Sorry, no post this week

This one you can call on being lazy.  Been distracted by a lot of Let's Plays.  Should be something up next week.

Wild Webcomic Quasi-Award Winners

So here we are, the "award" post of this series.  Before I begin this, keep in mind these are ONLY comics I read or have read, nothing else.  There are THOUSANDS of webcomics, and I would prefer to include them all, but I can't, so I go with the couple hundred I know about and have read.

Last week, you may have noticed I put brief descriptions after each nominee.  One of the things missing from the Webcomiclist Awards was any indication WHY those comics were nominated and/or won.  Now I don't strictly think it's necessary to say why the comic was nominated, and really I just did it because I thought it would be interesting, but it did allow me to think about which comics actually deserve to win the award, and why.

So for this, each comic will get a justification.  It'll be brief and describe, as best as I can, why the comic I chose was granted the award.  This doesn't happen in actual award shows, but then they also have the recipients yak on for way too long, and it certainly didn't happen in the Webcomiclist Awards as they had comics for the actual award ceremony for each category.  As this is a purely text driven award here, I am including such statements, and I think they are essential to the award process.  Yes, the winner gets the most votes, but why?  Something like this would have reduced my confusion over the Webcomiclist Awards and I likely wouldn't have written that original post because of it.

Okay, enough of this, let's get on with the awards.  For who was actually nominated, go back to the last post guys.

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BEST BLACK AND WHITE ART

Creating good black and white artwork is really hard.  Shading becomes far more important and mastery of positive and negative space is essential in order to create great artwork.  With this in mind, the award goes to Joe England's Zebra Girl.  While the earliest strips aren't nearly as good, the current structure and design is top notch and likely some of the best work out there.  Character designs are instantly obvious, and he manages to make a world that is in his chosen medium come to life in a way that the other nominees, and even majority of webcomics, simply can't match.

WINNER:  Zebra Girl

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BEST COLOR ART

I suppose the winner of this category should be no surprise.  I pretty much gave it away in the nominations.  Aaron Diaz's Dresden Codak wins this award, and if I didn't place a wait period in these awards, probably would win every year.  The art of this comic is amazing, has been from the very beginning, and continues to improve with every strip.  The amount of time and attention he dedicates to his artwork is incredible, and reflected not only in his blog, but also the amount of time between strips.  A month or more can occur between strips, and you know it will look amazing when you see it.  No matter what you think of the stories in these comics, the art is simply superior and worthy of this award.

WINNER:  Dresden Codak

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BEST NON-TRADITIONAL ART

I had to reach for this one, honestly.  I don't read a lot of comics that don't use pen and paper to create the strips, so I had to dig well into my non-read and dead comic folders to find enough nominees.  I did, but that said, the winner was pretty much never in doubt.  Remco Ketting's Lizzy gets this award because no other comic I have ever read is quite like it in terms of presentation.  I originally read this strip in it's non-flash format because I don't like flash operating on my browser, but upon reading the flash version, the entire nature of the comic changed.  Animations created the missing sense of scale and movement, sounds punctuated key moments and the interactions drew you into the world.  That said, I could easily have given it to Leisuretown, one of my favorite strips of all time, except for one thing:  Leisuretown's been dead for 7 years or so.  Lizzy, less than one.  Sometimes the divide is just that small.

WINNER:  Lizzy

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BEST GAG COMIC

Deciding who to actually nominate as a gag comic was one of the harder decisions I've had to make.  Gag-a-day was the original name for the category, and kind of demanded, well, a gag a day.  Going to just Gag Comic opened it up, but even if I hadn't done that, Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest likely still would have won.  Of all of them, this comic feels as close to what I expect in the newspapers as I can reasonably expect on the internet, while also holding on to it's own ideas of humor.  There's an innocence in amongst the jokes about sex, drugs and hell that few other comics can even approach and it has earned this award, though it deserves so much more.  VIVA LA RESISTANCE!

WINNER:  Sinfest

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BEST SHORTFORM COMIC

This was one of the hardest choices on the list.  Shortform means no long, overarching plots, but as it's not a Gag comic, I expect there to be stories, good ones.  And the nominees all manage to do that, but in the end, Tom Siddell's Gunnerkrigg Court wins.  While the others all have good, solid stories, EVERY chapter of GC is probably stronger than entire comic strip runs.  Some questions are answered, while new ones are created with every successive chapter and story, and it's never quite what you think, sometimes it's even worse.  The world is wonderful and the characters are well developed and, well, real to an extent.  The other nominees are good, yes, but none really match Gunnerkrigg Court.

