Eagle Award (comics) - History

History

Named after the "fifties and sixties" UK comic Eagle because the Eagle symbol was perceived (as described by Burton) to stand "for a standard of quality ... seldom reached" in early 1977, the Eagle Awards were so-called "with official blessing from IPC." Described as "the first independent, nationally organised comic art awards poll," from the launch, the hope was that they would "become a regular annual fandom event." Ultimately, the awards only became fully annual in 1986, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention (UKCAC).

"et up and financed by a group of dealers and fanzine editors," including Mike Conroy and Richard Burton, with the intention of including "people with... diverse interests... to make the poll as impartial as possible," the initial method of casting votes was designed to be inclusive and straightforward. Ballots were made available to "most dealers, shops and fanzines," with completed forms able to be returned to the same place, rather than a centralised location. An initial ballot formed a list of nominees, from which the voting ballot was created and disseminated in the same manner.

The 1978 and 1979 awards were presented at the British Comic Art Convention. The 1983 awards presentation was at the London Comic Mart.

From 1983/84, the revised Awards included separate UK and US sections, although the work of British authors often dominated both categories. Indeed, in 1986 (for work released during 1985), the awards "proved to be a virtual clean sweep... by Alan Moore," who not only won "favourite writer in both the US and UK categories," but had his work win for favourite comic book, supporting character and new title in the US, and character, continuing story and "character worthy of own title" in the UK (in which last category his works held all top three spots). The 1986 awards presentation was at the Birmingham Comic Art Show. The 1986 Eagles also saw the introduction of a "free vote... rather than pre-selected nominees," creating a "fairer reflection of fans' opinions, and some anomalous results especially in the Roll of Honor category."

The 1987–1990 presentations took place at the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention.

After going dormant in the late 1990s, the Eagle Award was briefly replaced by the National Comics Award. The Eagle returned in 2000 as an event at that year's Comic Festival, which had replaced UKCAC. The 2006–2007 awards presentations were held at the Comic Expo, and from 2010–2012 were presented at the London MCM Expo.