote; I've discovered some new comics over the past year that I have been following and enjoying, some comics I've been following for a while continuing to hold up very well, but then there have also been some comics that seem to have just vanished altogether without a trace.

Niccea wrote:
FYC Theme Suggestions:
Life's Twists and Turns
Jumping the Shark
Whodunnit Mystery

Okay, potatoes didn't fly as a theme last year…..how about our theme be hot dogs?

J_Scarbrough wrote:
This will be an interesting year to vote; I've discovered some new comics over the past year that I have been following and enjoying, some comics I've been following for a while continuing to hold up very well, but then there have also been some comics that seem to have just vanished altogether without a trace.

The coming and going of comics on the duck are a magical mystical thing. Really do miss some that have passed beyond.

plymayer wrote:

J_Scarbrough wrote:
This will be an interesting year to vote; I've discovered some new comics over the past year that I have been following and enjoying, some comics I've been following for a while continuing to hold up very well, but then there have also been some comics that seem to have just vanished altogether without a trace.

The coming and going of comics on the duck are a magical mystical thing. Really do miss some that have passed beyond.

Works both ways. Some of my most supportive readers, who were also prolific creators, have gone on.

bravo1102 wrote:

Works both ways. Some of my most supportive readers, who were also prolific creators, have gone on.

Yep. The Drunk Duck has some of the best most supportive readers. When they go, it really is felt.

As think as far as theme is concerned, I would vote for the Whodunnit Mystery; I think that would make the entire awards as a whole all the more engaging. How would it be executed though? Like would there have been an unknown culprit who has seemingly swiped all of the awards, and the hosts and presenters have to solve the mystery before they can present the winners with their awards?

J_Scarbrough wrote:
As think as far as theme is concerned, I would vote for the Whodunnit Mystery; I think that would make the entire awards as a whole all the more engaging. How would it be executed though? Like would there have been an unknown culprit who has seemingly swiped all of the awards, and the hosts and presenters have to solve the mystery before they can present the winners with their awards?

I think Niccea would leave it up to ppl, but there are many possible ways to interpret it. Invitation to a deadly Awards ceremony perhaps… or the trophies went missing and the suspects are the nominees (with the winner being the culprit, having motive and whatnot)… or everyone could just work on their own detective fiction, presenting their own, separate ideas. I think it offers an opportunity for collaboration but it's best if some do their own thing, makes it all the more fun.

edit: (and if the best trophy design would turn out to be potato or hotdog-themed, it'd probably help include those in many presentations)

How do you go about entering in the contest? Or are all comics posting on this site automatically considered?

Comics hosted on the Duck and updated recently (since June? last year) and are frequently updating qualify, to my understanding. Those that get the most votes for a category can get in front of a team of judges.

well I guess I'm trying to find the way from being “Qualified” to actively seeking out consideration.

Make a For Your Consideration page, that somewhat reflects the whodunit theme. You can look at previous awards (the comics Niccea hosts under her profile) how these things look and just generally how the awards ceremony looks like.

sosradio wrote:
well I guess I'm trying to find the way from being “Qualified” to actively seeking out consideration.

Mobilize your readership. Tell them to vote for your comic when the time comes. As Inky said, make a For your Consideration comic for the DDAwards comic putting forth the case for your comic.

By the way that's one way to do the whodunit. The detective doing the big reveal and it's the comic that's featured in the fyc. And this comic is guilty of the following crimes–

What Inky and Bravo said, that's pretty much what I did for the 2023 DD Awards, I just made a FYC page for my comic.



The main reason I noted it as being for whichever category you find appropriate because I felt that as the comic creator, it really wasn't my place to decide what categories I wanted it to be nominated for, that should be left up to the readers who may want to vote for it and let them decide if it was worthy of being nominated for any particular category, which is why my only disagreement with Bravo is telling your readers to vote for your comic - that's a bit pushy.

We are doing the whodunnit for a theme, and I will make official announcements for that later.

As far as directing readers to vote towards certain categories: it is to your comfort level as far in depth you want to go with it.

I just prohibit straight ballots (same comic in every single line including categories that is not a fit for)

Think an adult comic votes for best all ages or 3D rendered comic votes for best stick figures

J_Scarbrough which is why my only disagreement with Bravo is telling your readers to vote for your comic - that's a bit pushy.