WINNER:  Gunnerkrigg Court

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BEST LONGFORM COMIC

I'm going to get yelled at for this one, if someone actually read this blog.  I'm giving this award to Brian Clevinger's 8-Bit Theater, and that should raise some eyebrows at least.  A year ago, no way, in fact 8-Bit likely would have been in the Shortform category, but between now and then, the comic ended with one of the longest jokes ever.  The setup and punchline were separated by almost 9 YEARS, meaning the comic had a planned storyline from nearly day one, which qualifies it here, and the audacity to actually do it deserves an award, and while comics like Errant Story and Girl Genius are probably superior and would win any other year, THIS year goes to last, great sprite comic of all time.

WINNER:  8-Bit Theater

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BEST CAST

The Cast and Character categories were actually the hardest to pick not only the nominees, but the winners as well.  So many comics are built on their stories or jokes or setups that characters often get a back seat and are rarely touched on outside of a few stand out moments.  Finding comics that require it's characters to prop it up, AND still be good is a tall order.  For the best cast, the winner is R.C. Monroe's Out There.  It is the definitive cast driven comic, defined for the first storyline being built around two people talking, and it really never stopped being that.  The cast has expanded greatly, but it still comes down to two characters talking about stuff, and that's what earns it the best cast award.

WINNER:  Out There

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BEST CHARACTER

In many ways, writing the nomination blurps helped establish the winners of each category.  Best Cast was determined shortly after writing what Out There was about, and K from Sage Leave's Blip was determined the same way.  Despite all the weird things that happen in the world of Blip, K remains perfectly grounded in reality, a reality that isn't strictly in her favor.  She smokes and drinks too much, cusses like a sailor and when she falls into a depression, she FALLS into a depression.  She also bounces back, finds life and energy and is, well, pretty normal.  The fact that she forms such close friendships with people that they are willing to dive into the mind of a person who wronged her and do horrible things to him makes her compelling because she could never do it, and that's probably for the best in the end.

WINNER:  K from Blip

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BEST NEW COMIC

Now it's time to dig into the meat of these awards, the best of the best.  New comics come and go, often quickly.  Staying power is hard to see early on, so to get this award, a new comic has to show some serious ability and talent and encourage the reader that, no, it isn't going anywhere, and it's going to be damn good in the process.  My choice is Krazy Krow's Spinnerette.  I'd call him by his real name, but I can't quite find it.  Anyway, this comic manages to get all the cylinders firing properly, which is no surprise given that Krow has multiple comics already under his belt and has manged to come up with a creative idea and story direction.  The art by Walter Gustavo Gomez is sharp and creative, Krow's writing is witty and fun, and the stories are just right for the tone of the strip.  For a comic to come out this strong and seemingly ready to STAY this strong is something rare and special, and should be rewarded.

WINNER:  Spinnerette

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BEST COMIC

And now, the final and highest award.  Being the best means doing everything great.  It's not just the art that's great, or the story, or the characters or the humor, or the drama as the case may be, but all these elements combined must be done very well indeed.  To one extent or another every comic that has won an award here could have been considered for Best Comic (except Spinnerette, sorry, you got nominated for new comic, maybe next year), but they all excelled in different areas, and few of them did all of them at once.  I also have already pretty much stated which comic I constantly think is the best, so if you've been reading this blog, you already know.  The winner is. . .

Howard Taylor's Schlock Mercenary.  This one comic has managed to do what few other comics even remotely do:  Present excellent artwork, create wonderful stories, have a large, colorful, and memorable cast, have almost impeccable comic timing, and most of all, it updates every day.  Every, SINGLE day.  To my knowledge, it has NEVER missed an update, even when the comic's servers went down, somewhere it was actually updated, and that's practically unheard of in the webcomic community.  To do all the other things would make this an impressive comic, but to do all of that AND update like clockwork every 24 hours mean this is practically a comic GOD.  It is then the Wild Webcomic Quasi-Award's Best Comic.

WINNER:  Schlock Mercenary 

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Well, that's it, I'm finally done with this string of posts.  I do have to say, it's actually pretty hard, especially with a limited  library of strips to pick from.  Perhaps I was a touch too hard on the Webcomiclist and their awards, but at the same time, I think mine are, over all, a bit better.  The definition of each category and the explanation for why each comic won gives this that much extra punch and I hope you understand why I did what I did and chose what I chose.

