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).

Best Short Story

• “The Comics Wedding of the Century,” by Simon Hanselmann, in We Told You So: Comics as Art (Fantagraphics)
• “The Dark Nothing,” by Jordan Crane, in Uptight #5 (Fantagraphics)
• “Good Boy,” by Tom King and David Finch, in Batman Annual #1 (DC)
• “Monday,” by W. Maxwell Prince and John Amor, in One Week in the Library (Image)  
• “Mostly Saturn,” by Michael DeForge, in Island Magazine #8 (Image)
• “Shrine of the Monkey God!” by Kim Deitch, in Kramers Ergot 9 (Fantagraphics)

 

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

• Babybel Wax Bodysuit, by Eric Kostiuk Williams (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged In, by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
• Blammo #9, by Noah Van Sciver (Kilgore Books)
• Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• Sir Alfred #3, by Tim Hensley (Pigeon Press)
• Your Black Friend, by Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket)

 

Best Limited Series

• Archangel, by William Gibson, Michael St. John Smith, Butch Guice, and Tom Palmer (IDW)
• Briggs Land, by Brian Wood and Mack Chater (Dark Horse)
• Han Solo, by Marjorie Liu and Mark Brooks (Marvel)
• Kim and Kim, by Magdalene Visaggio and Eva Cabrera (Black Mask)
• The Vision, by Tom King and Gabriel Walta (Marvel)
• We Stand on Guard, by Brian K. Vaughan and Steve Skroce (Image)

 

Best New Series

• Black Hammer, by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Dark Horse)
• Clean Room, by Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt (Vertigo/DC)
• Deathstroke: Rebirth, by Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagulayan, et al. (DC)
• Faith, by Jody Houser, Pere Pérez, and Marguerite Sauvage (Valiant)
• Mockingbird, by Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk (Marvel)

 

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8)

• Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World, by James Sturm (Toon)
• Burt’s Way Home, by John Martz (Koyama)
• The Creeps, Book 2: The Trolls Will Feast! by Chris Schweizer (Abrams)
• I’m Grumpy (My First Comics), by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random
• House Books for Young Readers)
• Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea, by Ben Clanton (Tundra)

 

Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12)

• The Drawing Lesson, by Mark Crilley (Ten Speed Press)
• Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic)
• Hilda and the Stone Forest, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye Books)
• Rikki, adapted by Norm Harper and Matthew Foltz-Gray (Karate Petshop)
• Science Comics: Dinosaurs, by MK Reed and Joe Flood (First Second)

 

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)

• Bad Machinery, vol. 5: The Case of the Fire Inside, by John Allison (Oni)
• Batgirl, by Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque (DC)
• Jughead, by Chip Zdarsky, Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Derek Charm (Archie)
• Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image)
• Trish Trash: Roller Girl of Mars, by Jessica Abel (Papercutz/Super Genius)
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Marvel)

 

Best Humor Publication

• The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, by Lee Marrs (Marrs Books)
• Hot Dog Taste Test, by Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Jughead, by Chip Zdarsky, Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Derek Charm (Archie)
• Man, I Hate Cursive, by Jim Benton (Andrews McMeel)
• Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump, by G. B. Trudeau (Andrews McMeel)

 

Best Anthology

• Baltic Comics Anthology š! #26: dADa, edited by David Schilter and Sanita Muizniece (kuš!)
• Island Magazine, edited by Brandon Graham and Emma Rios (Image)
• Kramers Ergot 9, edited by Sammy Harkham (Fantagraphics)
• Spanish Fever: Stories by the New Spanish Cartoonists, edited by Santiago Garcia (Fantagraphics)

 

Best Reality-Based Work

• Dark Night: A True Batman Story, by Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso (Vertigo/DC)
• Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo, by Sandrine Revel (NBM)
• March (Book Three), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
• Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir, by Tom Hart (St. Martin’s)
• Tetris: The Games People Play, by Box Brown (First Second)

Best Graphic Album—New

 

• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
• Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, by Dave McKean (Dark Horse)
• Exits, by Daryl Seitchik (Koyama)
• Mooncop, by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Patience, by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
• Wonder Woman: The True Amazon by Jill Thompson (DC Comics)

 

 

