[...] least one token category to webcomics get accused of simply paying lip service to the medium, or of judging the new medium by the standards of the old. And so it is that we get Lauren Davis complaining about how ridiculous it is that webcomics only [...]

On another note, I’m also curious to see how closely the eventual winner resembles (or doesn’t) the classic newspaper strip style, since the final winner won’t be selected by the webcomics team, but by the overall group’s board.

I don’t have another job. My wife basically supports the both of us. I don’t earn enough money in a year to even pay my own rent for half of it, but it IS my job.

So… does that make me professional, or not? I cut my own hair. I wear the same clothes every day like Donald Duck because I can’t afford to buy anything. (The last clothes I bought for myself was over a year ago, and that was two promotional tshirts for a convention.) So, I certainly don’t look (or feel) like a “professional”… but I’m certainly not “just an enthusiastic hobbyist” either.

Sounds like this is the part of their thinking they need to change. If what they would term “just an enthusiastic hobbyist” creates a better webcomic than someone “doing truly professional work”, then it’s kind of mindboggling that they’d prefer to give the award to the inferior work.