So will there be another one?  Probably not.  I simply don't read enough comics to do this on anything like a regular basis.  Perhaps someday it can be a more regular thing, but until then, I'll just do my normal thing.

Until next time kiddies. 

Wild Webcomic Quasi-Awards Nominees

No, I am not out of ideas for articles and stringing this award thing out as long as possible.  Why would you even think that?

Okay, I kind of am.  But hell, might as well just keep right on going if I started this mess.  This week I'm going to put up my version of "nominees" for the webcomic award based on my ideas from last week.  I'll only do 10 of my key 11 awards because, well Reader's Choice would be silly for me alone to do.  I've also set the clock to start when this blog did, September of 2009.  Mostly to allow for as many new comics as possible.  Also, I will be looking at comics I read first, then getting into those I do not.

Got all that?  Alright, let's begin.

Best Black and White Art Nominees - Nominees must express great use of line and shading in a predominantly monotone comic.

• Deep Fried's Weapon Brown - Using characters from newspaper comics in a twisted post-apocalyptic setting, the Weapon Brown portion of Deep Fried is not only a good comic, but artistically well done, giving life and reality to the wide assortment of characters that inhabit the funny pages.
• Zebra Girl - The story of a girl turned to a demon has gotten darker since it's initial inception, but has also gotten more beautiful as the artist explores the wonders of hash marks and other shading options in his black and white classic.
• Spinnerette - Krazy Krow's superhero comic features sharp lines and unique poses as its 6 armed protagonist struggles with learning the ropes, and bumbling the entire way.
• dead winter - With so many zombie comics out there, it's rare to find a really good one, especially one that relies on black and white shading and the occasional shot of red.  The character design isn't realistic, but feels right and looks great.
• Serenity Rose - The sketchbook style design of this comic sets it apart even from it's competitors.  Like dead winter, it uses other colors only to enhance the black and white world of the comic, making it one of the best looking comics on the web.

Best Color Art Nominees - Nominees must express great use of color in a predominantly color comic.

• Dresden Codak - Few comics look even remotely as good as this one.  The colors are carefully chosen to match the scene and the character designs are scrutinized carefully.  Just read the guy's blog, and you'll see how much work goes into it.
• Marsh Rocket - Recently completed, this comic features pages done in one general color tone, giving it a unique look compared to even other color comics.  The fact that it switches between colors as it shifts scenes shows a level of skill with color that most artists never manage to pull off.
• Romantically Apocalyptic - When it comes to realistic artwork, no comic comes closer than this one.  Using photorealistic techniques based on actual pictures, it's easy to forget it is drawn and painted.  The parts that aren't actually based on photos show how skilled the artist actually is at their art.
• Prophecy of the Circle - The watercolor look of this comic is the defining feature of the strip.  The unique look makes this comic stand out even against the others.
• Girl Genius - Vibrant colors help make this manic comic about mad science ruling the world pop like no other.  Much of the excitement of the comic comes from the colors and it looks great.

Best Non-Traditional Art Nominees - Nominees must show innovation in the use of media beyond simple drawing.

• Lizzy - Flash based comics rarely use flash to it's fullest, but this comic does.  Using animation, sounds and interactivity to draw in the reader and make this strip great.
• Terror Island - Though completed, this photo comic uses game pieces to tell the story, a story based strictly on going for groceries.  Deceptively simple, but fun and interesting.
• The Dreamland Chronicles - Using 3D rendering to create comics is relatively new, and this comic sets the standard for the format, conveying emotion and action quite well.
• 8-Bit Theater - The standard bearer and probably greatest sprite comic of all time, this completed comic manages to merge nostalgia, humor and the long joke all into one.
• Leisuretown - Though long dead, this comic is probably one of the great photo comics of all time, using static figures to tell complex and engaging stories.

Best Gag Comic Nominees - Nominees must show excellent use of humor within a deceptively small amount of space.

• Sinfest - Structured as a traditional newspaper comic, this is the kind of comic that should be in the papers, except that it is decidedly adult in content.  Tackling everything from religion, to sex and drugs, it pulls no punches, and is probably why it won't end up in a paper near you.
• The Whiteboard - Though based on paintball, this comic doesn't need knowledge about it to understand the jokes.  The over the top humor and explosions make this a great gag strip and one that should be followed.
• Chainsawsuit - Random humor is hard to do, but this comic manages it well.  Using simple figures and running gags, it manages to have something for everyone.
• Cyanide and Happiness - Shock humor is something that's even harder to do than random, and this comic excels at it.  Not for the weak of stomach, it will keep the hardy in stitches.
• Bob the Angry Flower - Bob is one angry flower, he's also quite mad and his comic highlights the madness quite well through a quasi-surrealistic scenarios that cap off a humorous comic.

