2011 Hugos - some (not much) analysis

[nwhyte]

Full stats are here.

Best Novel: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (beating Feed, which got the most first preferences, by 24 votes on last count; The Dervish House came fifth, though the honours were fairly evenly divided, third place going to Cryoburn by a six-vote margin over The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)

Best Novella: The Lifecycle of

Comments

[londonkds]

I might theorise that "Girl Genius" wins because it's a regularly updated work that becomes habitual in people's lives and hence creates loads of affection. But "Fables" coming second makes me think that the electorate is still dominated by people who are mostly superhero comics fans and reflexibly vote for something that is not actually a superhero comic but is very close in style/atmosphere.

[nwhyte]

134 of the 400 first preference votes for Girl Genius did not transfer to any other nominee, and another 11 put 'No Award' next. (The other categories with a similar pattern of plumping for the winner were Best Related Work, where 126 of the 380 votes for Chicks Dig Time Lords did not transfer and another 7 went to No Award; Best Fan Artist where 145 of Brad Foster's 179 first preferences did not transfer and another 27 went to No Award; and Best Editor Long Form where 111 of Lou Anders' 207 votes had no further preference and four went to No Award.)

Well done to the Foglios for capturing the imagination of the participating Hugo voter. But I must say I find the Eisner Awards a better source of inspiration for my dabblings in the graphic medium.

[seawasp]

Schlock Mercenary is a webcomic, and one of the few daily webcomics I've ever heard of that updates every single day and has done so without fail for its entire run so far.

[tortoise]

Girl Genius also got a ton of transfers from Schlock Mercenary (though not so much vice versa in the second-place voting), so there may be something of a webcomic partisanship effect.

[elysdir]

Fwiw, I loved Girl Genius before it was a webcomic, and I've read Fables (including the specific volume that was nominated) and it just didn't click for me. I don't generally read superhero comics these days, and Girl Genius doesn't read to me like one.

I suspect that the rise of Steampunk has much more to do with GG's popularity than superhero comics do.