I’m very humbled and honored to announce that WORLD OF HURT was nominated in six categories for the 2010 Glyph Comic Awards!

The categories include Story Of The Year, Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Male Character, Rising Star, and Best Comic Strip. 

I was further shocked by Rich Watson’s update today, in which he placed the nominations in historical perspective, when he posted, “With a leading six noms this year, including Story, Comic Strip and Rising Star, Jay Potts’ WORLD OF HURT is the biggest debut in [Glyph Comics Awards] history.”   

I know that it’s a cliche to say that it is an honor just to be nominated, but it is definitely true, particularly with the incredible line-up of talent and phenomenal properties that are in contention for Glyph Awards this year.  For example, one of the first professionals I met in the comic book industry was Joshua Dysart, when he and Tone Rodriguez were working on Violent Messiahs for Hurricane Entertainment.  I own an autographed, mint copy of Jeremy Love’s Chocolate Thunder from 2000.  Chocolate Thunder was an early project Jeremy Love did in collaboration with his brothers Robert and Maurice, which they published through their own imprint, Gettosake Entertainment.   Last year, Jeremy Love scored a record-setting five wins at the 2009 Glyph Comic Awards for his webcomic, Bayou, which is published through Zuda Comics.  Looking at the arc of Jeremy Love’s career,  his entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, which was always in evidence, is an inspiring example that one does not have to forsake artistic vision for the sake of commerce, and vice versa.  I wasn’t looking for that copy of Chocolate Thunder, but I stumbled across it in one of my short boxes yesterday.  I don’t believe in signs, but I do believe in hubris, so I won’t say anything more. :)  

Congratulations to all the nominees, but a special congratulations are due to John Aston, a friend of WORLD OF HURT and fellow member of Rodney Blackwell’s “The Next 100″ ™.  John received a 2010 Glyph Awards ‘Rising Star’ nomination for his work on Rachel Rage.  We’re representing South Carolina big this year! 

Thank you very much everyone for your encouragement and for all the work you’ve done to help spread the word about this webcomic.

- JEP

This week, WORLD OF HURT celebrated its one year anniversary on the World Wide Web.  However, on Thursday, April 8th, Julian Lytle, also celebrated the one year anniversary of his webcomic, Ants, so I thought I’d take the time to spotlight the work of my fellow 2010 Glyph Award nominee.

David Brothers of 4thLetter.net hipped me to Lytle’s work in the interview he conducted with Lytle as part of his Black Future ‘10 series.  The titular characters are four human-sized anthropomorphic ants who could easily be buddies from your college days, hanging out, talkin’ smack, and living life in contemporary America.  The characters each have their own unique appearances, so the reader can easily tell them apart, but I’m not certain that Lytle ever gives them names.  The Ants dress and speak like modern Black youth, but Lytle renders them with antenna and long, gangly tubular bodies in a loose, spontaneous style that recalls Rob Schrab’s Scud, The Disposable Assassin by way of Ashley (Popbot) Wood and Corey (SharkKnife) Lewis. 

With one notable exception which I will discuss later, Ants contains mostly one-off humor strips, so it is extremely accessible to new readers.  Despite the general lack of lengthy story arcs, Lytle does reward long-time readers with a few recurring gags and callbacks to previous strips, such as one of the character’s attempts to start a new dance craze called “The Crack Back.”  Also, it may just mean I’m out of touch with current slang, but Ants is the first place I’ve seen the word “kirkin’” used to refer someone flying into a rage, a la Captain James T. Kirk’s oft-parodied scream of “KHAAAAAANNN!!!” in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.

Inspired by real life events that anticipated a potential Eggo shortage this summer, Ants recently concluded a long-running storyline that placed the characters in a quest to exact vengeance upon Thor, the Norse god of thunder, for his suspected role in disrupting the nation’s supply of it’s favorite frozen waffles.  It was a far-ranging tale with gloriously insane moments built on an equally insane premise.  However, I would argue that Ants is at its best when it focuses on current events and political commentary, such as when the Ants broke the fourth wall to offer tips to cheating men in the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal.  Lytle can effortlessly mix social commentary with liberal doses of contemporary and classic pop culture references. 

In those sublime moments, Ants beautifully fills the void that Aaron McGruder left when he stopped producing The Boondocks comic strip for the newspapers so he could chase (and catch) some animation paper.  With his unique style and his capacity to launch hilariously biting assaults on politicians or hip-hop’s sacred cows like Lil’ Wayne, Lytle’s work, like Glyph Award winner, Keith Knight (The K Chronicles), pushes editorial cartooning forward to a new look, style and voice that keeps the artform fresh and relevant for modern audiences.

I’ll see you next week with an all-new strip and a return of The Unsung Bad Mother****** Awards!

- JEP

* I know I butchered the title, but I’ll use any excuse to drop a M.O.P. reference.

Happy Friday, everyone!

I’m on my way to the home of cheesesteaks, the fictional battle of the ages between Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa and American democracy (which I listed in order of importance).  Yes, I’m headed to Philadelphia, PA today to attend the 9th Annual East Coast Age Of Comics Convention (ECBACC) this weekend.  In conjunction with ECBACC, the ceremony for the 2010 Glyph Comics Awards is being held tonight at the African American Museum on 701 Arch St.  The Awards are free and open to the public, so if you’re in the area, please come on by. 

WORLD OF HURT has been nominated in six different Glyph Awards categories, including Best Writer, Best Artist, Story of The Year,  Rising Star Award, Best Comic Strip and Best Male Character.  I’m nervous, excited and wish good fortune and good travels to my fellow nominees and everyone else on their way to the convention.  I’ll be joined by my parents, my brother and nephew, and my lovely fiancee, so WORLD OF HURT will be rolling in their posse-deep, my friends!

Due to all the preparations, I hope you can forgive the rather spare blog post for today, but I’ll be dropping some live updates tonight via Twitter after the event.  Hit me up at http://twitter.com/World_Of_Hurt around 9:30 PM for the post-awards cereomy details.

- JEP