Lit The Sixth Annual Aluminum Falcon Awards - HALL OF FAME RESULTS UP

Yay, glad to see John Jackson Miller and the Kenobi novel already winning several awards.

Also glad to see Wheatley win his category (no offense to the rest of the comic artists of course), especially as its the last full comic year.

Wonder how many artists we'll see when Marvel takes over.

 

Kenobi had to be the most sure thing since Plagueis.

 

Quality should equal accolades. This isn't the Oscars, politics and pandering don't have any place here.

 

Wait, JJM hasn't been pandering to you guys? He totally came to my birthday party.

 

Funny, I was thinking the same thing...in terms of how Wheatley and JJM/Kenobi are hugely overrated but will never lose their first place on this board.

 

And now we return, with our second set of results!

We'll kick things off with the award for Best Comic Arc!

In fifth place we have Legacy: Outcasts of the Broken Ring.

Fourth place goes to Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan.

Dark Times: Fire Carrier comes in third.

Both arcs of Legacy made it, with Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World our runner-up. Prisoners were big this year.

And our winner by a nose, your choice for Best Comic Arc:



Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets. Maybe now that the series has an Aluminum Falcon, they'll un-cancel it.

We owe an honorable mention to Dark Times: A Spark Remains.

Now, let me present the Best Cover Artist of the year!

In fifth place, Dave Wilkins. You know him from Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World.

Fourth place goes to well-established cover artist Benjamin Carré.

In third, Sean Cooke. This should prove that Nick didn't rig the voting.

Doug Wheatley came in second. I think I know that name from somewhere.

In first, the big winner:



Paul Youll, the man behind the Scoundrels cover!

Honorable mention to Agent of the Empire cover man Stéphane Roux.

We move on to Best Reference Material of 2013.

This was a big year for ties, and we had a three-way tie for fourth place, giving us six finalists in our top five. Go figure. Barely Tolerable: Alien Henchmen of the Empire, Viva Space Vegas: The History of the Marvelous Wheel, and The Essential Guide to Warfare: Author's Cut share space here and on the Star Wars Blog.

Third place goes to the Death Star Owner's Technical Manual.

The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett came in second.

The Star Wars Blog continues to be very well represented by your winner:



The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire!

Now, always a hotly contested category: Best Licensee!

In fifth place, we have BioWare and LucasArts, the team responsible for The Old Republic.

Lucasfilm Animation took fourth.

In a surprising bump, Del Rey is down a place to third.

Making a strong showing in second place is Fantasy Flight Games.

And running away with it for a sixth straight year, the one, the only, the most dominant Aluminum Falcons nominee of all time:



Dark Horse Comics! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Marvel.

We end tonight with your Best Comic Author.

In fifth place, Zack Giallongo.

Fourth place went to Alexander Freed.

In third place, Randy Stradley.

New Legacy scribes Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman are our runners-up in this first year without the Battle of the Johns.

Your winner, Litizens:



John Ostrander, the man behind this year's Best Comic Arc, plus Dawn of the Jedi!

Stick around for our final installment of award winners, plus our Hall of Fame inductees!

 

Sean Cooke didn't win for best cover?

"All craft, commence attack. Open fire on this thread!"



--Adm. Nick

 

Thank you all kindly foir the awards. Much appreciated.

-- JohnO

 

Did Cooke at least win for that one?

 

Many thanks, all! Kenobi was a labor of love and I've been deeply moved by the response to it. Much appreciated.

 

Let's kick things off with the Best Author award!

With a tie at fourth place, Randy Stradley and the team of Abel G. Peña and Rich Handley share space -- with Abel kicking the pair of himself and Dan Wallace down to honorable mention status. Also getting an honorable mention is Timothy Zahn.

In third place we have Best Comic Author John Ostrander.

Jason Fry takes second.

And the winner is:



John Jackson Miller!

Now we move on to Best Trade Paperback.

Fifth place belongs to Blood Ties: Boba Fett Is Dead.

Ewoks: Shadows of Endor came in fourth.

In third is Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan.

Runner-up is Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World.

Ladies and gentlemen, your winner:



Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets! Can we have it back yet?

Best Series of 2013 is our next category!

Coming in fifth we have the Star Wars Blog.

Fourth, Dawn of the Jedi.

Dark Times takes third place in its final year.

In second, Agent of the Empire.

Your pick for best series of the year:



Legacy, Volume Two, continuing the original Legacy's strong . . . legacy . . . in this category!

