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by **LOLtron** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:09 pm

Controversy Brewing Over Eisner Nominations

One of the Eisner judges has a public blacklist and works for an Eisner Award nominated website.

Source: ComicBook.com

We have our comic book controversy of the week! A "Before Watchmen blacklist" published by Eisner judge Frank Santoro is currently making its rounds on tumblr, which was published last February. Santoro is also a writer for The Comics Journal, which received its first Eisner Award nomination in three years.

In the post, Santoro lists every creator remotely involved with the controversial Before Watchmen project and declares that he refuses to buy or read anything associated with the creators. While Santoro later claimed that he actually supported some of these creators during the nomination process, one of Santoro's colleagues at TCJ, Sean Collins, pointed out that Santoro was probably singlehandedly responsible for the high-profile project not receiving a single nomination.

Santoro defended himself on ComicBook.com, where he claimed that he put his personal feelings aside and bothered to read material from hacks such as Chris Samnee, Jill Thompson, Joe Kubert, Michael Allred, Darwyn Cooke, Paul Pope and Jock. He also noted that at least a couple of the artists on his black list earned Eisner nominations, despite him not reading any of their material during his non-Eisner judge period. Of course, it's Darwyn Cooke and Chris Samnee we're talking about, so they probably would have gotten Eisner nominations even if Santoro tried his hardest to block their nomination.

The real question here is whether the Eisners should have selected a judge that publicly bragged about how he'd never read comics from some of today's top creators ever again because they did a cover for some comic he didn't like. Of course, there's a large contingent of the industry that hates DC for the Before Watchmen scandal, so I suppose we should be grateful that at least Santoro has the balls to admit that he'd like to permanent censor creators for a project he didn't like.

Also, we'll just presume that TCJ magically upped their coverage quality in 2012 after they had missed out on getting an Eisner nomination in years. We all know Tom Spurgeon's going to win that Eisner, so it doesn't really matter.

We'll leave it to you to decide whether this controversy is just a couple of websites pissed that they didn't get an Eisner nomination or if it's something a little more sinister. In the meantime, we'll just root that Bandette takes home an Eisner.

Written or Contributed by ThanosCopter

READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE FRONT PAGE, HUMANS!

by **jeremy** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:22 pm

Seems Legit.

by **Punchy** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:40 pm

Before Watchmen deserves to be blacklisted.

by **Victorian Squid** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:48 pm

sigh

Blame DC.

That being said, there's a few people I thought better of before their involvement with Befuck Watchmen, so I won't pretend it doesn't leave its taint behind.

heheheh

taint behind

by **doombug** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:10 pm

Punchy wrote:Before Watchmen deserves to be blacklisted.

serious question: Is it really that bad?

by **Punchy** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:37 pm

doombug wrote:serious question: Is it really that bad?

I didn't read it, but the concept itself is bad enough.

by **Amoebas** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:11 pm

doombug wrote:serious question: Is it really that bad?

The Comedian series isn't very good (I blame JG Jones) but the rest were all very well done.

Great characters + great creators. It worked.

And anyone who boycotted it or bashed it without ever opening it... you missed out on some great stuff.

by **S.F. Jude Terror** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:15 pm

Whether or not Before Watchmen was an enjoyable read or not has nothing to do with why people are against it. It's DC's decades long campaign of fucking over Alan Moore and tons of other creators that pisses people off.

by **doombug** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:19 pm

S.F. Jude Terror wrote:Whether or not Before Watchmen was an enjoyable read or not has nothing to do with why people are against it. It's DC's decades long campaign of fucking over Alan Moore and tons of other creators that pisses people off.

but that's not the fault of the individual creators that worked on the books. It's the fault of editorial who decided to do it.

You're going to tell me blacklisting guys like Jimmy Palmiotti and Darwyn Cooke is okay to do? :smt011

by **S.F. Jude Terror** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:49 pm

doombug wrote:but that's not the fault of the individual creators that worked on the books. It's the fault of editorial who decided to do it.

You're going to tell me blacklisting guys like Jimmy Palmiotti and Darwyn Cooke is okay to do?

I like Jimmy Palmiotti and I'm not blacklisting him, but I can certainly understand why someone would. Nobody forced Palmiotti to work on that book, and we saw whatshisname refuse to work with Orson Scott Card to keep his integrity. What's the difference?

by **Amoebas** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:35 pm

S.F. Jude Terror wrote:
I like Jimmy Palmiotti and I'm not blacklisting him, but I can certainly understand why someone would. Nobody forced Palmiotti to work on that book, and we saw whatshisname refuse to work with Orson Scott Card to keep his integrity. What's the difference?

The difference is in the deciding what your definition of the word integrity is.

Creators choosing to work on characters they loved and paying homage to the creators of those characters VS a creator who didn't want to work with an asshole.

I respect Sprouse and the Before Watchmen creators. Sprouse for his display of integrity and the BW people for making me love everything Watchmen all over again.

by **Victorian Squid** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:39 pm

I could boycott all of them, but Paul Pope and I were classmates.

He only did a cover, I think!

by **bkthomson** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:57 pm

Do the Esiner's mean anything to anyone besides the creators? Does it improve their options in work or pay?

by **Keb** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:04 pm

bkthomson wrote:Do the Esiner's mean anything to anyone besides the creators? Does it improve their options in work or pay?

Its an accolade you can put on the book to boost sales and writers usually get recognized for Eisners and it can help them make the jump from indie to mainstream. I would imagine it helps make the resumé look nicer.