The nominations for the 2013 Ursa Major Awards are now open, and this year I’m hoping to see Messenger and Follower nominated in either of the Best Graphic Story or Best Other Literary Work categories! The Ursa Major Awards are, as written on their site:

More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom’s equivalent of the Hugo Award® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom’s Anthony Award, horror fandom’s Bram Stoker Award, and so forth. Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. These Awards are decided by the fans, not by a committee.

I feel that both Messenger and especially Follower qualify for these awards due to the Chio storylines in both comics. Although I don’t identify as someone in the furry fandom, I know a lot of my readers do — and being nominated could help the comics reach a new audience. While I don’t think I stand much of a chance competing against some really big webcomics as have been nominated (and won) in the past, even being nominated would be a huge honor, and help both Messenger and Follower become more known.

How can you help? Visit the Ursa Major Awards site and click “nominations page,” and then either enroll to register or login if you’ve registered before. Then, add Messenger and Follower under Best Graphic Story and/or Best Other Literary Work. For clarity, you may want to submit the comics both by name with their URL, so there is no confusion – for example, “Follower – http://follower.messenger-comic.com”. Submit the form, and you’re done! It’s easy. You can (and should!) nominate other comics and media you enjoy for the other categories, as well. You can even nominate multiple things for the same category, if you like.

What’s next? The nomination period is open through February 28th. After that, if the comics were successfully nominated, you can then start voting for real on them!

If we can make it into the nominations category, I’ll come up with some kind of small reward comic. If we can get even further than that, I’ll have to think of something bigger!

As always, I appreciate your ongoing support. Thanks for reading my comics!