The Drink Tank 282 (2011).pdf

Handicapping The Hugos 2011

Editors: Chris Garcia and James Bacon

As always, it’s amazing to be on the bal-

lot again! I’m so happy that we did another great

year. I have to start by thanking Mr. James Bacon.

I love that guy! He’s done great stuff, the two

most visible and impressive issues of last year,

The Clarkes and the Hugo for Best Novel is-

sue, OH, make that three with the Hitman issue,

were all sorts of James, and he was around all

year to make the zine as good as it could be! I’m

so happy to see that he’s on the ballot as himself

for Best Fan Writer. I assure you, he’s going to

destroy me in the voting!

I’ve got a lot of folks to thank. First off,

Mo Starkey, on the ballot for the ﬁrst time her-

self, has been doing great covers and art for The

Drink Tank for a few years and it’s great to see

her up there. Thanks, MO!

The greatest disappointment for me was

the lack of Taral Wayne on the Best Fan Writer

ballot. He’s done so much for so many zines that

he really should be up there. Thanks, Taral! Even

though I’ve not been the best of all possible

zines to showcase your stuff, you keep sendin’ it

my way and I could not be happier!

Bill Burns made all this possible. Without

eFanzines.com, there would be no Drink Tank. I

wouldn’t be a Fan Writer at all. Thanks, Bill!

And, of course, there’s the folks who’ve

been sending things along and letting me write

for them. Frank Wu, Warren Buff, Steve Green,

Steven H Silver, Guy Lillian, Joe Major, Niall Har-

rison, Brad W. Foster, Steve Stiles, Lloyd Penney,

John Purcell, Jay Lake, Judith Morel, M, SaBean,

Daniel Kimmel, Mike Perschon, Jay, Jason Scha-

chat, Kevin Roche, Andy Trembley, Padraig, Helen

Montgomery, Claire Brialey, Mike, John Hertz,

Cousin Claire, Dann Lopez, Kevin Standlee,

Brianna SpaceKat-Wu, John Coxon, Graham

Charnock, Paul Cornell, Espana Sheriff, Leigh

Ann, Jean Martin, MIKO (MikoFact - MIko was

famously turned away from Ellis Island for not

being huddled enough), Spike, Tom Becker, Bruce

Gillespie, Earl Kemp, Jan Stinson, Jerry Kaufman,

Joel Zakem, Chris Marble, Mike, Radio, Lux, Cyn-

thia, Jason Wiener, JB Whaley and so many oth-

ers! SO many great people!

OK, this issue is going to be fun. I’ll look

at all the categories and the various things. I do

think the administrators blew it a bit this year

when it comes to PodCasts. There are two Pod-

Casts in two separate categories. I’ve listened to

both, neither one seems that fundamentally dif-

ferent from the other. So why are PodCasts the

only things allowed to exist in two categories at

once? I really hate that the answer always seems

to be the same: Vox populi, vox Dei. It fails! I’m

sorry, we need guidelines in which the populi to

vox properly. We have terribly weak deﬁnitions

and we need to strengthen them! If two things

that are the same can be put into two catego-

ries simply based on where people vote them

to, then that has to hold for everything. There’s

nothing special about PodCasts that make them

immune to the rules of the other categories. If

one had been nominated for a speciﬁc episode

and the other for the entire year’s of run, I’d

have bought it.

But it wasn’t.

We need to get serious and we need our

administrators to administrate more strongly. I

have nothing but respect for this year’s admins,

but I really think they took too loose a hand this

year and should have made some rulings. It hap-

pens.

On the other hand, this team seems to

be the best that’ve been around, they’re just

placed in dumb situations because of the weak-

ness of our rules. So it goes.

So, this is the look at all the categories

(except for the Campbell because it’s NOT A

HUGO!) and some snark, some fun and some

folks making comments along with me!

Comments on Our Choices? Garcia@computerhistory.org!

Best Fan Artist

Last Year’s Winner – Brad W. Foster

Most Wins in the Category – Brad W. Foster with 7

First time Nominees – MO STARKEY!, Randall Munroe

Missing from the list – Sue Mason, Ditmar (still a

crime!), Brianna SpaceKat-Wu, Craig Smith, Frank

Wu, Andy Trembley (Photographers have never made

the ballot, I believe)

The Drink Tank.

Positives – One of the greatest fan artists of all-

time, a Rotsler winner.

