Call me old-fashioned, but I think that when one chooses to publish a comic page, all inking should be finished. Publishing sketches later as an extra service for dedicated readers is a nice touch, but I’m not a big fan of publishing them instead of the real thing. I will, however, admit that it has a certain fascinating aspect, too, but I think we’ll have to disagree on that one. I also think that it’s easier to be fascinated by the sketches when you’re already a Finder fan.

I think Steve Dismukes summarized it pretty well in the first comment here: “I’m not saying that Finder doesn’t deserve an award, just that “Best Webcomic” might not have been the most appropriate category.”

I do agree about the navigational issues, but as to the rest of your comments… first of all, the pages on Shadowline appear to be the next installment after the most recent trade paperback release, FIVE CRAZY WOMEN. The Shadowline comics should be “Voice” – which was the segment I was searching for, thus the navigational issues are REALLY frustrating.

FINDER isn’t something you can just start in the middle and hope that you’ll suss it out by story’s end – the world that Speed Mcneil creates is a vast one, and it doesn’t just concentrate on the central character. This is part of why I like the series, but it is pretty frustrating for someone who’s just discovered it to figure out what the hell is going on.

FINDER’s official site seems to be undergoing some renovation – one used to be able to access the older issues, but now a new segment appears to be up — and it appears to be in pencil rough form.

One can carp about aesthetics and professionalism — being a regular reader, I find the pencil roughs fascinating, and not distracting from the story. I can see where it may be a chore for others, however.

You might want to check out the LIGHTSPEED PRESS site, once it’s fully operational; you might find that site much better to navigate.

Having talked to a friend who’s more familiar with the comicbook industry, he advises me that Carla Speed McNeil was initially a self-publishing comics artist who made the jump to the web later on – the reverse to the path that webcomic artists tend to take. By all accounts she’s very good, and I found the work displayed on the Shadowline site to be intriguing and well-done, but as you say, very much unfinished.

The Eisner judges’ definition of what qualifies as a webcomic are… not entirely straight. I’d tend to say that a webcomic is a comic primarily published online – the website is The Main Event, and sale of collected print editions is secondary. With Finder that’s reversed. The online portion of things is incomplete – first-chapter tasters on her own website, unfinished pencils on the Shadowline site, all aimed at encouraging people to buy the books, which are The Main Event.

I’m pretty sure there are webcomics out there that meet Finder‘s high standards of art and writing and focus mainly on the online aspect of things, but that doesn’t seem to be what the Eisner judges are looking at. Maybe they believe that any comic that has an online presence is a webcomic.

I’m not saying that Finder doesn’t deserve an award, just that “Best Webcomic” might not have been the most appropriate category.