The Day Sam Jackson Gave Brad An Eisner

There are few professional things that have really undone me:

• the time I found out my first novel sold (while I was embarrassingly in a tanning bed)

• talking to my Mom when we hit number 1

• getting that D-minus from Entertainment Weekly for Tenth Justice (okay, that was just sad)





But this...




Samuel Jackson comes out to present the Eisner Award for best single issue story.  I smile to myself, telling my Dad we can't win, but excited that at least in announcing the nominees, Sam Jackson will say my name.




And then he reads the winner.




Add super slow motion effect here where I hear nothing by long inaudible syllables. My brain says, "Did he just say 'Justice League?'"  My father sits there next to me, just as confused. And finally Judd Winick hits me from behind as if to say, "Go schmuck!  He said YOU!"




I will find the video so you can see it. But I. Was. Undone. It was three months to the day that my Mom had passed, and I know that she must've cut lines and pulled strings to make it happen. The swell of emotion was all the cliche things bad Oscar speeches have. But I want to be clear about one thing. I meant when I said that that award was accepted for all the freaks and losers and outcasts and geeks and nerds and weirdos and outcasts -- for anyone who ever felt different or awkward or sat in a corner by themselves. That award was for us. It was for my Mom. And like I always say, it only happened because of you.




Yes. You.




Reading this.




It also happened because of our team. Because of genius Gene Ha. Because of Michael Turner bringing people in. And because of my brother Noah Kuttler, the Calculator, who storyboarded all my insanity so Gene could roll his eyes at me (and who most people don't know, does all the technical stuff when it comes to posting these blogs). Thanks, Noah!




But you have to see the video to see all the emotion I was armed with at that moment.




This was better than the D-minus.




Thanks to all who voted and rooted...

Rest of Comicon reports tomorrow...