Eisner Award Nominations 2017 Announced

Comic-Con International has annoucned the nomination for the 2017 Eisner Award nominess.

The press release and the list of nominees follow:

Comic-Con International is proud to announce the nominations for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards 2017. The nominees were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges.

Once again, this year's nominees reflect the wide range of material being published in comics and graphic novel form today, with over 120 titles from some 50 publishers and by creators from all over the world.

Topping the nominations is Sonny Liew's The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon), originally published in Singapore. It is a history of Singapore from the 1950s to the present as told by a fictional cartoonist in a wide variety of styles reflecting the various time periods. It is nominated in 6 categories: Best Graphic Album–New, Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia, Best Writer/Artist, Best Coloring, Best Lettering, and Best Publication Design.

Boasting 4 nominations are Image's Saga and Kill or Be Killed. Saga is up for Best Continuing Series, Best Writer (Brian K. Vaughan), and Best Cover Artist and Best Coloring (Fiona Staples). Kill or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is nominated for Best Continuing Series, Best Writer, Best Cover Artist, and Best Coloring (Elizabeth Breitweiser). Two titles have 3 nominations: Image's Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Best Publication for Teens, Best Painter, Best Cover Artist), and Tom Gauld's Mooncop (Best Graphic Album–New, Best Writer/Artist, Best Lettering), published by Drawn & Quarterly. Another dozen publications have 2 nominations.

Among publishers, Fantagraphics and Image top the list with the most nominations. Fantagraphics's 20 nominations include 2 each for Dan Clowes's Patience (Best Graphic Album–New, Best Lettering), Kramer's Ergot (Best Short Story, Best Anthology), The Realist Cartoons (Best Archival Collection–Strips, Best Publication Design), and The Complete Wimmen's Comix (Best Archival Collection–Comic Books, Best Publication Design). Fantagraphics has 3 out of the 6 nominees for Short Story and 3 out of 5 nominees for Design. Image can boast 17 nominations plus 4 shared. In addition to Saga, Kill or Be Killed, and Monstress, nominated Image titles include Paper Girls for Best Continuing Series (accounting for the majority of that category) and Island Magazine (Best Anthology, Best Short Story).

Dark Horse, DC, and Marvel have numerous shared nominations each (mostly in the coloring and lettering categories), making totals difficult to pin down. Dark Horse has 10 nominations and 3 shared, Marvel has 9 nominations and 2 shared, and DC has 8 nominations and 4 shared. Dark Horse's stand-alone nominees include Black Hammer (Best New Series), Briggs Land (Best Limited Series), Dave McKean's Black Dog (Best Graphic Album–New, Best Painter), and Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged In (Best Single Issue, Best Painter). Among Marvel's nominees are The Mighty Thor (Best Continuing Series), Han Solo (Best Limited Series, Best Penciller/Inker for Mark Brooks), Mockingbird (Best New Series, Best Writer for Chelsea Cain), and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Best Publication for Teens). DC nominations include Astro City (Best Continuing Series, Best Writer for Kurt Busiek), Jill Thompson's Wonder Woman: The True Amazon (Best Graphic Album–New, Best Painter), Dark Night: A True Batman Story (Best Reality-Based Work), and 2 nods for Best New Series: Clean Room and Deathstroke: Rebirth.

Other publishers with multiple nominations include Pantheon and Drawn & Quarterly with 7 each, IDW with 4 plus 1 shared, First Second with 4, and Abrams with 3. Eleven publishers have 2 nominations each, and another 44 companies or individuals have 1 nomination each.

Besides Sonny Liew, the individual creator with the most nominations is writer Brian K. Vaughan, for Saga, Paper Girls, and We Stand on Guard. Nine creators have 3 nominations each: the previously mentioned Brubaker, Gauld, Phillips, Staples, Takeda, and Thompson, plus Tom Hart (Best Reality-Based Work and Best Lettering for Rosalie Lightning, Best Graphic Album–Reprint for She's Not Into Poetry), and Erica Henderson and Ryan North (Best Publication for Teens for Jughead and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Best Humor Publication for Jughead).

The judges made two changes to the categories this year. They did not choose any nominees for Best Adaptation from Another Medium, so that category will not be on the ballot. And they divided what was previously Best Webcomic/Digital Comic into two categories, with nominees for webcomic comprising works produced originally to be viewed online, and nominees for digital comic comprising works that use a traditional comic book format available for viewing and/or download as PDFs or similar formats.

Named for acclaimed comics creator Will Eisner, the awards are celebrating their 29th year of highlighting the best publications and creators in comics and graphic novels. The 2017 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of Comic-Con International board member Alan Campbell, reviewer/critic Rob Clough, comics retailer Jamie Newbold (Southern California Comics, San Diego), comics scholar Robert Moses Peaslee (Texas Tech University), librarian Dawn Rutherford (Sno-Isle Libraries, Washington State), and comics writer/columnist Martha Thomases (ComicMix.com).