Best Shortform Comic Nominees - Nominees must be able to tell coherent and independent stories based around a small cast or idea without any obvious overarching plan or story to the comic as a whole.

• City of Reality - The idea of a utopia is almost comical to most writers and often it's used as the face for an evil group.  Not in this comic, where Reality is exactly what it seems, and it takes a special breed of people to be part of it, and to defend it.
• Sluggy Freelance - Is it not nifty?  The continuing adventures of four friends, a hyperactive ferret and a homicidal rabbit trudges on with its increasingly complex universe and story.
• Gunnerkrigg Court - At first it seems this is some Harry Potter rip off, until you actually read it and find a world where robots and gods exist side by side.  Antimony and her friends explore the varied mysteries of the court as well as grow up within its confines.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - He's a doctor.  He's a ninja.  He's Irish.  His adventures are wild and bizarre ranging from fighting zombie ninjas to surfing a robotic version of Dracula through the atmosphere.  And that's just a light day.
• Blip - K is a blip, a mistake on the face of creation, so Heaven is on a quest to keep her down, and Hell wants to prop her up, all without her realizing it.  Her friends, a vampire, a witch and Frankenstein's daughter, are working to keep her happy.

Best Longform Comic Nominees - Nominees must be able to tell a long, overarching story starting from the first strip that is done in an engaging and interesting way.

• Errant Story - The epic tale of a girl looking to pass her final exam and the chaos it causes is moving towards it's conclusion and everyone who reads is along for the ride.
• Serenity Rose - One of the few witches on earth deals with her amazing supernatural powers, her personal insecurities and those who would hurt her friends.  All with blue hair and goggles.
• Roza: The Cursed Mage - Her blood causes fire.  She doesn't want that to happen any more, so off she goes looking for a cure.  It feels more like a classic animated film than a comic, and is just as rewarding.
• 8-Bit Theater - Recently concluded, the four "light warriors" quest for, um, personal gain mostly.  Their wild antics all come to ahead with the longest joke ever told.  And the joke is on them.
• Girl Genius - In a world where mad science runs rampant, Agatha looks to find her way in the world, and survive the multitude of enemies she and her ancestors have manged to make over the years.

Best Cast Nominees - Nominees must have a cohesive cast of characters who support and build each other in ways that make each essential to the other.

• Sluggy Freelance - Torg, Zoe, Riff, Gwen, Kiki and Bun-Bun form the core of one of the longest lived comics on the internet.  They work so well together that even as they are broken up on their own adventures, they still manage to influence each other.
• Schlock Mercenary - The cast for this comic is massive and each one is memorable in one way or the other, but they are also generally vulnerable.  Their skills still support each other and make an effective ensemble cast.
• 8-Bit Theater - While many may have their favorite (and most like Black Mage) it's hard to think of any single main character from this comic alone.  They are basically one note, each and everyone of them, but the complexity comes from their interaction with each other.  Without the others, no one of these characters could hold the comic up on their own.
• City of Reality - Trying to explain a practical utopia is hard, and takes a cast of characters that can plunge the depths of it as much as possible.  The cast of this comic manages to do this so well that you really need each of them to understand it.  Even the mayor, who is a rabbit sock puppet.
• Out There - Few comics are almost exclusively based on two characters talking to each other, and even fewer are actually good at it.  This comic has it down to a science.  What started with two people in a car has expanded to a flexible and strong cast whose even minor conversations can draw the reader in and keep them hooked.

Best Character Nominees - Nominees must be a single character that stands out from the rest of the cast with a strong personality, history or story.

