Saturday, November 07, 2009

Top Ten; Punisher

Well, I got four off-line letters today about the Publisher's Weekly Top Ten post of late night. So to make myself perfectly clear:

1) I don't think there was any kind of conspiracy in voting the list. The jury (and there may well have been a woman or women on it) voted their honest beliefs. I doubt sexism had anything to do with it.

2) As I said, choose another jury at random and you'd have a different list, maybe a very different list. We're talking random variables here. This is a completely subjective process.

3) I love getting awards. And it's nice to see friends get them. They are definitely legitimate signs of recognition as long as you admit that there are plenty of other deserving books that got lost in the shuffle.

4) When I see winners at the Academy Awards say that every one on the list was equally as good, I believe them. I mentioned losing by one vote. Well, when I read the winning book I looked at it this way: I felt mine was better written and was more realistic but I had to given the other book its freshness and swagger. If I'd been on the jury I'd probably have voted for the other book.

5) I'm not going to name a genre here but there's one that's absolutely obsessed with awards. I quit because of it. I think the mystery field treats the subject just about right--serious interest but no obsession.

---------------------------------THE PUNISHER

This afternoon I bought and read the Max comic book issue of the The Punisher to check out two of my friends who had stories in it. Tom Picciirilli and Duane Swiercyznski had, for my taste, the best of the issue. Tom's got bit of theater business in the pay-off that is stunning.

Charlie Huston, Greg Hurwitz and Spike Milligan are also in the issue with good stories.

And stunning illustrations throughout.

2 comments:

Evan Lewis said...

The Punisher continues to make my jaw drop. He's come a long, long way since his debut. Maybe farther than any comic book character in history.

Kenneth Mark Hoover said...

The run Garth Ennis had on Punisher MAX was nothing short of amazing. But I stopped reading it after he left; everyone paled in comparison, imo.

But now enough time has passed and maybe I should give it another chance.

Also, I don't know what genre you're talking about, but as someone who works in the SF field quite a lot I can testify they are often focused to the point of obsession on awards....