*A wild Niccea appears*
I got signed out of Discord at some point in the past few months, and when I got back in, I found people wanting to know when I'm going to get off my lazy butt and start working on the awards. [/exaggeration]
So I guess it is time to start getting things in order. The Awards celebrate the comics, authors, and users that make this site great. For a faster paced discussion (and frequently off topic), we do have a Discord
here.
Please look at this year's schedule and tell me what you think. I also would like to go back to having a theme for the For Your Consideration pages. Also if you feel like we need to change up the categories. The ones from last year are below.
Planning ~ Now - June
FYC Pages Accepted ~ April - June 10th
Red Carpet Submissions ~ May 1st - September 1st
The Drunk Duck Award Design Contest
Submissions ~ May 26th - June 5th
Voting ~ June 6th - June 10th
Drunk Duck Awards Voting Opens ~ June 11th - July 8th
Tie Breakers (as needed) ~ July 9th - July 15th
Finalists Announced/Volunteers Assigned ~ July 20th - July 22nd
Judging ~ July 23rd - September 9th
Emergency Wrap Up ~ September 10th - September 23rd
The Ceremony Begins ~ September 25th
Here are the categories from last year.
GENRE AWARDS
Best Adventure Comic:
Quests, missions, explorations, and/or other dangerous or exciting ventures.
Best Adult-oriented Comic:
A-rated comics. XXX No one under 18 admitted! Live nudes! Or excessive violence. Or both!
Best All Ages Comic:
Child-friendly comics that the whole family can enjoy.
Best Anthropomorphic Comic:
They act like people and think like people, but they look like foxes or dolphins or toasters.
Best Community Project:
Comics and projects that bring together a variety of DD members for
massive synergy! (DD Awards are not eligible, for giving ourselves an
award would create a paradox vortex from which there is no escape.)
Best Drama:
A story focused on a real world setting and is character-driven with a focus on emotions. Courtroom dramas, medical dramas, crime dramas, romantic dramas, high school dramas (but when is high school not dramatic?), etc.
Best Fantasy Comic:
Magical, mythical, mystical, marvelous. Comics set in fantastical
settings, involving magic or mythical creatures, abilities, or beings.
Best Horror Comic:
The dark, scary, and twisted. Monsters, psychological thrillers, and
ax-wielding psychos all have their place among these wonderfully
horrific comics.
Best Humor Comic:
Gags, jokes, lols, roflmaos, and such. Format and subject matter aren't important. It just has to make you laugh.
Best Mystery/Crime/Noir:
Crime drama, police, mobsters, mysteries, hard-boiled detectives, and/or meddling kids.
Best Parody/Tribute:
Comics that use the characters, worlds, or creations of other creators. It's not copyright infringement! It's an homage!
Best Philosophical/Political Comic:
Make-you-think comics that address deep topics from the spiritual and philosophical to the cultural or political.
Best Sci-fi Comic:
A form of speculative fiction so named because the fantastical
elements are rooted in or explained by actual or fictional scientific
theory.
Best Superhero Comic:
Too super for other categories.
~~~~~
STYLE AWARDS
Best Action Within A Comic :
Chase scenes, fights, big explosions; CRASH POW ZOOM – you know the stuff
Best Atypical Art:
Comics that use 3D rendering, Photography, Sprites, or Macaroni Art or anything use that breaks the mold.
Most Deliciously Offensive:
These f&%#@ comics might p^@(# you the f*^^@* off.
~~~~~
TECHNICAL AWARDS
Best Background Art:
The background, setting, environment, and surroundings. Including architecture, scenery, furniture, vehicles, etc.
Best Character Design:
The artistic design of the characters. This includes anatomy, facial
expressions, and clothing (but not speech, mannerisms, or
personality/actions).
Best Comic Layouts:
The components of visual storytelling that harmonize the artwork
into a page and direct flow and pacing. Includes panel shape and
position, placement of speech balloons, lettering, and general
readability.
Best Dialogue:
It's all about what they say and how they say it.
Best Plot Development:
The overall story composition and pacing, and the use of storytelling elements.
Most Improved Art:
The comic that shows the most artistic improvement between July 2020 and now.
~~~~~
CHARACTER AWARDS
Best Protagonist:
Contrary to popular belief, the protagonist is the main character of the story whether they are good or evil.
Best Antagonist:
Opposes the protagonist. Doesn't necessarily have to be evil
incarnate, it could be Superman in a comic about Lex Luthor for example.