• { … } from Hanna is Not a Boy's Name - Having a character that has no proper name is a daring move, and this comic manages it with ease.  Despite not being the title character, he stands out as the narrator and prime mover of the comic.  His design is distinctive and his story is the most mysterious and compelling of the entire comic.
• Bob from Bob the Angry Flower - There are few characters in comics that are more mad than Bob.  He's brilliant, and stupid, insane and the only sane man in the room.  And he's a flower who opens canned food with a tank.  While there are other characters, this comic isn't just named for him, but it is him, and nothing else really matters.
• Roza from Roza:  The Cursed Mage - Strong female characters that aren't jerks are hard to find, but Roza manages to pull it off.  She's brave, strong willed, and intelligent, all without being violent, angry, or even, dare I say, bitchy.  An excellent example of a positive female role model in any comic I have read.
• Heather from Spinnerette - The bumbling heroine of her own comic, Heather is passionate about her new role as a superhero, and enthusiastic almost to a fault.  Her clumsiness and lack of forethought shows someone who is moving faster than she thinks, something that is more than uncommon amongst most people.
• K from Blip - Despite the strange world that dances around (and hides from) her, K lives a relatively normal life.  She has ups and downs, smokes too much, cusses like a sailor and has a circle of close friends who are more than ready to stand up for her.  She is probably the most realistic character here, despite the wild world in which she lives, not just in the fact that she has no "super power" but also because she is the most like normal people.

Best New Comic Nominees - Nominees must show general excellence in the creation and publication of a new webcomic.

• Does Not Play Well With Others - Micheal Poe's (artist of Errant Story) return to comedy is marked by a daily gag strip that just got it's feet wet starting this year and is already showing the old muscles never quite forget their nature.  Could easily be one of the great gag comics of the internet.
• UnCONventional - A simple stick comic that follows the staff of a generic convention and the trials and pitfalls they run into manages to give surprising amounts of depth to the stick figure characters.  It also opens an interesting window on the backroom work most conventions deal with, including an incident with a wild badger.
• Road Waffles IV - Okay, it's not strictly a new comic, but give that each episode of Road Waffles is all but independent from the rest, it is unique and new enough to be here.  The themes are similar, violence, death and explosions dominate this comic and keeps you wondering what will happen next to this cast, and who will live.
• Spinnerette - Part of a resurgence of superhero comics, Spinnerette doesn't as much parody superhero comics as it does embrace those elements, just with a slight humorous twist.  Initially it seemed it would go all out parody, but it is sincere about it, even if it does joke around with it.  The lightheartedness of the strip is what makes it oh so good.
• The Adventures of Superhero Girl - Faith Erin Hicks also dipped into the superhero genre with her take on it.  Her friendly, almost innocent view of the genre is also lighthearted, but with less edge and direct humor aimed at the genre and instead rolls with it in a very Canadian way.

Best Comic Nominees - Nominees must show general excellence in the fields of art, writing and publication over the length of the comic's lifespan.

• Schlock Mercenary - The long lived sci-fi comic continues its run as Tagon's Toughs seek out the all mighty dollar.  The art is excellent, the writing tight and funny, and the updates, oh, the updates.
• Gunnerkrigg Court - Every chapter reveals something new about the world of the Court, and every one of them leads to more questions.  With excellent art and heartfelt interactions, this comic is definitely one of the great comics of the internet.
• Errant Story - With it's end on the horizon, the story of a scary girl looking for ultimate power continues to show off the high art level and writing, all with a dash of humor to help it go down.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - It was a crazy idea, a doctor who is also a ninja, but the wild combination has led to a string of wild stories that have few peers amongst the funniest comics of all time.
• Hark, a Vagrant - The unique nature of this comic has earned it praise from multiple places.  It's unique take on historical events, the free flowing but brilliant artwork and the clutch humor make this one of the standout comics on the internet.

Well, those are my nominees.  There are some comics that I had to seriously debate putting on this list, but eventually eliminated them for various reasons.  Next week, the winners.  See you then kiddies.

Designing A Webcomic Award

So last week, I reviewed the Webcomiclist's 2010 awards and found they were, well, less than spectacular.  But I can't very well issue a broad criticism of their system without having some idea what I would do instead, so this week, I will.

Now, before I begin keep in mind that details here can be modified.  Time for nominations, who exactly is involved and such can be changed over time, but the core elements presented here would be what I would insist upon.

Picking the winners is actually easy compared to picking out the nominees.  There are tens of thousands of webcomics, and since I'm not affiliated with any particular group, I have to consider them all.  To help here, there should be three ways to collect nominations, and there will be some time rules.  The nomination rules are as follows:

1.)  Comic can not have previously won in the given category within the last 2 - 5 years (varies depending on category).

2.)  Comic nomination must be for the award year period.  Things like "best new comic" have to be within a very specific time frame, other comics can cover longer periods.

3.)  Comic must be active for the length of the award year period, meaning the comic updated regularly over that time frame.  Only exception might be a "completed comic" award, or "short comic" award.

4.)  Comic must qualify for the given category.  A color comic cannot be entered in the black and white category, for example.

