As you all may have guessed by now, I’ve been reading my way through the Graphic Novels section of the Hugo packet. It’s been a really interesting way for me to get a taste for what is out there, and has been easing me back into graphic novels as a format – already I’ve been looking beyond this shortlist and picking up other titles from my local library!

But I’m not going to be reading Captain Britain, by Paul Cornell. Which is a shame, because I was looking forward to it. I’m interested in Cornell as a writer, and also in the idea of a British superhero… but sadly this is the one Hugo-nominated graphic novel on the shortlist whose publishers decided to make it complicated.

The others all provided the works in a pdf format that I found easy to open, navigate and customise on my computer, for comfortable reading. This one instead provides an html link that opens a web reader which feels fussy and annoying, strains my computer’s capacity, and basically is trying too hard to control how I might want to read it. And oh yes, they only provided two issues as a ‘sample’ rather than the entire work.

I realise at this point that I am basking in utter entitlement. Only a year or two ago, the concept of a Hugo packet, of voters receiving a whole bunch of free works to help educate their vote, was revolutionary. Indeed I think this is the first year that every shortlisted work is represented in the packet, though I could be wrong in that.

But… yeah. Over-entitled I may be, but the fact remains, my time is pretty tight, and educating myself before making my Hugo vote isn’t my absolute top priority. As it is, I’m picking and choosing which works and which categories I am going to try to cover. Anything I can’t easily and comfortably access is absolutely not going to get read, and Captain Britain just lost me and my vote.

Tags: graphic novels, hugos, marvel, paul cornell