~~~~~
USER AWARDS
Outstanding Achievement Within the Community:
The
user that will win this award is always there to participate in the
community no matter what. These people show their support for the site
within the forums and by participating in community projects.
Most Dedicated Creator:
That creator who seems to be a page-making machine, every day on
time – or maybe the one who has been at it forever and has a thousand
pages of the most amazing quality – or the one who is updating five
different regular comics on a schedule. Whatever they are doing, they
sure are DEDICATED.
Most Supportive Reader:
Maybe they leave the most comments or the most insightful ones, or
they draw wonderful fanart, or they are always available to discuss your script ideas or send you cards when you're on hiatus.
Best Newcomer Award
Awarded to a newcomer who has come to the site who has really stood out. They could be creators or dedicated readers
~~~~~
THE BIG ONES
Best Completed Comic:
Comics that were concluded sometime between July 2020 and now. (Indefinite hiatus doesn't count.)
Best Overall Comic Strip:
Best webcomic with stand-alone updates or short, unrelated story arcs, usually in a horizontal or vertical strip format.
Best Overall Story Comic:
Best webcomic that tells a continuous story, usually in full page format.
~~~~~
Create Your Own Award
Didn't see the proper award for the comic/person you were thinking of on this
list? Make one up. Create your own award and give it a winner. Best
awards will be chosen by a dedicated team of judges.
~~~~~
OTHER AWARDS
Readers' Choice Award: Presented to the comic that received the most votes overall.
Best Presenter Award: Presented after the regular awards. Readers vote for their favorite presenter
Start publishing on
DD Comics!
Advertise with us
Comic Talk and General Discussion *
Drunk Duck Awards 2023
Ok. So, every year I get the same questions about the Drunk Duck Awards. Since I’m visual and kinesthetic and I have also been running the awards for 11 years, I often skimp on explanations. I’m going to try to make blog post style entries that talk about the awards.
A Brief (And Possibly Inaccurate) History of the Awards
The first Drunk Duck Awards was in 2007. It was hosted entirely within the forums of the website, and did not have an attendant comic to go with. The second awards was the first awards to be hosted within comic format. The Master of Ceremonies was amanda. The comic for the awards was very different than its current form today. It was only an opening page, presentation pages, and a credits page. amanda ran the awards again with help from JustNoPoint in 2009. JustNoPoint took over the awards in 2010. He has been an important part of the puzzle for quote some time. JustNoPoint hosted a forum site away from drunkduck.com that gave a separate place for the judging of the awards that allowed the judges to convene easily, keep an archive of the judgements, and, finally, keep the winners under wraps until the presentations. In 2011, the fifth annual awards was just in the beginning of its planning phase when tragedy struck. The Drunk Duck website crashed and was down for a period of time. When the site was back up, the planning for the awards had essentially ground to a halt and the awards did not have an MC at the helm. At the time, I was the appointed mod of the Networking and Community Projects forum. I had only helped out with the awards for my first time the previous year, but I didn’t want to see the awards disappear. I took up the MC job only planning to do it for that year. JustNoPoint was able to communicate with me on how some things were done and gave me an admin role on the forum that he had made for judging so I could continue the awards.
The 2011 awards brought forth changes to the format of the awards comic. Based on suggestions in the planning thread of the awards, I introduced the For Your Consideration (FYC) section of the comic for the first time. During the 2012 Awards, the Design the Awards Contest, which was previously contained to threads on the forum, was added to the comic. 2013 was the first time that a theme was used for the FYC section of the awards. From 2013, the format of the Awards was largely unchanged up until 2018. I was the main MC for most of the time with an exception in 2017. I had started getting the awards together, but I had some personal issues come up. Banes was able to step up, take what I had together, and wrap up the awards. 2018 was the first year that Tantz_Aerine hosted the Red Carpet event, and the event was integrated into the comic the next season in 2020.
Including the addition of the Red Carpet Event, 2020 saw several large changes. First of all, there were no awards hosted in 2019, so for many users that joined during that year, this was their first time seeing the Drunk Duck Awards. Also, in 2020 the beloved Judges Forum crashed. It was not able to be recovered. The Awards Discord server was made to be a stand in for the judging forum and it worked fairly well. This year (2022) is only the second year that we are using Discord to enhance the awards. Judging will be held on the server later this year, but the planning channel has been really active with good discourse regarding the awards.
And that is my best nutshell of the history of the awards.
