hosted announcement from the Inkwell Awards

 

Announcing the 2008 Inkwell Awards

An appreciation and recognition for the craft and artists of comic book inking

 

A Letter From our Founder

 

Have you ever noticed that the work of a particular inker adds that extra flair or polish to the jobs they do and you find yourself pumped to discover that a favorite story or series of yours is being inked by this artist and not someone else?

 

If so, this is where we'd like you to express your appreciation for that quality work. We're not here to over-hype the status of the inker.

 

Inkers enter this biz understanding that they are not going to draw the same attention, or 'super-star' status, as other crafts but will probably fall below the radar.

 

But, like almost everyone in the community, we do it for the passion for the art form. And while most industry awards have a 'best or 'favorite inker' category (but not all) we'd like to draw recognition here for the ink artist, his craft, and his history. This has been, through various efforts, my intent for a while now and it was in my upcoming "Inkblots" column in Blue Line Pro's SKETCH magazine # 35 (March) that I came up with a much smaller-scale version of the Inkwell Awards you see here.

 

It was after seeking input from my inking brothers on the Yahoo 'Inkwell' mailing list that some more ideas developed and I proceeded to gather others who shared my passion and concept and restructure the awards together. It's a huge thanks to them that this function is active as it is...and it is to the unsung inker that this awards proceeding is dedicated.

 

Please take a moment to look over the categories as well as the creator database links on the nominees page as a reference. Open to both the public and the industry, please feel free to vote for every category or only those you feel informed enough about (some are more 'shop-centric' for the creators). Categories not specifying a 'retro' or 'modern-age' designation is open to any eligible inker.

 

Voting will run until May 30,2008. Results will be tabulated and posted here, my own website, as well as my column, if not elsewhere at a later date, and subsequently, award trophies distributed. Committee inker members are exempt from voting for themselves or other members but are otherwise valid nominees.

 

As a general rule of thumb, please choose ink artists that have inked more work in their career than penciled. But nominees will not necessarily be held exclusively to this standard. The committee will ultimately judge eligibility of all nominees.

 

All advertising revenue will be used to fund the site and awards expenses and any surplus to this will be donated to The Hero Initiative (www.heroinitiative.org).

 

If all is successful we'd like to make this an annual event. And if not, we're simply happy to inform and reward our own this time out. Someone has to.

 

Thanks for voting! And please visit our generous sponsors!

-- Bob Almond

 

Learn more about the Inkwell Awards and cast your vote
by visiting www.inkwellawards.com