British writer Mark Millar recently announced his plans to launch a new San Diego inspired comic book convention in London, England. The convention debuts in April 2011. He’s also decided to add a new comic book awards program to the mix in order to draw attention to the event.

The new awards are called the Stan Lee Awards, named after the longtime Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee, who is definitely one of the most recognizable figures in the history of the medium. Millar made some statement online yesterday about how many “lesser” creators have awards named after them – we presume he means comic book awards named after industry legends like Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzmann and Joe Shuster, the latter who is the namesake of these very awards. In typical Millar-speak, he’s already referring to the new awards program as the Oscars of comics, which I guess would make the other UK comic awards – the Eagle Awards – the BAFTAS?

Anyway, it appears that Stan Lee “is delighted to announce that KAPOW! COMIC CON will be hosting the first annual Stan Lee Awards on Saturday 9th April 2011″ and says that “this is a fantastic platform to reward the cream of comic book talent for all their creativity and imagination throughout 2010, which has brought us so much entertainment and inspiration”.

The Stan Lee Award Categories
– Best Writer
– Best Artist
– Best Series
– Best Superhero or SciFi movie
– Best Trade
– Best Limited Series or Story Arc
– Best Comic Hero
– Best Newcomer
– Best Publisher
– Best TV Show
– Best Game or Toy
– Man or Woman of the Year

The “Lees” follow a model of a jury nominated, public vote award – with online voting available online at the Kapow! Comic-Con website at some point in 2011 after the nominees are selected.