You don't push you end up with nothing. You don't ask them and they won't vote and there will be no nominations. You'll get a big fat nothing. After fifteen years of being told I do good work, I figured I just might deserve better than a big fat nothing.

Ask your readers and let them decide. If they don't want to, they won't. If you don't speak up for your work, don't expect anyone else to. After a while the fans will do it in spite of you because they feel passionately about your work.

The past two years I've been begging my readers not to vote for my comic. I don't push them around. They push me around. They have minds of their own and make their own choices.

Thing of it is, I've learned the hard way being pushy like that only pushes people away altogether. I never pushed VAMPIRE GIRL either on Smack Jeeves during its original run, or here on DD during its second season, but I've gotten much better readership here than I ever did on SJ, mainly because of the stronger sense of community here; people were finding my comic, people were reading my comic, people were enjoying my comic, and I was perfectly happy with that. Would I like for VAMPIRE GIRL to have been nominated for something? Sure I would have, that would have been rewarding . . . but I'd like YouTube and Instagram to give me the blue checkmark I applied for that they never gave me (now Instagram is saying they'll give it to me if I pay for it monthly, but I digress). Ultimately, I decided to go the route Charles Schulz took when refusing to have a laugh track added to A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS during a time when the sound of laughter, canned or live, was a prerequisite for any comedy on television: if my readers enjoyed my comic for any reason, let them vote for such without being prompted.

On another note, I believe it was Othosmops who commented that VG should have been nominated for something, but figured perhaps the comic was just so atypical there wasn't really a category to vote for it in, or something to that effect. Personally, I felt like choosing the categories myself was tooting my own horn, which is why I left it up to the voters with my FYC.

It's one thing to communicate your wants, needs and desires, but you also occasionally have to do something to expedite them. Results speak for themselves.

Here's your chance to let people know what you've done. Take it and have fun with it.

Making specific suggestions in the FYCs will get your comic votes in the category. It works. If there are no suggestions, they won't know a category to put you into and no votes and no nominations. That's what Othomops meant. I made suggestions, he voted and my comic got nominated.

One year I threw out best background as a total lark. And my comic wasn't only nominated, it won. Results speak for themselves.

But don't suggest the reader put your comic in every category because that gets the ballot tossed.

sosradio wrote:
How do you go about entering in the contest? Or are all comics posting on this site automatically considered?

I believe all comics currently updating (within the last year) are eligible. Some one has to nominate the comic in a particular category.

Do you have one you want considered? What is it? And which category do you think it should be in ?

I am accepting For Your Consideration (FYC) pages now until June 7th. Please PQ or email your pages to me. Please keep them in a G to PG rating. FYC pages need to be original creations to be added to this comic, but you can use “stock photos” of your comic to create the pages. Of course, since FYC pages are your own creations, don't forget to use them in your own comics to encourage your readers to nominate you for the awards. And because this has come up before, you can give shout outs for other comics instead of just your own in your FYC page(s).

The theme for this year is Whodunit, or rather loosely mystery. Feel free to create your own interpretation on a genre to make your FYC pages (even if your comic isn't actually a mystery). Do you like Sherlock Holmes, Scooby Doo, CSI, noir? Maybe cameos with mystery comics around the Duck? If you would like, you can make a group FYC with other creators to make a more complex story. If you do this, please give me the heads up to make sure your pages are in order. Creators who intend to present can also use the opportunity to make a continuous plot for their FYC page to their presentations. Please remember, aside from promoting your comics, the point of the FYC pages is to have fun, so please don't get too hung up on the theme. We just use the themes to pretend that the Awards have some sort of continuity.

Final note, you do not have to make a For Your Consideration page to be eligible to be nominated for the Drunk Duck Award. This is one of a few fun activities we do during the awards season to show our comics.

Niccea wrote:
I am accepting For Your Consideration (FYC) pages now until June 7th.

Final note, you do not have to make a For Your Consideration page to be eligible to be nominated for the Drunk Duck Award. This is one of a few fun activities we do during the awards season to show our comics.

———

sosradio wrote:
well I guess I'm trying to find the way from being “Qualified” to actively seeking out consideration.

———-

Sosradio here's your chance.