Negatives – Perhaps a bit less visible over the

last year or so

It hurts to not say that Stiles should be

taking one of these home with him, but alas, I

don’t think this is his year. Still, he’s an amazing

artist, one of the best that have ever graced fan-

zines.

Odds – 7-to-1

Fifth – Steve Stiles

Previous Nominations – Eleven of ‘em!

My Favorite Piece of his 2010 – The Cover im-

age for Earl Kemp’s eI 52. I love that one.

Appearances in Garcia Zines – Several, most no-

tably a couple of exceptional abstract covers for

Fourth – Mo Starkey

Previous Nominations – None

My favorite of her pieces in 2010 – Personally,

I love the Tiki cover she did for the Drink Tank

239, but the one she did for Andy Trembley’s iKi-

nook Reader was amazing!

Appearances in Garcia Zines – She’s done a ton

of covers for The Drink Tank, the cover for Jour-

ney Planet 2, and is currently doing the art for 52

Weeks to Science Fiction Film Literacy.

Positives – She’s been doing great stuff in some

very visible zines and Reno is in her Wheelhouse,

as it were, and has the dreaded BASFA voting

bloc behind her.

Negatives – First year on the ballot, not in a lot

of the biggest zines.

I’d love to say that she’d be walking off

with the Rocket, but I just don’t see it happen-

ing, as much as that hurts. I really think she does

great work and no other nomination made me

personally happier. Still, she could surprise with

a win at a WorldCon that’s in her backyard.

Odds – 6-to-1

Third – Brad W. Foster

Previous Nominations – 22 with 7 wins!

My Favorite Piece of his 2010 – Wow, hard to say.

I gotta go with the Bull for eI issue 51, though

he did have an amazing piece in the most recent

Exhibition Hall, but that’s 2011.

Appearances in Garcia Zines – Tons, covers and

interior art and on and on...

Positives – One of the most-beloved Fan Artists

in history, A Rotsler winner, who has been do-

ing great stuff for years and especially in recent

years.

Negatives – Has won twice in the last three

years.

Brad’s great. I totally think he’s one of

the best artists ever and one of the best work-

ing out there today. His style is so distinctive, so

clean and baroque and awesome! I don’t think

he’ll take it this year, but it’s always good to see

him on the ballot.

Odds – 4-to-1

Art, in Fan Art, in Fan Writing, and a Rotsler win-

ner also.

Negatives – He’s not a superstar beyond the fan

art community.

I really wish I could write that he was go-

ing to be walking off with it, but I don’t see it just

because of the guy I think will be winning. It’s a

shame because there’ve been two years where I

really thought he’d take it, he certainly deserved

it, and it never happened.

Odds – 3-to-1

Winner – Randall Munroe

Previous Nomiantions – None

My favorite piece of his in 2010 – http://xkcd.

com/857/

Appearances in Garcia Zines – None.

Positives – xkcd is a massive hit and even I think

it’s pretty funny.

Negatives – I’ve not found any zines or the like

where he’s appeared.

It’s just about dead certain that Best Fan

Artist will fall for what Best Fan Writer has sev-

eral years prior, where if you have a pro on the

ballot, you end up with them winning. It’s kind of

a shame as there’s so much talent doing so much

great stuff that to have it go to a guy who should

be in the Best Pro Artist section isn’t great, but

still, I do love his stuff that I’ve seen.

Odds – 5-to-4

This is an interesting category and I’m

thinking that it may well turn out to be the one

that sees the biggest win. Randall might even win

without needing a redistribute. It’s going to be

the broken record, we need better deﬁnitions.

And so on. It’s not like we’re all clamouring to

give Hugos to the folks who do art for zines

or programme books. I’d not have been upset if

Dave Howell had won last year, primarily for his

Hugo base design, but this just feels wrong.

It’s a shame that Taral and Stiles haven’t

won one. They need to. They’re both legends

who have won just about every other award

Fandom has for them. Well, Taral hasn’t won the

Aurora. Or a FAAn award. Folks, we really need

to get on that!

Still, I’m hoping that I’ll get some of these

folks to do some more art for me in the future!

Second – Taral Wayne

Previous Nominations

– Nine

My favorite piece of his

2010 – IS in The Drink

Tank 259, on the Editorial

page! It’s got me with a

gun at my head!

Appearances in Garcia

ZInes – Too many to men-

tion, especially in the area

of writing.

Positives – One of the

biggest names in Furry

Best Fan Writer

Last Year’s Winner – Fred Pohl

Most Wins in the Category – Dave Langford with

20-something

First time Nominees – JAMES BACON!!!!!

