The Eisner effect? At Ninth Art, John Fellows repeats what Ed Brubaker and others have been lamenting for a long time: The Eisners mean little in the comics marketplace:

"An Oscar win can guarantee you a boost in sales of your film. It can guarantee an actor more roles (or kill their career, if you believe in the Oscars Curse). It can make or break a director's next decision. But an Eisner means next to nothing to the vast majority of comics fans.

"Oh, it allows the creators themselves the opportunity to slap each other's backs, but if it doesn't mean anything to the paying customers, why bother? It's all part of the continuing shyness of comics and its unwillingness to accept its quality. Like the cute guy who never gets a date because he doesn't have the confidence to ask girls out. (He's a friend of mine. Honest.)

"Because we as a collective -- the industry, and the fans -- have decided that however good a comic is, it's still a comic. It's paper and ink and staples. It's nearly sixty years of men in stripy jim-jams bitch-slapping each other. And so whatever we do, it's never enough."