18 Nov 2018

Inkwell Awards Changing Host Show Location from HeroesCon to the Great Philadelphia Comic Con!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Extended version)

(New Bedford, MA – November 18, 2018) The Inkwell Awards is announcing that their annual live awards ceremony will be relocating to the Great Philadelphia Comic Con! at the The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA commencing April 12-14, 2019. Their awards ceremonies for the previous eight years, including 2018, were held at the June HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC.

According to Inkwell Awards founder and director Bob Almond, HeroesCon promoter Shelton Drum invited the non-profit organization to his long-running, family-friendly show in 2011. “We had been left hanging by a major convention,” Almond said, “and Shelton, who had endured similar problems, wanted to support a kindred spirit and show that this altruistic, annual event could be done and well-supported.”

Almond added, “Changing venues is both sorrowful and exciting. Our presence at Heroes’ industry-respected and community-loved show further boosted our credibility and exposure, which helped with fundraising in the long run. We can truly thank HeroesCon for where we are now. But the 16-hour drives and related travel expenses each season would leave our budget almost wiped out.”

When asked about the switch in locations, Almond explained, “When Great Philadelphia Con’s Creator Relations and Artist Alley Director Stan Konopka with promoter Christopher D. Wertz offered us their venue and funding support for all expenses, we were thrilled. A mere six-hour drive is a huge relief for us. Christopher’s convention has grown in a short time in reputation and attendance from both the celebrity/artist guests and the fans.”

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11 Nov 2018

HEROESCON 2018 : INKWELL AWARDS feat. McLeod, Panosian, Broderick (the belated live awards ceremony VIDEO!)

After much patient waiting, as of November 7 the Inkwell Awards have finally received the 2018 Inkwell Awards live awards ceremony which celebrated our 10 year anniversary with recording from A/V volunteer Matthew Tyndall and volunteer panel coordinator Andrew Mansell from this past June at Heroes Con, our 8th and final event at that location. But that’s not the disappointing part. I wish I’d known/been told that Matt would be editing out several moments of the 90+ minute program down to 31+ minutes, only a third of the experience. Communication was lacking. Realistically, I can see the video person cutting out the post awards Q&A maybe, and certainly the door prizes, but it didn’t start with my intro to the festivities nor, more tragically, Guest of Honor Mike Royer and his presentation, but instead it starts with me introducing Presenter Dan Panosian which followed all that. I am not surprised when my announcements about seasonal Inkwell highlights are cut out including the silver inkwell internal awards, new ambassadors, fundraising results from certain programs, etc. but I wish it had included my annual public request, for 8 consecutive years now, to the Eisner Awards (our community’s version of the Academy Awards) to return the separate Inking category to their ballot categories. The video thankfully included the 10th anniversary debut of the “Above & Beyond Awards” to celebrate some remarkable mission-supporting achievements, whether they be internally or community-based, but it cut out Inkwell Ms. Inkwell spokesmodel Hailey Skaza-Gagne’s acceptance speech (the only recipient of the three announced to be present) and the original art portrait by Bill Sienkiewicz which was revealed after her words. It seemingly also cut out our Stacey Aragon Special Appreciation Award awarded to Russ Heath who passed soon after in August, truly regrettable. But the guts are here with all five ballot categories being read and the award recipients announced by Dan and the winners making their statements. Same about the Sinnott Hall of Fame lifetime achievement Awards presented by special Inkwell ambassador Pat Broderick to Bob McLeod and Joe Giella with Bob’s statement and Joe Sinnott’s comments regarding the winners. FOR ALL THIS I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE, especially after the 5 month LONG delay.

I will say this, whether we record it ourselves (like we’d intended to do in June and the June before that and have in the past at Heroes) at our new host show venue, or the show will have someone on the show staff recording, either way it will include the ENTIRE (or at least the majority of the) event, not just a third of it, and it will be posted SOON AFTER the show weekend takes place.

For a full summary of the awards results, photos, statements and generally ceremony info you can find that here.