The Awards Cycle
Since I took over the awards in 2011, the awards have followed the same cycle regardless of the actual events. There is a planning phase, pre-awards phase, voting phase, volunteer phase, and, finally, the presentation phase. The next year we do it all over again. For the next couple of posts I’m going to talk about what happens during these stages. Some are self-explanatory and to the point, but others are a little more involved. Also, fair warning, I’m not going to go in order.
Voting Phase
I get a lot of questions about how a comic is nominated for the awards, so I’m going to go ahead and discuss this piece of the awards first. Any comic that is actively updating on the website or has finished within the last year (two years in the event of a skip year) is eligible to be nominated for the awards.
Each year for the awards I create a ballot using Google Forms for people to nominate comics for the awards. I go over the ballots, throw out the invalid votes, and tabulate the final numbers to come to the nominees. Invalid votes are votes that break the rules. These are the rules for voting on the awards:
~One ballot per person. (Must have a valid Drunk Duck Account)
~No voting for yourself. (That means comics you work on)
~Drunk Duck hosted (or mirrored) comics only.
~Comics must be actively updating or completed within the last year.
~You may enter a comic in more than one category (however, don't enter it for all categories.)
The top 3-5 voted eligible comics in each category with more than one vote become the nominees. If there are more than 5 comics nominated, a tie-breaker vote is hosted for the comics with the lowest votes to fill the spots. However, if there is a large amount of comics that would have to be put into a tie-breaker round, amount of nominees for the comic is reduced to 3 or 4. In rare cases if only one comic receives more than one vote or there is a large tie breaker for slot 2 on, the comic with the most votes is declared the winner of the category. This category will not go into judgement, but the winner will be announced the awards presentation.
Pre-Awards Phase
Going back a step now. I have covered what the rules are for comics to secure a nomination. But how do you get people to vote for your comic? That is where the pre-awards stage comes in. Before voting opens, there are plenty of opportunities to get your name out there and start to bring attention to your comic. Why only try to promote yourself to you current followers in hopes that they will vote when you can participate in the pre-awards and possible secure new readers along with votes?
At this time there are three events that either begin or occur during this part of the awards season. All three can be used to show case your talent, and two of them can be used to bring direct attention to your comic.
For Your Consideration Pages are a very easy way to introduce your comic and what awards you would like to see it nominated for. Submitted pages will appear in the awards comic, and you can also show them on your own comic, of course. Anything that is submitted for the awards comic must be appropriate for all audiences. I usually say keep it G or PG. No nudity, violence, or swears, but tasteful implications of the three are generally ok. The only other rule for submitting an FYC page is to keep with the theme. The FYC pages usually have a loose theme to tie everything together. Some pages follow the theme super strictly, while others give it a passing nod. Because the FYCs are designed to showcase comics in hopes of being nominated for the awards, pages that do not follow the theme will still be shown, but they will not appear until the very end of the FYC period which usually end after voting has already been open for a week.
FYC page submission is not required in order to be elegible for award nomination. It merely serves as a way to advertise your comic.
Design the Awards Contest is a contest to design the trophy for the awards. The trophy design is used to create banners for the nominees and winners. Anyone can submit a design for this contest. Though it doesn’t showcase your comic, it can show off your art style and get your name out there. This contest is usually run in the weeks leading up the ballots for the awards opening. Anyone can vote for the winning design. The winning design is the trophy used for the awards winners. The runner up design is used for the awards finalists. And the other designs are incorporated as part the design for the awards comic.
The Red Carpet Event has run by Tantz_Aerine since its creation. Anyone can submit to Tantz images of their comic characters in casual dress and in gala dress on transparent background. The casual images are public posted on the Red Carpet thread in the forms. The formal dress pictures are sent to Tantz privately. She uses the images to make composite wallpaper of all the participants. This even has a little longer scope and the due date is after the nominees for the awards are announced. Once again, this serves as a great way to introduce yourself and your art style prior to the awards.
Once again, participation in these events is not required to be eligible for the awards. However, it does help keep interest up throughout the awards season and hopefully bring more readers for your comics.
Planning Phase
The planning phase is between the previous years presentation and the pre-awards for the following year. There isn’t much to explain about it. Feed back is provided about the previous year and plans are made for the following. Sometime categories are added/cut/modified. The FYC theme is discussed and there is a lot of Q and A about the awards.
Volunteer Phase
This the most important phase of the Drunk Duck Awards, and it is also the longest, with exception to the planning phase which is spread out. Without the help of awards volunteers, the awards would not make it. The main volunteer roles are outlined below, but there are many “see a need, fill a need,” items that may crop up and anyone that wishes to help is welcome.
