David Willis Many tales are told of the elder times of the Internet, when those brave pioneers of web comics battled alone against demons of poverty and time, but none are sung of more highly in terms of evil than David Willis. String was his line and evil was his plot, giving us character death and cliff hangers long before a pointy tooth had so much as been glimpsed by the housecaarl of the tribe of Sluggy... (Sorry, it's Norse Saga Night at the Guild and the prose is infectious). Regardless of the hyperbole, it is fair to say that Mr Willis is a pioneer amongst evil cartoonists. It was he who first named Perverse Sexual Lust and took glee in his reader's sufferings. It was he who caused a rumblings and threatenings of lynchings not seen until Avalon later became popular, simply by turning 'Roomies' into 'It's Walky'. And it was he who gave the world Joyce. (He also gave us "WIIGII!" but the Guild is out on whether that counts as evil or not since even the Guild Leader has been known to shout 'BOOYAH!' in triumph)
David has also proven himself time and again the master of the plot twist. No matter how you might argue about the ending of Roomies, the build up in those last few strips was harrowing to the extreme. Plus there's the recent development in 'It's Walky' of the Anti-Joyce, and anyone who argues that the transformation of a cute innocent into a walking sex bomb isn't in any way evil should go read the forum for some of the responses! Never have so many been so intense in their reactions! And then there was Ruth... She was introduced as a secondary character in the second year of the comic. She was shown to be nihilistic and depressive, living a a life of slow self-destruction so strong that it even affected Danny, the hero of Roomies. She realised how bad things had become and resolved to try and improve her life and attitude, starting by going to save Danny from his own drunken destructive streak. And then she died... Ladies and gentlemen, a few seconds silence please for one of the true evil greats. (Oh, and in case you might be complaining "Hey! You spoilt Roomies for me!", well, d'uh! We're evil! Besides, it's still damn powerful stuff, even when you know).
Accepted for: Discovery of Perverse Sexual Lust (PSL) (Honourary Award)                         Creation of characters so unmitigatingly cute and innocent  that readers winced (or                         drooled) upon just seeing them (Joyce)                         Plot twists beyond the reader's emotional tolerance                         Character death (Guild Master level)                         Putting characters through situations beyond their own  enjoyment and endurance                         Decisively doing his own artistic thing, regardless of reader response.
Stands accused of: Roomies!                                 It's Walky!
Return to a state of denial