Missing from the list – Taral Wayne, a crime. Lloyd

Penney, also a crime. John Hertz, another crime.

Mike Perschon, Randy Smith, Randy Byers, Frank

Wu, Bruce Gillespie, Leigh Ann Hildebrand, Kevin

Roche, Guy Lillian, crimes that one and all ain’t on

the ballot!

My favorite piece of his 2010 – I gotta go with

his tribute to Samuel Clemens - http://efanzines.

com/SPG/index.htm

Appearances in Garcia Zines – Several over the

years, last year a Twain piece and I think one of

two others.

Where can you read his stuff - http://efanzines.

com/Argentus/index.htm

Positives - Long-standing nominee back on the

ballot after a year off. Always does good stuff.

Fan GoH at FenCon this year!

Negatives – Argentus not on the ballot might in-

dicate that he’s fallen out of the public eye a bit.

I’d love to see Steven win one of these,

and hey, there’s Chicago coming up next year. I

just don’t see it happening this year. Still, St Pe-

tersburg Gazette and

Dawson’s Landing Herald and last year’s Argen-

tus were both really good stuff from him.

Odds – 5-to-1

Came in second to Fred Pohl last year.

Negatives – Doesn’t have much on-line.

I can not do justice to Claire Brial-

ey, so here’s a piece from her about getting

nominated1

The Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer has

been presented 45 times (as you’ll recall, Professor,

it was introduced for NyCon 3 in 1967) but has

been won by only 13 different people: Terry Carr,

Richard E Geis, Mike Glyer, Dave Langford, Cheryl

Morgan, Alexei Panshin, Fred Pohl, John Scalzi, Bob

Shaw, Bob Tucker, Ted White, Harry Warner Jr and

Susan Wood.

Of course it’s a cliché to say that it’s an hon-

our just to be on the short-list, but this year we know

that one of us will get the undoubted honour of join-

ing that list of winners – possibly, in that company,

decorated with the footnote ‘Who?’ – unless we cre-

ate history in a different way by all being beaten

by No Award. Rest assured that even to be in the

running makes me, too, wonder who I think I am.

Fortunately it’s not something I really need

to worry about too much. In September 2010 I sent

a long overdue letter of comment to The Drink Tank

– so overdue, in fact, that among many other previ-

ous topics it was able to comment with the beneﬁt

of hindsight on the 2010 version of this issue, which

had appeared about ﬁve months before. I said then,

notwithstanding last year’s results, that I hadn’t been

harbouring any false optimism about my chances

(or those for Banana Wings in the fanzine ballot),

and that this had caused me no distress whatsoever.

And that remains the case.

This isn’t any sort of false modesty, but rath-

er pragmatism. I’m an old fart sort of fan, whose

writing and the forums in which I write probably

don’t resonate with the majority of Worldcon at-

Fifth place – James Nicoll

Previous Nominations – Last year he debuted.

My favorite piece of his 2010 – I honestly can’t

think of a single one. I imagine this is more my

problem with not keeping up with the main-

stream than his not being visible or memorable.

Appearances in Garcia Zines – 0.

Where you can read some of his stuff - http://

james-nicoll.livejournal.com/

Positives – Has a widely-read LJ, writes some

good stuff.

Negatives – Didn’t fare well last year

I’ve not read much James Nicoll. I’ve

read a few pieces in the past, and he made a few

very memorable quotes in the USENET days as

I seem to have discovered. I guess the biggest

reason I could never put him higher on my bal-

lot is his quote about Stephen Baxter’s Titan -

It would not surprise me if reading that book

causes birth defects. I love Titan!

Odds – 8-to-1

Third – Claire Brialey

Previous Nomiantions – Only three, which I ﬁnd

almost criminal!

My favorite piece of hers 2010 – And my favorite

LoC of all-time in http://efanzines.com/Drink-

Tank/DrinkTank260.pdf

Appearances in Garcia Zines – She plays a piv-

otal role in Journey Planet (basically, she keeps

me and James from looking like idiots!) and she’s

been in several issues of The Drink Tank over

the last few years. And there’s that LoC!

Where can you read her stuff – Well, she doesn’t

have that much on-line, though you can ﬁnd

pieces of Claire’s in The Drink Tank Clarkes is-

sue and, in 2011, the Stephen Baxter issue.

Positives – The Best Fan Writer in the World.

Fourth – Stephen Silver

Previous Nominations – 9 for Best Fan Writer

and I think 3 for Best Fanzine for Argentus

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