Initial nominations are elected by three methods:

Judge Picks - The judges of course will have their say in the final vote, but in collecting nominees, they instrumental.  Each will be allowed up to 3 nominees for any given category.  They will also narrow down the total initial nominations (except certain exceptions, which I'll also get to later).  Most likely judges should be divided up by specialty (art, story, etc).

Artist Nominations - The actual artists/writers of the comics will also be allowed to nominate their own works.  The restriction is they can ONLY nominate their own work, allowing smaller comics to get in on the awards that more popular comics would normally dominate.

Readers Choice - Speaking of popular comics, fans will have their say, being allowed to nominate their favorites.  The top 20 picks for each category will be allowed into the first round of vetting.  Probably will be forum based or something so it can easily be counted and tracked.  They can pick ANY comic they want, of course.

Vetting is the next step.  There will likely be, oh, 100 or so initial nominees for each, and that's way, way too many to ever properly list.  So the judges will have to narrow the group down to no more than 5 overall nominees per category.  The best initial nominees are to be chosen, and then those get a more thorough examination and the best is given the award.

Yeah, I know, it's a bit complicated, and the judges get a lot of say here, so there should be several of them.  Even then, I doubt it'll actually work out in the end.  Like many of my ideas, it's probably too complicated, but the main thing is to set up solid nomination rules and the basics of the process. So let's get into the different categories starting with the ones that definitely should be part of the awards, and then a few that I think are neat ideas, but don't think they'd actually work.

• Best Comic - Obviously the last and most important award.  The best comic should have excellent marks (though not necessarily perfect) in the categories of art, character, plot, writing and update regularity over the length of it's lifespan.
• Best New Comic - Best comic started within the award period and having more than 3 months or 30 strips, whichever is greater.  New comics cannot be nominated for the Best Comic category and are only eligible their first year of publication.
• Best Character - The best single character in a comic.  Typically the character should show development, growth and personality that makes them stand out from their peers.  Only one character per comic may be nominated.
• Best Cast - The best collection of main cast members in a comic.  Winners should have an interesting and well developed dynamic with each other, strong personalities and presence that makes no one character stand out without the others.  Only for main cast members.
• Best Longform Comic - Longform comics are built around a single, overarching story, and while they may have shorter, sub-stories within their length, said sub-stories are there to enhance and define the greater story.
• Best Shortform Comic - Shortform comics are built around multiple interconnected, but generally independent stories.  There is no intention or design for a single, overarching plot for the comic even if one eventually does solidify out of the mass of tales and adventures.
• Best Gag Comic - Gag comics focus on telling a joke, or gag, with every strip and typically have extremely short stories that typically have no, or very few, consequences outside of the original story in a form typical of traditional newspaper humor comic strips.
• Best Non-Traditional Comic - The winner should be a comic that makes best use of non-traditional art, storytelling or joke telling formats.  Strips using computer generated images, photo comics, strips based in flash and other comics that don't use the normal means of presenting art and story are all eligible for this award, but are NOT eligible for other art awards.
• Best Color Art - Comics that feature superior color art in a mostly color strip.  Good color art features excellent choices in color (duh), shading and contrasts that make the art stand out above and beyond other comics.
• Best Black and White Art - Comics that feature superior black and white art in a mostly black and white strip.  Good black and white art features good use of shading, contrast and line work above and beyond other comics.
• Reader's Choice - Essentially a popularity contest, the winner is voted on by the readers. 

Those eleven MUST be on a final award list.  The rest of this list, however, is a bit less sure for me.  They're good ideas, but I'm not sure if awards are really necessary for them.

• Best Long Story - Single storyline that has ended within the award period.
• Best Short Story - Single storyline that was started and completed within 3 months or 30 strips within the award period.
• Best Single Strip - Single strip that represents the best webcomic artists can produce.  This one is probably an artist nomination only category.
• Best Guest Strip (single or series) - Single strip or series of strips from a single guest artist representing the regular comic's characters, personalities and style.
• Best Completed Comic - Comic whose run lasted at least 2 full years and ended within the award period.
• Best Short Comic - Comic whose run began and ended within the award period. 
• Best Supporting Cast - Award for supporting characters who provide excellent support to the main cast, either through plot design or simple characterization of the main cast members.

I'm sure I could come up with more as well.

So that's my webcomic awards concept.  Hmm, I guess I should give some examples.  Well, I'm the only judge, but I'll go ahead and do my own version of these awards next week.  Well, the nominations anyway.  Until then kiddies.