Our penultimate award will be Best Artist!

This category is tied up to its ears. In a three-way tie for fifth place we have Chris Trevas, Davidé Fabbri, and Sean Cooke.

In a three-way tie for second place -- yes, we're going to have seven people in five places -- are Gabriel Hardman, Doug Wheatley, and the Fantasy Flight Games art team.

Keen observers of the Aluminum Falcons should be able to see our Best Artist winner coming:



It's Jan Duursema! Jan can't be here to accept her award in person, because she's currently building an addition to her house to hold all her Aluminum Falcons.

We owe an honorable mention to Paul Youll as well.

And now, the big event, Best Expanded Universe Work of 2013!

We're one-upping the previous tie by including eight works in our top five. That's because there's a four-way tie for fifth place between Scoundrels, Death Star Owner's Technical Manual, Legacy: Outcasts of the Broken Ring, and The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire.

Dark Times: Fire Carrier came in fourth.

In third, Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World.

Second place belongs to Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the big winner:



Kenobi, in a runaway win!

Honorable mention is due to Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, Barely Tolerable: Alien Henchmen of the Empire, Viva Space Vegas!: The History of the Marvelous Wheel, The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett, Dark Times: A Spark Remains, Hondo Ohnaka's Not-So-Big Score, and The Essential Guide to Warfare: Author's Cut.

 

Hurray for Kenobi! Really glad to see it get best EU award along with everything else it and John Jackson Miller won. Congratulation to the rest of the winners too, plenty of great works, almost too many to choose from in some cases. As well as being the last time we'll get a full year of Dark Horse comics... ever. Well, at least 2013 was a great year, relatively speaking, before it all winds down.

 

Some really nice results here for some very deserving winners.

 

All awards? What about the Hall of Fame?

 

They're not awards, they're Hall of Fame inductees.

 

Hey, this is cool -- many thanks! Fellow authors, I'm happy to share my rather obvious secret ingredient: MORE HONDO. He's inherently awesome; I just channeled him briefly.

 

And now it's time to announce our Aluminum Falcon Hall of Fame Class of 2013! Ladies and gentlemen, your inductees:



The inductee from the Books category this year, Ann C. Crispin!



Ann Crispin has reached the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame through her sterling contributions to Star Wars novels. Most notable is her Han Solo Trilogy, a look into Han's past that deftly balanced comprehensive continuity inclusion, high-spirited adventure, and emotional depth. Crispin wove the many disparate references to Han's past, as well as numerous other threads of the burgeoning 1990s Expanded Universe, into one grand narrative following Han's maturation, an achievement particularly notable in the nineties. In the process, there were thrilling highs of action, romance, and camaraderie, but also affecting lows of disappointment, death, and depression as Han struggled through serious relationships. Also notable are her short stories in the Tales from . . . collections, "Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe," and "Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale." Both are high-caliber contributions to the short story anthologies, burnishing a legacy in which the Han Solo Trilogy remains Crispin's crowning achievement, a perfect Star Wars blend of joyous adventure, dramatic depth, and rewarding continuity. She is rightly placed among the great Star Wars writers.





We are proud to admit Archie Goodwin to membership in the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame!



Comics legend Archie Goodwin was the key comics writer in Star Wars' early years. The most prolific writer on Marvel's comic series and its dominant creative mind for the first half of its run, he wrote almost every issue from eleven to fifty, taking over after the first post-ANH story arc and guiding the comic through a golden age of pulpy Star Wars adventure. His comics were lively, action-packed, joyous tributes to the spirit of Star Wars, often campy but always entertaining. Goodwin introduced characters of depth and lasting significance like self-loathing cyborg Valance, devious Senator Greyshade and his loyal assistant Master-Com, and Vader's hubristic rival Baron Tagge and his clan. He interwove thrilling one-off adventures with running story arcs that kept readers hooked. He also wrote memorable arcs for Marvel's Pizzazz magazine and Star Wars Weekly, and was responsible for the comic adaptations of Episodes V and VI, but Goodwin's other great project was the Star Wars daily comic strip, with illustrator Al Williamson. Goodwin's work on the comic strip was tight serial storytelling that drew a narrative link between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. He told the tale of the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell, gave us the appearance of Executor, the evacuation of Yavin, the integration of Commander Ackbar's fleet, and the discovery of Hoth. Into that narrative Goodwin wove negotiations with a pirate queen, the cowardice and repentance of General Dodonna's son, Imperial officers' attempted assassination of Darth Vader, tragic human replica droids, and Vader's attempt to snare Luke with an Obi-Wan Kenobi impersonator. These stories were rich, thrilling, and spirited, filled with depth, beauty, and innovation. A pioneering storyteller who built much of the basis of the Expanded Universe, Archie Goodwin was the ultimate translator of the spirit of Star Wars from screen to comic page and an indisputable Hall of Fame member.





