So last week I discussed what goes on in the first round of nominating for the Joe Shuster Awards, by examining four specific categories and how the process works. About how we ask our 17 member committee (which is in fact two unique groups – 13 on the English committee, and 4 on the French), to each supply us with a ranked list of their top five choices from the master list of eligible creators that we supplied them (and updated when necessary). They had two and a half months to look over the list and narrow down their choices.

It is very important to us here at the Joe Shuster Awards that there be a sense of transparency about what we do and how we do it. You may not agree completely with our methods, but it is key that we are up front about them. We want the Final Ballot to accurately reflect in the best way that we can the most outstanding work that was done by Canadian creators in the previous year.

Because of the large group nominating we end up with a very wide variety of creators in each of the categories, but what is important to us here at this point in the process as we tabulate the results is where those lists are overlapping — because in order to advance for consideration to Round Two and/or the final ballot, at least one other member of the nominating committee had to select that same creator on their list.

We also have a caveat to that rule — and that is that any creator that is nominated by more than 50% of our nominating committee members automatically bypasses the second round of discussion/voting and goes on the Final Ballot for Jury Consideration.

Now that we have our list of seconded creators, we take a closer look at the number of votes received by each and the rankings given (I won’t be revealing the specific rankings, however in the next post I’ll let you know who advanced to Round Two.

The 4 member French nominating committee was able to finalize their selections in the first round as in all four categories at least 2 nominees in each received over 50% of the vote – 2 Artists, 3 Cartoonists, 3 Writers and 2 Cover Artists advance to the Final Ballot. Generally we look for a 5 English, 2 French split in each category, but if it’s clear that our nomcom feels that there are 3 strong candidates for consideration at the jury level we will increase the number of spots to 8 for a 5/3 split.

The 13 member English nominating committee was a lot more divided. In fact, no Artists, and only 1 Cartoonist and 1 Cover Artist advance to the Final Ballot. However, 5 Writers did receive more than 50% support so all advance and the category is finalized.

(However, I cannot share with you at this time which 8 of the 13 writers will end up on the final ballot at this time. So feel free to make some predictions…!)

In order to finalize the remaining spots we have to advance to second round of voting. Those creators with 3 or more votes but less than 7 votes will go on to ROUND TWO. That worked out perfectly to 10 creators per category.

Please note, for the sake of brevity, I’ve tried listing only one project per creator – as they are nominated for their body of work, some of the listings would be quite lengthy otherwise.

ARTIST
24 Seconded, 12 received 3 or more nominations
2 creators receive over 50% support and advance to the Final Ballot – 5 spots open

Chris Bachalo (Wolverine and the X-Men), Andy Belanger (Kill Shakespeare), Pierre Bouchard (Motel Galactic), Patrick Boutin-Gagne (La Bete du Lac: le Guardiaen), (Svetlana Chmakova (Witch and Wizard: The Manga), Marian Churchland (Northlanders), Darwyn Cooke (House of Mystery), Marc Delafontaine (Les Nombrils T.5), Dale Eaglesham (Alpha Flight), Tom Grummett (Incredible Hulks), Patrick Henaff (Le Testament du Capitaine Crown T.1), Stuart Immonen (Fear Itself), Fred Jourdain (Le Dragon Bleu/The Blue Dragon), Karl Kerschl (House of Night), Jeff Lemire (Jonah Hex), Steve Molnar (Star Trek Ongoing), Yanick Paquette (Swamp Thing), Stephanie Poulin (Au Pays de la Memoire Blanche), Ramon Perez (Captain America and the First Thirteen), Riley Rossmo (Green Wake), Fiona Staples (Jonah Hex), Cameron Stewart (Batman Incorporated Leviathan Strikes!), Doug Wheatley (Star Wars Dark Times – Out of the Wilderness), Jim Zubkavich (SkullKickers).

CARTOONIST
20 seconded, 11 received 3 or more nominations
4 creators receive over 50% support and advance to the Final Ballot – 4 spots open

Alex A. (L’Agent Jean T.1), Claude Auchu (Une Annee en Quarantine), Jimmy Beaulieu (Comedie Sentimentale Pornagraphique), Chester Brown (Paying for It), Scott Chantler (Three Thieves Book 2), Darwyn Cooke (“The Seventh” from Parker: The Martini Edition), Guy Delisle (Chroniques de Jerusalem), Jean-Paul Eid (Le Fond de Trou), Ray Fawkes (One Soul), Jesse Jacobs (Even the Giants), Karl Kerschl/Cameron Stewart (count as 1 – Assassin’s Creed: The Fall), Francois Lapierre (Chroniques Sauvages), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), Francis Manapul (The Flash), Pat McKeown (Hair Shirt), Kagan McLeod (Infinite Kung Fu), Joe Ollmann (Mid-Life), Ramon Perez (Tale of Sand), Michel Rabagliati (Paul au Parc), Seth (Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists).

COVER ARTIST
21 seconded, 13 received 3 or more nominations
3 creators received over 50% support and advance to the Final Ballot – 4 spots open

Kalman Andrasofszky (Various), Kaare Andrews (Various), Chris Bachalo (Various), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Nick Bradshaw (Various), Travis Charest (Captain America 616, Mighty Thor 1), Darwyn Cooke (Various), Michael Del Mundo (Various), Jean-Paul Eid (Le Fond de Trou), David Finch (Various), W. Scott Forbes (Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Seven Second Set), Fred Jourdain (Le Dragon Bleu/The Blue Dragon), Dale Keown (Various), Francois Lapierre (Chroniques Sauvages), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Jonah Hex), Francis Manapul (Various), Yanick Paquette (Various), Alexander Perkins (Kill Shakespeare 11), Fiona Staples (Various), Doug Wheatley (Various), Chrissie Zullo (Cinderella: Fables are Forever).

WRITER
13 seconded, 8 received 3 or more nominations
8 creators received over 50% support and advance to the Final Ballot – CLOSED

Ian Boothby (Simpsons Comics), Anthony Del Col/Connor McCreery (count as 1 – Kill Shakespeare), Francis Desharnais (Motel Galactic), Maryse Dubuc (Les Nombrils T.5), Ray Fawkes (Skullkickers), Kathryn Immonen (Wolverine and Jubilee), Francois Lapierre (La Bete du Lac: Le Gardiaen), Jeff Lemire (Animal Man), John Rogers (Dungeons and Dragons), Tristan Roulot (Le Testament de Capitaine Crown T.1), J. Torres (Archie), Kurtis Wiebe (Green Wake), Jim Zubkavich (Skullkickers).

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Congratulations to all who were seconded!

I’ll get into discussing Round Two in the next update.