2010 Eisner Nominations Encompass Wide Range of Works
Comic-Con International (Comic-Con) is proud to announce the nominations for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards 2010. 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 multivolume deluxe hardcovers to online stories to traditional comic book format.
Topping the 2010 nominees with 4 nominations is David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp, a highly acclaimed literary graphic novel published by Pantheon. Several works have received 3 nominations, including two French graphic novels, My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill (by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo, published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon) and The Photographer (by Emmanuel Guibert, published by First Second). Japanese manga master Naoki Urasawa is represented by multiple nominations for two of his works, 20th Century Boys and Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka (both published by VIZ Media), nominated not only in the International category but also for Best Continuing Series (20th Century Boys) and Best Limited Series (Pluto). Another manga title with 3 nominations is Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life (published by Drawn & Quarterly). Other publications with 3 nominations are Robert Crumb's illustrated version of The Book of Genesis (published by Norton), Darwyn Cooke's Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW), Mike Carey and Peter Gross's comic book series The Unwritten (Vertigo/DC), and Mark Waid and Peter Kraus's series Irredeemable (BOOM!), which also has a shared nomination. The big DC event miniseries of the year, Blackest Night, is also on the ballot, with 2 nominations and 1 shared.
The creators with the most nominations are Urasawa (5) and Mazzucchelli (4), followed by several creators with 3: Cooke, Crumb, Bravo, Guibert, Carey, Waid, and writer Ed Brubaker (Captain America, Criminal, and Incognito, published by Marvel).
DC Comics has the most nominations for a publisher, with its various imprints (DCU, Vertigo, WildStorm, Zuda) garnering 20 nominations (plus 2 shared). The DC Universe has 11 of those nominations, spread among multiple titles and creators. The Vertigo imprint's 7 nominations are led by 3 for The Unwritten. The publisher emerging with the second most nominations this year is Fantagraphics Books, with 17 (plus one shared). The company dominates the categories for Archival Collections, with 5 out of the 11 nominees in those categories. Two of the archival works also have design nods: The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons and Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons. The rest of Fantagraphics' nominations are spread throughout the ballot, with the only other multiple nominations being for Carol Tyler (Best Writer/Artist and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist for You'll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man) and the French graphic album West Coast Blues.
Abrams CartoonArts has six titles on the ballot (led by The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics), toting up 8 nominations in all. Also with 8 nominees (plus 2 shared), Marvel Comics posseses multiple nominations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young), Wolverine: Old Man Logan (by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines), and the Marvel Icon titles Incognito and Criminal (by Brubaker and Sean Phillips). Three publishers have 7 nominees: Fanfare/Ponent Man (for 3 titles), IDW (for 5 titles, plus 1 shared nomination), and W. W. Norton (for 3 titles, including Crumb's Book of Genesis and David Small's Stitches). Close behind are First Second (6 nominations plus 1 shared), VIZ Media (6 nominations), BOOM! (5 nominations plus 2 shared), and Dark Horse (4 nominations plus 2 shared). Drawn & Quarterly and Image each have 4 nominees.
This year's judges made some significant changes in the categories, restoring one that last year's judges omitted (Best Single Issue/One Shot), changing the names of two ("U.S. Edition of International Material-Japan" revised to "U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia" and "Limited Series" changed to "Limited Series or Story Arc"), and splitting the Best Writer/Artist category into two, with the second being Best Writer/Artist-Nonfiction. They also added the category of Best Adaptation from Another Work. This addition reflects the large number of comics and graphic novels now being based on other sources. The nominees here include not only Crumb's Genesis but also adaptations of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Richard Stark's The Hunter, and Jean-Patrick Manchette's West Coast Blues.
Named for acclaimed comics creator the Will Eisner, the awards are in their 22nd year of highlighting the best publications and creators in comics and graphic novels. The 2010 judging panel consists of academic Craig Fischer (associate professor of English, Appalachian State University), librarian Francisca Goldsmith (staff development instructor/consultant, Infopeople), reviewer John Hogan (GraphicNovelReporter.com), writer James Hudnall (Harsh Realm, The Psycho), and retailer Wayne Winsett (Time Warp Comics, Boulder, Colorado).
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 will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 23 at Comic-Con International.
Voting in one Eisner Awards category, Hall of Fame, is already completed. The judges chose the nominees earlier this year, and voting was conducted solely online, with voting ending on March 31.
The Eisner Awards are presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, 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.
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