Finally, we welcome Bill Slavicsek to the Hall of Fame!



Bill Slavicsek is one of the most outrageously prolific reference authors of the Expanded Universe. A leading figure at West End Games, where he had a major hand in the shaping of the fundamental fabric of the Star Wars galaxy, and a significant contributor at Wizard of the Coast, his bibliography is massive, encompassing sourcebooks, rulebooks, adventures, and magazine articles. He co-wrote the original Star Wars Sourcebook, and went on to put his name on such key works as The Thrawn Trilogy sourcebooks, Tatooine Manhunt, Black Ice, and the Death Star Technical Companion, as well as many of WOTC's core sourcebooks, and was editor on several Galaxy Guides and numerous other sourcebooks and adventures. In addition, Slavicsek wrote the second and third editions of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, then the ultimate in comprehensive Star Wars encyclopedianism. He also notably wrote the New Sith Wars short story Darkness Shared. Unmistakably, Slavicsek was an incredibly prolific and widely talented author and editor. Slavicsek's work was fundamental in building the Expanded Universe we know today, establishing a great deal of background detail, inventing context, and setting the tone for stories well beyond WEG's walls. WEG's importance to the early EU deserves the fullest emphasis, and Bill Slavicsek was one of the absolutely key figures at WEG. A founding father of Star Wars encyclopedianism and of the greater Expanded Universe in general, Bill Slavicsek is a welcome addition to the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.



Now, we present the existing membership of the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame:


Brian Daley



Among those involved in creating the initial Expanded Universe during the seventies and eighties, perhaps no individual looms larger than Brian Daley. His Han Solo Adventures were the second, third, and fourth EU novels written, detailing the pre-movie escapades of Han, Chewie, and the Millennium Falcon. In addition to a high-energy, pulpy sense of adventure, Daley's novels delivered genuine expansion to the universe by establishing new continuity that remains significant to this day. That trait was shared by Daley's other major contribution to the EU, his scripts for the radio adaptations of the Star Wars films. His first two radio dramas added foundational details to the saga, fleshing out the events and backstories surrounding the movies, while his adaptation of Return of the Jedi, written in 1996 and completed on the day Daley died prematurely of pancreatic cancer, incorporated detail from The Thrawn Trilogy and Shadows of the Empire as well. Between his contribution of many fundamental building blocks of the modern EU and his relentlessly entertaining, action-packed tales of adventure, it is undeniable that Brian Daley belongs in the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.


Cam Kennedy



The artist of John Wagner's classic Boba Fett stories Murder Most Foul, When the Fat Lady Swings, Bounty on Bar-Kooda, and Sacrifice, as well as John Ostrander's Boba Fett: Agent of Doom, Cam Kennedy is best known as the artist for Dark Empire and Dark Empire II. His distinctive style and use of color provided the perfect mood and look for the rebirth of Star Wars comics in Dark Empire. His tone-setting color palettes, strange aliens, imposing technology, striking renderings of characters, and knack for memorable images established the dark, ominous look and feel that made Dark Empire and the Boba Fett comics so successful. Hugely distinctive and tremendously important, Cam Kennedy deserves his place in the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.


Greg Keyes



Greg Keyes was one of the brightest new contributors to the New Jedi Order series, immediately taking to well-established main and supporting characters like a natural and exuding appreciation of the Bantam-era material while boldly driving the story forward. Keyes advanced the Solo kids and their supporting cast, making Anakin a breakout star, and took fan-favorite classic characters best known for their use in the hands of Zahn, Stackpole, and Allston and wrote them like a master, showing himself to be a true fan in the process. Somehow, he also found time to create memorable, vital new characters like Vua Rapuung and Nen Yim that did much to expand our understanding of the Yuuzhan Vong. Greg Keyes is an excellent author of thrilling adventures, critical to the development of the New Jedi Order series and its cast, who displayed a tremendous feel for the Expanded Universe, respect for what had gone before, deft characterization, and a bold and courageous vision for the saga's further development. We are proud to include him in the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.


