The whole comics in the Hugos thing is interesting and complicated. I could easily write whole columns about it, but I don’t suppose anyone wants to see me getting on my soapbox at such length.

(I’ll just get on my sopabox briefly here, instead)

If you look at the full lists of nominated comics, as opposed to just the handful that get through onto the final short list, they’re notable for their diversity and credibility. They generally include most of the stuff that the comics commentariat would agree is the best of the best; it’s just that a lot of that stuff doesn’t get enough nominations to reach the final vote because not quite enough folks are reading it. So the awareness is there in the sf community, but not terribly widley distributed. That’s nobody’s fault, unless it’s the comics industry’s, for having allowed their medium to decline from a mass market to a niche.

Like I said, I’ve got no doubt Saga will get onto the final Hugo ballot. Assuming that’s the case, it’ll be fascinating to see what happens, because it’s going to absolutely clean up in comics industry awards in the next year or two. There’s a very, very widely shared view that it’s by some distance the best thing to come along in quite a while. So the folks who really know comics mostly think the best comic out there at the moment – on both technical craft and entertainment terms – bar none, is an sf/fantasy epic. Are the sf/fantasy folk who decide the Hugo going to disagree? We’ll see …

By the time I’d finished writing this column I’d almost come round to the idea that personally I’d give the Hugo to Prophet rather than Saga, and there are any number of other plausible contenders, so I don’t think Saga has to win or anything, but if it doesn’t it’d be fascinating to try to understand why not. It’s certainly got the sales figures to support a run for the rocketship (unlike Prophet ).

(dismounts from sopabox)