Presenter Do you like being in the spotlight? Do you want the everyone to see your art? If so, being a presenter is right for you. The presentation pages need to have the nominees for the award, and leave a space for the name of the winner to be placed on the page. Some people leave a white space at the bottom and others leave speech bubbles. Either way it is up to you. The only rule regarding the presentation pages is that they have to be viewable by everyone. So, keep the pages PG at the worst and no slanderous/insulting remarks against other users/comics.
In addition to presentations, extras for the awards comic can be submitted to keep the momentum going and show what is going on behind the scenes of the awards.
Judge Do you like telling other people what you think? Do you quietly observe comics like a stalker in the corner? Consider judging. The judges are the heart and soul of the awards. It is up to them to decide the winners from each category. Judges, though they are not expected to be professional art critics, are required to put some thought behind their decision. The best way for judges to show this is to do a pro and con comparison of the nominees. Though anything is all right as long as it is easy to see that some thought went into picking the winner. Judges are only responsible for reading a year or two worth of pages depending on when the last awards were. The only exception to this is the Best Completed Comic where the judges are encouraged to read the entire comic.
Judging takes place on the Discord server for the awards. Each category is assigned 2 to 3 judges to read the comics and debate on the winner. Usually, a third judges is only brought in if the original two judges cannot come to consensus. The judges have private threads for each category on the Discord server that only the assigned volunteers can view. There are also Judge Wranglers on the Discord server to help keep the judges in line. Sometimes, the help mediate disputes between the judges or even ask the judges neutral questions that help them during the process. Other times a Judge Wrangler has to track down the judges and bring them back to the server to finish their category.
Presentation Phase
You would think that this would be pretty self-explanatory and straight forward phase, however there is more than simply showing the comic. The presentation phase actually begins in the background of the volunteer phase, and is here that everything begins to come together. Once a winner is declared by the judges, I create a trophy for the winner. Hopefully, by this time, the presentation for the category is also completed and I can add the winner’s name to the presentation page. If the presentation page is not ready yet, I notate to go back to it.
By the time of the presentation, ideally, a lot of the work is already completed and all that is left to assemble the comic. Each presentation page in the comic will have the winner’s name. Also, in the author’s notes, links to winner comic, a winning banner, credits for the presenter, and statements from the judges. After a page is posted, I go back and make sure that all the links work, and that the image for the trophy shows up.
Interspersed before, during, and after the presentation pages are extras pages that include behind the scenes moments, acceptance speeches, and concession speeches. Once again, these pages help keep the momentum of the presentation phase going and allows the winners to give their thanks.
At the end of the awards presentation credits are usually released to notes who the judges and presenters were as well as shout out to other roles such as the brave people that provided input in the planning phase and the participants of the award design contest. I was unable to make one in 2020 because of personal issues and a comedy of errors.
And, hopefully that sums up all the end and outs of the awards.
Niccea wrote:Certainly has been a lot of parody of his style of nature documentary going around. I've seen it done for nearly every thing why not a webcomic?
I came up with a silly idea… But I'm not sure well it would play out. Comic characters in a David Attenborough style nature documentary. We can name the narrator David Quackenborough.
DylanTale Comics wrote:You have nothing to worry about. Mobilize your readers to vote. They're the ones who get the comic nominated. Unless you're bravo1102 you have a chance at winning too.
Reading this helps me feel less overwhelmed by all this (as I've never been a part of this kind of event). I'm really excited to see what categories I'd wanna go for, can't wait for more details regarding the FYC!
bravo1102 wrote:DylanTale Comics wrote:You have nothing to worry about. Mobilize your readers to vote. They're the ones who get the comic nominated. Unless you're bravo1102 you have a chance at winning too.
Reading this helps me feel less overwhelmed by all this (as I've never been a part of this kind of event). I'm really excited to see what categories I'd wanna go for, can't wait for more details regarding the FYC!
Thanks for the vote of confidence! (pun intended)
Niccea wrote:
Tantz's idea from last year: how about "At the Therapist". Like every MC from every FYC comic go sit down at this same therapist, because their door that leads to their office has become a cosmic portal.
Anyone else have any ideas for FYC page themes?
Pretty solid idea, I could definitely see my MC in that scenario, especially since portal-travelling is common in my comic. I was also maybe thinking a game/talk show where the host has a big magic box that each MC comes out of.
I'm leaning between therapy session and mockumentary because I feel they are the most versatile of the options. I'm worried that the talk/game show might feel a little samey after a while.
Anyone have any strong feelings either way? I would like to get things moving but I don't want to rush anything. I'm an oxymoron.
