In healthier industries surrounding other art forms, such as the film and recording businesses, awards may hold temporary and significant financial value of the kind comics may never hope to match.
Awards impress fewer people than ever in today's cynical world.
At most, awards are one voice in a continuing dialogue about the value of art. So any discussion of the current state of comics awards is predicated by the fact that they are not in any way the last word about what is best in the art form. In other words, comics awards are a subject worth talking about, but not one worth getting angry about. Rather than obliquely detailing the issues surrounding awards in general, I'd rather prescribe concrete improvements to the existing awards programs. If all of my suggestions are taken, the root problems of comics won't be solved, but we'll have three more effective awards programs, a not insubstantial thing.