Happy to awake to the news that our fifth volume of Pogo reprints has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the category of "Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips." In fact, this pleases me a lot more than the times when my own work has been directly nominated. I'm only the co-editor on these books and obviously, they ain't voting for what I did. It's a collection of the work of one of the world's all-time great cartoonists and humorists, Walt Kelly. How inept would you have to be to co-edit a book of Kelly's best work and not have it be a great book? A rhesus monkey could do my job if he could write a legible foreword and say, "Oh, we need to clean up the smudges on that stat."
The design of this series required serious talent and skill but that was done by my late, lovely friend Carolyn Kelly. We are now following her template. The Fantagraphics crew and my co-editor Eric Reynolds handle all the tech stuff, formatting and restoring the material. Maggie Thompson and R.C. Harvey contribute vital, highly-researched supplemental text and we have other fine folks helping us out in a number of ways.
Me…I'm in on a pass. If the book wins, I get to go up on stage and pick up the trophy and make a little speech and everyone will congratulate me. If it doesn't win, my life is largely unaffected and I won't be hurt. It won't be my work that loses.
I'm quite serious about this. I think creative people often harm themselves by taking awards way too seriously…like they can't be proud of their work or secure in their chosen profession until someone has handed them a plaque or a statuette. With some, it doesn't seem to matter who gives it to them or what the selection process involves. It's an award, damn it, and that proves something good about you.
Of course, I'd rather see the Pogo book win as opposed to not win. It might sell a few more books. It'll make everyone involved with making the books happier in some way. Most of all, if by some chance Carolyn is watching from on high, it will show her we kept up the standards for the series she launched, and I'll get to say something nice about her in my acceptance speech. But if we don't win, I'll post it here…and Walt Kelly's work will be no less wonderful.