There was a consensus that these awards recognised works of genres that were normally unrecognised. Casey Patterson said of the Scream Awards that it "aims to do for superhero, horror and fantasy films what the MTV Movie Awards did for teen comedies by honoring genres usually overlooked by high-brow
Academy Award voters ... This event has been long overdue".
Zack Snyder said, at the
2008 Scream Awards, "There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now." Of those traditionally unrecognised genres, commentators saw the Scream Awards' recognition of the
comic book genre as especially significant. In 2008, Casey Patterson said "the event began three years ago with an emphasis on horror, a genre that was surging at that time thanks to movies such as the
Saw films and
Hostel. But in subsequent years, the show widened to embrace comic books and fantasy." Geoff Boucher (Los Angeles Times), said "The Scream Awards presented a
pop-culture environment where film-makers like
Dark Knight director
Christopher Nolan shared the same stage as comic-book writers such as
Mike Mignola, creator of
Hellboy. The LA times reported Mike Mignola as saying, when talking of
Scream 2008, that "in the old days Hollywood would strip-mine comics and scoff at the creators. Now, they walk on the same red carpet, which on Saturday night had giant posters of the Green Lantern and Spider-Man above it. ==Target audience & Sponsorship==