Ringo Stars Maybe
This is gonna be a relatively short edition. After all, there’s just one reason why I’m sending it out. (Two, if you count how much I love you all.) (Well, some of you. The rest of you are all right, I suppose.) But first…
Support my work
Work-Life Balance is an award-winning prose/comics hybrid that I co-created with Benjamin Chee. Get it from:
Worlds Apart: A Conversation About Mental Health is a comic that I co-created with Nurjannah Suhaimi. Get it in-store at:
Work-Life ballot
The Mike Wieringo Comic Industry Awards, better known as The Ringo Awards, is one of the medium’s more celebrated accolades. It’s named after Mike Wieringo, who had stints on Sensational Spider-Man with Todd Dezago (with whom he co-created the fantasy series, Tellos) and Fantastic Four with Mark Waid. Wieringo, or ‘Ringo as he became known to fans, passed away in 2007, at the age of forty-four.
Work-Life Balance has already been submitted for four categories: Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Cover Artist, and Best Original Graphic Novel. How The Ringo Awards work, however, is that three of the five nominees from these categories will be selected by a jury of industry professionals, and the remaining two will be selected by an open, online nomination.
And that’s where you come in.
Every nomination for us could potentially increase our chances in those categories, so please take a minute and nominate us.
There’s a preferred format to submit your nominations. To make it easier for you, you can just copy and paste the text below for their respective categories.
Best Writer
Wayne Rée - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Artist
Benjamin Chee - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Cover Artist
Benjamin Chee - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Original Graphic Novel
WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
A Ringo Award win would mean the world to me. Yes, it's a recognised prize, which would hopefully revitalise international interest in our book—but, more than all of that, Mike Wieringo was my favourite artist when I was getting into comics regularly.
All the comics I listed above? Those are some of my favourites ever. Sensational Spider-Man was, at one point, the only Spider-Man title I picked up. His Fantastic Four with Waid is the gold standard by which I measure any other creators’ run on that book. Tellos marked the first time I followed a creative team from a mainstream superhero comic to a creator-owned title.
Every award win or nomination is a blessing, but this one would be special. So, once again, please take a minute and nominate us.
A diverse range of awards
The Ringo Awards aren’t the only accolades we’ve set our sights on. We’ve also submitted Work-Life Balance for the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.
An entire generation can thank the late Dwayne McDuffie—who passed away in 2011 at the age of forty-nine—for probably writing and/or conceptualising more episodes of both Justice League animated series than anyone else. He was also one of the co-founders of the minority-led company, Milestone Media, which produced, among other characters, Static—who you might be familiar with through his comics or the animated series, Static Shock.
I submitted a whole write-up to talk about why Work-Life Balance promoted diversity/equity/inclusion in the medium. In it, I spoke about our characters drawing inspiration from the mythologies of the different races and cultures across Southeast Asia. I also spoke about something a bit more personal. Let me just show you what I wrote.
[…] it was while working on Work-Life Balnace and writing Zee that I grew more comfortable and accepting of my own gender fluidity, and now identify with the pronouns he/they.
So, yeah. The Ringo Awards are special to me as a fan and creator—but the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity is special to me as a person.
The winner will be announced at this year’s San Diego Comic Con (which ironically, because of America’s current hostile climate against anyone who’s a shade darker than mayonnaise, I won’t be able to attend, even if I did win).
Award for cutest cat in the world
We got these pair of side-tables recently that we’re using as coffee tables instead. Each of them has a cat bed built into it. Clearly, Luca approves.
And that’s it
Here’s where I normally repeat all the places where you can get my books and comics, but since this edition’s all about awards, I’m gonna ask you one more time to nominate us for The Ringo Awards.
Again, the format for each category is below.
Best Writer
Wayne Rée - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Artist
Benjamin Chee - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Cover Artist
Benjamin Chee - WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Best Original Graphic Novel
WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS
Thanks in advance, every single one of you who submitted your nomination. You’ve now graduated to the “I love you” list. For those of you who didn’t, you’re still all right, but I’ve got my eye on you.
See you next time, folks.