While I personally have grown weary of the mockumentary format that much of North American and Europe television has done to death over the past couple of decades, I like the idea of therapy sessions, and that's mainly because I love getting trying to get into characters' heads and explore their psyche to see why they are the way they are - it's something that I strived for with Levana throughout the course of VAMPIRE GIRL, to explore why she hated being a vampire so much despite being born that way. So yeah, my vote's for therapy sessions.
AI is the big thing in 2023, so it would be the topic's turn. However, when I think about what I'd enjoy creating the most, it would be the ranking:
1. the session with the therapist
2. the Quackenborough documentary
3. chatGPT9000
(although I can even imagine combining topic 1 with 3).
But I have a completely different wish: I'd find it great if the FYC pages could be published in the new theme of Alexis, as a test run, and the new layout would thus be considered by the curious audience.
J_Scarbrough wrote:
While I personally have grown weary of the mockumentary format that much of North American and Europe television has done to death over the past couple of decades, I like the idea of therapy sessions, and that's mainly because I love getting trying to get into characters' heads and explore their psyche to see why they are the way they are - it's something that I strived for with Levana throughout the course of VAMPIRE GIRL, to explore why she hated being a vampire so much despite being born that way. So yeah, my vote's for therapy sessions.
I completely agree. For the Faceless, changing the world and not speaking OR showing/having a face is hard work. I could see him kind of having a session with a therapist, although the therapist would probably do most of the talking XD.
lothar wrote:
How about artificial intelligence from the future as archeologists? They are excavating and examining the remnants of the Drunk Duck servers in the year 3,023. Everyone is a clone or a cyborg and the whole event is hosted by chatGPT9000.
I could see this happening. A lot of people this year are raving about ChatGPT, so that theme would fit right into 2023.
I'm going to open up the awards for For Your Consideration pages now. The rules are simple: keep the page rated PG or so and use the theme in your page. This year the theme that got the most positive reaction is “At the Therapist.” There are many different forms this can take, but if your comic characters need therapy what would it look like? There are plenty of archetypes for therapists, from Dr. Scrathandsniff from the Animaniacs to Lucy to Peanuts to Bob Newhart. If you are looking for something closer to home, you can use Tantz_Aerine or my avatars.
This should be good. I'll probably use Tantz and work in the response to couches she had on discord.
You know there's also working in "reverse psychology " like saying "Don't vote the comic for this–"
There's denial and self depreciation "the comic isn't that! NO!" "It's just not good enough."
And any number of behaviors like "imposter syndrome" to have the characters go with. Or even worse put a personification of the comic into therapy. The avatar on a body sitting there and being asked about how it feels about itself. Lol.
InkyMoondrop wrote:You can PQ or email niccea(at)gmail
:) Sorry, submit them where? Email, comment or just pq here?
Niccea wrote:InkyMoondrop wrote:You can PQ or email niccea(at)gmail
:) Sorry, submit them where? Email, comment or just pq here?
Okay, thanks. I sent them in email (maybe it's in the spam folder, although I'm not an african prince trying to give you millions).
InkyMoondrop wrote:I got it. I'm just super bad at responding to confirm I received. I'm just waiting to get a couple more before releasing.Niccea wrote:InkyMoondrop wrote:You can PQ or email niccea(at)gmail
:) Sorry, submit them where? Email, comment or just pq here?
Okay, thanks. I sent them in email (maybe it's in the spam folder, although I'm not an african prince trying to give you millions).
Advertise with us
DDComics is community owned.
The following patrons help keep the lights on. You can support DDComics on Patreon.
- Banes
- JustNoPoint
- RMccool
- Abt_Nihil
- Gunwallace
- cresc
- PaulEberhardt
- Emma_Clare
- FunctionCreep
- SinJinsoku
- Smkinoshita
- jerrie
- Chickfighter
- Andreas_Helixfinger
- Tantz_Aerine
- Genejoke
- Davey Do
- Gullas
- Roma
- NanoCritters
- Teh Andeh
- Peipei
- Digital_Genesis
- Hushicho
- Palouka
- Cheeko
- Paneltastic
- L.C.Stein
- Zombienomicon
- Dpat57
- Bravo1102
- TheJagged
- LoliGen
- OrcGirl
- Fallopiancrusader
- Arborcides
- ChipperChartreuse
- Mogtrost
- InkyMoondrop
- jgib99
- Call me tom
- OrGiveMeDeath_Ind
- Mks_monsters
- GregJ
- HawkandFloAdventures
- Soushiyo