Alley Awards
| Alley Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Excellence in the field of comic books |
| Venue |
Academy Con (1965–1967) Comic Art Convention (1968–1970) |
| Country | United States of America |
| Presented by | Alter Ego magazine / Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences |
| First awarded | 1962 |
| Last awarded | 1970 |
The Alley Award was an American series of comic book fan awards, first presented in 1962 for comics published in 1961. Officially organized under the aegis of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences, the award shared close ties with the fanzine Alter Ego magazine. The Alley is the first known comic book fan award.
The Alley Awards were tallied yearly for comic books produced during the previous year. The Alley statuette was initially sculpted by Academy member Ron Foss out of redwood, from which "plaster duplications" were made to be handed out to the various winners.
The Alley Award traces its origin to "a letter to Jerry dated October 25, 1961" by Roy Thomas, in which he suggested that Jerry Bails' fanzine Alter-Ego, which had debuted in March 1961, create an award for fandom's "favorite comic books in a number of categories."
Initially suggested as the "Alter-Ego Award," the name evolved into the Alley Award after comic strip caveman Alley Oop, since, as Thomas reasoned, "surely a caveman had to be the earliest superhero chronologically." Comics historian Bill Schelly notes that no one "bothered to ask the NEA [newspaper] syndicate for permission to utilize V. T. Hamlin's comic strip character".
By the awards' third year, the number of ballots received had become so overwhelming that Bails called for a fan get-together at which votes could be tabulated by group effort. This gathering of Midwestern fans, held in March 1964 at the Detroit-area home of Bails, was dubbed the "Alley Tally", and its success provided inspiration for the organizing of comic book fan conventions that began soon afterward.
The Alleys were given out from 1962 to 1970 (for comics published 1961–1969, respectively), with comic strip awards added in 1967 (for calendar year 1966). The awards were presented at all three Academy Cons from 1965–1967. The final three years' awards were presented at Phil Seuling's New York Comic Art Convention.
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