In Part 1 of this 2 part series, I spoke to Josh Dysart on the eve of the Eisner Awards to discuss his nomination for "Best Ongoing Series" for "Unknown Soldier." In part 2, Josh and I discuss the outcome of the awards.
Writer Josh Dysart and artist Alberto Ponticelli didn’t pick up the Eisner Award for Vertigo Comics’ “Unknown Soldier.” Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca of Marvel Comics’ “Invincible Iron Man” won for “Best Ongoing Series.”
The Will Eisner Industry Awards (or Eisners) are given to creators for their achievements in the comics industry. The award nominees are selected by a five-person panel and voted upon by fellow comic book professionals. Despite their democratic voting process, the awards still come under some scrutiny. Tom Spurgeon posted on his column for “The Comics Reporter,” that “the awards were mostly typical according to usual Eisner voting behavior, which given the unchanging nature of the comics industry makes a lot of sense. If there was a particularly advantageous title in terms of having that kind of comic all to itself, that seemed to have a chance of winning. And so on.”
I caught up to Josh afternoon following the ceremony to get his thoughts on the evening. I found him at the "Comic Relief" booth, working his way through a stack of books, Sharpie in hand, adding his signature to every last one. Already a veteran in the industry for over 10 years, Josh retains an outward humility most noticed in less seasoned writers. At Comic-Con, after his signing at the “Comic Relief” booth, Josh handed a stack of his signed comics over to an employee and remarked, “I’m sorry I wasn’t a bigger draw. But thank you for having me.”
That may have been the spirit of the night previous. When recounting how he felt at the ceremony, Josh explained, “About three awards in last night, it very quickly dawned on me that it was always the most popular and mainstream book that was winning. It was never the longshot or the person who had maybe worked the hardest, but didn’t have the largest audience. This isn’t meant to reflect on Matt Fraction, who I think is a great writer. I understand why 'Invincible Iron Man' got the award. But three awards in, I leaned into G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker, the ‘Air’ creators, and said, ‘We don’t have to worry about [winning]. Start drinking and have a good time.’”
Josh shared his feelings on the matter. “For instance, Chris Ware is a genius. You know this. I know this. Everyone knows this. I own everything he’s ever done. He owns about a 135 Eisners. Stop giving Chris Ware the Eisner and let somebody else win it. This has no bearing on us losing, this is just my perception of the overall night. I think that there were great books in our category. I think that’s how the Eisners fail in general, not how they failed me. A handful of people choose the nominees, but it’s a populist vote that wins the award. I said this before and I really do mean it, it seems like the greater honor is simply the nomination. It’s a small group of people having read all the material, pondering it closely and seeing what’s relevant and topical at that moment. I think all the nominees are fortunate in that.”
One thing the nomination didn't provide was a sense of professional arrival. Josh explained: “I had that affirmation once I started feeling comfortable around people like [Vertigo Comics Executive Editor] Karen Berger and Mike Mignola and when artists I respected asked me to work with them. But that affirmation has been a fairly recent thing. I think that has to do with liking your own work more than awards or external validation. I joked about needing that, and it’s true that I do - but I only just recently started to see some value in my own work, learned that I had my own voice and learned how to use that voice. That doesn’t mean that I’m proud of all the work I do. I definitely make mistakes and creative decisions I regret later, but that’s becoming less frequent. I know a jazz pianist who’s a good friend of my family. He’s staggeringly good. When he was about 52 years old, he told me just that week he came to realization he no longer needed to think when he was playing the piano. The moment a song came into this head he was able to able to execute it. At that moment, he’d finally believed he’d learned to play the piano even though he’d been playing most of his life. That’s the struggle I’m trying to get to. That’s the affirmation I’m looking for, a personal relationship to craft. But an award would be awesome.”
It's a great boost to Vertigo Comics to have three of the five nominees under their publishing umbrella. An arm of DC Comics - and by extension, media giant Warner Brothers - Vertigo has been a place that concentrates on mature storytelling. Josh added, “I grew up reading Vertigo. There have been very few periods in Veritgo’s history when it wasn’t a great time to be there. This is my time there and it feels great. Say what you want to say about it, but here’s the deal – nominated for the Eisner last night was a 28 year-old artist who gets to work with Matt Wagner; an internationally renowned journalist, G. Willow Wilson, who has interviewed major figures in the Islamic community; and her artist, who is known in Turkey as a high-end political cartoonist who has work for the ‘New Yorker,’; and me, a cheeseball White guy who has journeyed through east Africa to see what he could see with his own eyes to make ‘Unknown Soldier’ the least exploitive it could be. That’s great. Regardless of what some may think, Vertigo’s out there trying to do something new and take us in different and relevant directions. It’s great time to be at Vertigo.”
I asked Josh if expected more nominations and how that would feel. He humbly shrugged and said, "I’ll feel exactly as I felt last night. It would be cool."
All Unknown Soldier art copyright DC Comics/Vertigo Comics.
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