Darko Macan



One of the greatest writers of Star Wars comics, Darko Macan got his start scripting X-wing: The Phantom Affair, a well-received arc that married humor and pathos, a pattern Macan would continue throughout his comics career. In The Phantom Affair, Jedi vs. Sith, Vader's Quest, and Chewbacca, Macan focused on hard-hitting exploration of character psychology and haunting emotional themes alongside witty humor and action. Among the many subjects Macan has tackled include Wedge's tragic past and drive for vengeance, the lingering spiritual and emotional scars of the Empire's tragedies, a Rebel pilot's transition from disillusionment to sacrificial heroism, Darth Bane's creation of the Rule of Two, and the emotional fallout of Chewbacca's death. Throughout, Macan set heroism against cynicism and interrogated the true nature of heroism, explored its power to inspire, and meditated on the toll of war. Yet Macan also had a way with humor and classic adventure, and his stories were always entertaining as well as though-provoking. It is with great pleasure that we induct Darko Macan, a brilliant writer responsible for some of the great comics masterpieces of the Expanded Universe, to the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.


Bill Smith



One of the most prolific contributors to Star Wars, Bill Smith one of the many foundational Expanded Universe masters from West End Games, responsible for writing and editing dozens of sourcebooks, as well as writing The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels and The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology. The creator of the second edition of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Smith contributed as an author to such WEG works as Cracken's Rebel Operatives, The Politics of Contraband, Galaxy Guide 8: Scouts, Alliance Intelligence Reports, The DarkStryder Campaign, and The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook, and edited classics including the Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Empire sourcebooks; The Death Star Technical Companion; Galaxy Guides 7, 10, 11, and 12; and Platt's Starport Guide. And that's just a small fraction of his output. If you enjoyed WEG, chances are that Bill Smith was a significant part of your favorite WEG experiences -- and who didn't enjoy WEG? An all-around talent, he also wrote short stories for Star Wars Galaxy, regular articles for Star Wars Kids, and pieces for other magazines. Smith was one of the great West End Games contributors, a leader of the great golden age EU medium. Bill Smith, as a prime shaper of the Expanded Universe, deserves this enshrinement in the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame.


Michael A. Stackpole



With the long-running X-wing novels and comics; the groundbreaking first-person novel I, Jedi; his role in planning the New Jedi Order series and writing the Dark Tide duology; his numerous short stories; and his work on comics such as Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand and Union, Michael Stackpole has had an impact on the Expanded Universe as large as that of any other author. Stackpole's fan-favorite characters are now much of the major supporting cast of the universe, and he set a great deal of the tone for the universe in the 1990s; his close collaboration with Timothy Zahn was especially vital in creating a cohesive universe. At home creating rich new characters or deftly using established ones, Stackpole helped pioneer the telling of side stories in the universe before helping establish a grand new main narrative with the New Jedi Order series. Truly one of the great and definitive contributors to the Expanded Universe, Stackpole is eminently worthy of inclusion in the inaugural class of the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame


Al Williamson



Already a well-established and highly-respected fantasy, science-fiction, Western, and adventure comic artist by the 1970s, Al Williamson was specifically sought out by George Lucas to illustrate Star Wars comics. Williamson and his longtime creative partner, writer Archie Goodwin, did the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, a few more Marvel issues, and the adaptation of Return of the Jedi, but their most prolific collaboration was on the daily Star Wars comic strip from 1981 to 1984. There, Williamson provided the artwork for such memorable and important events as the discovery of Hoth, the Executor's maiden voyage, the evacuation of Yavin, and Han's run-in with a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. In both the comic strip and comic books, Williamson's art was detailed, realistic, and breathtakingly beautiful as it set the adventures of the Heroes of Yavin in lush and fantastic scenery. Furthermore, no one has ever drawn Darth Vader better than Williamson. His classic art, perfect for the pulpy adventures penned by Goodwin, has fueled the imaginations of generations of Star Wars fans, and it is with great pride that the Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame welcomes Al Williamson.

 

On a final note, I'd like to congratulate all our winners, and thank Quest for his great image work and those of you who voted for your contributions. Great results!

 

I guess we better mobilize a fleet before Nick gets his SSD going...

 

James Kahn didn't win? God forgive me, but you all leave me no choice.

Commence Base Delta Zero.





You all drove me to this!

--Darth Nick

 

Guys, I'm dropping in just to say that the attempts to split the vote against myself failed miserably. Thanks for nothing and drop dead.

Ah, who am I kidding.