Apologies for the light posting of late. I'm trying to finish something that refuses to be finished. When it is, I'll be back in full force.
I haven't seen anything online about it but I'm told the nominations are out for this year's inductions into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, which is kind of like the Baseball Hall of Fame except it's for people who do comics instead of pitching and throwing and running and spiking the catcher. Shockingly, my name is on this list.
This is just me but I have a lot of problems with awards of any sort. I love when they go to people who I think are deserving and who are made happy — and perhaps even given long-overdue attention — by them. I am uncomfy when I am a possible recipient which is why I didn't show for the ceremony two of the three times I was nominated for an Emmy or more than half the times I've been up for a Harvey or Eisner. I think the first award I ever got as a professional whatever-I-am was when the early Comic-Con decided to give me one of its Inkpot Awards. This would have been 1975.
I found out in advance and immediately altered my plans to attend the ceremony. Shel Dorf, who was then very visible at the San Diego cons mostly as a figurehead, spent the whole next day traipsing around the con with the trophy trying to present it to me and I treated him like a process server. He wanted to do it in a setting with an audience and applause and an acceptance speech and photos. I finally accepted it in private, took it home and didn't display it anywhere until years later when I bought my house and had walls to fill.
At the time, I told myself I was taking some sort of stand for a principle but as so often happens, I later couldn't really explain that principle. And because I couldn't, I realized I was just being a jerk about something that in my head, I'd blown all out of proportion.
I talked about it once with my friend/employer Lee Mendelson, who had more Emmy Awards than toes, and who may have been the wisest man I've known in the television business. He said, "It's simple. If you're nominated, say 'It's an honor to be nominated'" If you win, say 'It's an honor to win.'" Then find a place for the trophy and don't make a big hazari about it." "Hazari" — pronounced as "rye" with a "haza" (rhyming with "Gaza") in front of it — is a Yiddish word that means (roughly) "junk food" but a lot of folks use it to mean something that is way less important than people make it out to be.
So: To whoever nominated me…thanks. It's an honor to be nominated. And now, I have to go try and finish that thing which doesn't want to be finished. I'll be back when it is or when someone I think deserves an obit dies. I sure hope it's the former.