Nominees Announced for 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
Selections Reflect Wide Diversity in Industry
SAN DIEGO - Comic-Con International (Comic-Con) is proud to announce the nominations for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards 2012. The nominees, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges, reflect the wide range of material being published in comics and graphic novel form today, from nursery rhymes and World War II battles to high school angst and pulp fiction.
Topping the 2012 list with 6 nominations is Marvel’s Daredevil, with nods for Best Continuing Series, Best Single Issue, Best Writer (Mark Waid), Best Cover Artist (Marcos Martin), and Best Penciller/Inker Team (two nominations: Marcos Martin, and Paolo Rivera/Joe Rivera). Close behind with 5 nominations is Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, an original graphic novel of an unproduced, feature-length screenplay written by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl, adapted by artist Ramón K. Pérez, published by Archaia. The book is up for Best Graphic Album-New, Best Penciller/Inker, Best Coloring, Best Lettering, and Best Publication Design.
Three titles have 3 nominations: Vertigo/DC’s iZombie (Best Penciller/Inker and Best Cover Artist for Michael Allred, Best Coloring for Laura Allred) and The Unwritten (Best Single Issue, Best Writer for Mike Carey, Best Cover Artist for Yuko Shimizu), and IDW’s Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition, by Darwyn Cooke (Best Short Story, Best Graphic Album-Reprint, Best Publication Design). Sixteen titles had 2 nominations, and the remaining nominations were spread among nearly 100 books and comics in 27 categories.
Joining Tale of Sand in the Graphic Album-New category are Bubbles & Gondola by French cartoonist Renaud Dillies (NBM), the animation-industry-based Freeway by Mark Kalesniko (Fantagraphics), the critically acclaimed Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon), Ivy by newcomer Sarah Oleksyk (Oni), and the experimental One Soul by Ray Fawkes (Oni).
DC and Marvel tied for the most nominations for a publisher, each having 11 nominations plus 2 shared. For DC, Vertigo had the lion’s share of nominations, led by iZombie and The Unwritten. In addition to the Daredevil nods, Marvel had 2 nominations for Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal: The Last of the Innocents under the Icon imprint. IDW also had 11 nominations, dominating the Best Archival Collection, Comics-Related Book, and Publication Design categories. Close behind with 10 nominations (plus 1 shared) is Dark Horse, including 2 each for Dark Horse Presents, Jeff Jensen’s Green River Killer, and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. Next, with 9 (plus 1 shared) is Fantagraphics, including 3 nominations each in the Archival and International categories.
Other publishers with multiple nominations include First Second and NBM (6); Abrams ComicArts, Archaia, Drawn & Quarterly, and Oni (5); Image (4 plus 2 shared); Candlewick (4); and Pantheon (3). Eleven publishers had 2 nominations: Abstract Studio, Action Lab, Archie, Atheneum, Bongo, BOOM!, Chronicle, Top Shelf, the University of Mississippi Press, VIZ Media, and Yen Press. Another 15 publishers have 1 nomination each.
Although the judges have honored the superhero series Daredevil with the largest single number of nominations, they have selected a wide range of works from other genres and smaller presses, including nominations for several non-American creators within non-international categories. These creators include French cartoonists Dilles, Émile Bravo, Philippe Coudray, Nix, and Sylvain Savoia; Japanese creators Naoki Urasawa and Shiguru Mizuki; Croatian artist Tonci Zonjic; Argentinian artist Eduardo Risso; Spanish artist Marcos Martin; Italian artists Francesco Frankavilla and Sara Picelli; Polish author Marzena Sowa; Iranians Amir and Khalil; and over a dozen Canadian and British creators.
Named for acclaimed comics creator the Will Eisner, the awards are in their 24th year of highlighting the best publications and creators in comics and graphic novels. The 2012 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of reviewer Brigid Alverson (Graphic Novel Reporter, CBR, Robot 6), retailer Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures, Halifax, Nova Scotia), librarian Jesse Karp (LREI, New York), cartoonist Larry Marder (Beanworld), comics historian Benjamin Saunders (University of Oregon), and Comic-Con board of director Mary Sturhann.
This year’s judges added two new categories: Best Publication for Early Readers, and Best Educational/Academic Work. They also dropped four categories from the previous year: Best New Series, Best Adaptation from Another Medium, Best Writer/Artist-Nonfiction, and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist. According to Eisner Awards Administrator Jackie Estrada, "The judges chose to not have the New Series and Painter categories this year because they didn’t find enough contenders that reached the level of quality they were looking for." However, Estrada says, "the extent and quality of the material submitted in the Kids and Teen categories was so high that the judges felt dividing these books into three categories was warranted."
Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable pdf of the ballot is available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting: www.eisnervote.com. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 13 at Comic-Con International.
Voting in one Eisner Awards category, the Hall of Fame, is already completed. The judges chose the nominees earlier this year, and voting was conducted solely online.
The Eisner Awards are part of Comic-Con International, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular artforms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture. Jackie Estrada has been administrator of the Awards since 1990. She can be reached at jackie@comic-con.org.
More information about the Eisner Awards can be found at http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml.
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