This month we’ll once again look at this year’s Glyph Comics Awards nominees, beginning today with the Fan Award, the only award voted on by the fans.

Fantastic Four: The New Fantastic Four
Dwayne McDuffie, writer, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, artists

McDuffie: “Ben and Johnny are pretty easy going… I don’t think they have any problems at all with their new team mates. They miss Reed and Sue, obviously, and would prefer to have them back; they’re part of their family. That’s one thing that I’m pushing really hard in the book; the Fantastic Four aren’t really a super team. They really are just a family and right now it’s kind of like having visitors at the house or there’s a fire in the house so everybody helps with the fire.”

JSA Classified #28
Fabian Nicieza, writer, Steve Uy, artist

Nicieza: “…Jakeem is a young character. He wants to do something that may be out of his reach because he doesn’t fully realize the consequences of his actions. He gets caught in a vice and he learns a valuable lessons. Try not to make it preachy or syrupy, but there you go, it is what it is. Call it what you want, all I wanted to do was to tell an interesting, self-contained story about an interesting kid with an interesting magic genie that didn’t involve two superheroes punching each other.”

New Warriors #1-6
Kevin Grevioux, writer, Paco Medina & Juan Vlasco, artists

Grevioux: “I think the mystery of Night Thrasher is not only who he is, but why he does what he does. What is he planning? Who’s he planning it with? And is he risking the New Warriors lives to accomplish his own selfish ends? There are more mysteries to come.”

Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk
Marc Guggenheim, writer, Paul Gulacy, artist

Guggenheim: “I always start from the characters first. I thought, ‘What is something that would really set these two guys against each other?’ Following JMS’ lead, I thought it would be cool if the source of their conflict was related to a real-world event or issue. Darfur jumped out at me as something that Nighthawk, as he’s been re-imagined by JMS, would really have a passionate response to. A passionate response is always a good place to start, story wise.”

Stormwatch: Post Human Division
Christos Gage, writer, Doug Mahnke and Andy Smith, aritsts

Gage: “The idea is for this pilot PHD to develop techniques that other such units can replicate across the country – so super-powers don’t help much, nor does cost-prohibitive technology like nanotech or billion-dollar battlesuits. These are city governments with city government budgets, not the Wildcats’ HALO corporation. What’s needed are clever, innovative techniques for neutralizing threats…more MacGyver than Iron Man.”