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Demon, by Jason Shiga (First Second)
• Incomplete Works, by Dylan Horrocks (Alternative)
• Last Look, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
• Meat Cake Bible, by Dame Darcy (Fantagraphics)
• Megg and Mog in Amsterdam and Other Stories, by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics)
• She’s Not into Poetry, by Tom Hart (Alternative)

 

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

• Equinoxes, by Cyril Pedrosa, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
• Irmina, by Barbara Yelin, translated by Michael Waaler (SelfMadeHero)
• Love: The Lion, by Frédéric Brémaud and Federico Bertolucci (Magnetic)
• Moebius Library: The World of Edena, by Jean “Moebius” Giraud et al. (Dark Horse)
• Wrinkles, by Paco Roca, translated by Erica Mena (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
• Goodnight Punpun, vols. 1–4, by Inio Asano, translated by JN PRoductions (VIZ Media)
• orange: The Complete Collection, vols. 1–2, by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber
• Tamosaitis, adaptation by Shannon Fay (Seven Seas)
• The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime, by Toshio Ban and Tezuka
• Productions, translated by Frederik L. Schodt (Stone Bridge Press)
• Princess Jellyfish, vols. 1–3 by Akiko Higashimura, translated by Sarah Alys Lindholm (Kodansha)
• Wandering Island, vol. 1, by Kenji Tsuruta, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse)

 

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips (at least 20 years old)

• Almost Completely Baxter: New and Selected Blurtings, by Glen Baxter (NYR Comics)
• Barnaby, vol. 3, by Crockett Johnson, edited by Philip Nel and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, Colorful Cases of the 1930s, edited by Peter Maresca (Sunday Press)
• The Realist Cartoons, edited by Paul Krassner and Ethan Persoff (Fantagraphics)
• Walt & Skeezix 1931–1932, by Frank King, edited by Jeet Heer and Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)

 

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books (at least 20 Years Old)

• The Complete Neat Stuff, by Peter Bagge, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, edited by Trina Robbins (Fantagraphics)
• Fables and Funnies, by Walt Kelly, compiled by David W. Tosh (Dark Horse)
• Trump: The Complete Collection, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Denis Kitchen and John Lind (Dark Horse)
• U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories, by Sam Glanzman, edited by Drew Ford (Dover)

 

Best Writer

• Ed Brubaker, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed, Velvet (Image)
• Kurt Busiek, Astro City (Vertigo/DC)
• Chelsea Cain, Mockingbird (Marvel)
• Max Landis, Green Valley (Image/Skybound), Superman: American Alien (DC)
• Jeff Lemire, Black Hammer (Dark Horse); Descender, Plutona (Image); Bloodshot Reborn (Valiant)
• Brian K. Vaughan, Paper Girls, Saga, We Stand On Guard (Image)

 

Best Writer/Artist

• Jessica Abel, Trish Trash: Roller Girl of Mars (Papercutz/Super Genius)
• Box Brown, Tetris: The Games People Play (First Second)
• Tom Gauld, Mooncop (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Tom Hart, Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir (St. Martin’s)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)

 

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

• Federico Bertolucci, Love: The Lion (Magnetic)
• Brecht Evens, Panther (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Manuele Fior, 5,000 km per Second (Fantagraphics)
• Dave McKean, Black Dog (Dark Horse)
• Sana Takeda, Monstress (Image)
• Jill Thompson, Wonder Woman: The True Amazon (DC); Beasts of Burden: What the
• Cat Dragged In  (Dark Horse)

 

Best Cover Artist (for multiple covers)

 

• Mike Del Mundo, Avengers, Carnage, Mosaic, The Vision (Marvel)
• David Mack, Abe Sapien, BPRD Hell on Earth, Fight Club 2, Hellboy and the BPRD 1953 (Dark Horse)
• Sean Phillips, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed (Image)
• Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)
• Sana Takeda, Monstress (Image)

 

 

Best Coloring

 

• Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Green Valley (Image/Skybound)
• Elizabeth Breitweiser, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed,Velvet (Image);
• Outcast by Kirkman & Azaceta (Image/Skybound)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)
• Laura Martin, Wonder Woman (DC); Ragnorak (IDW); Black Panther (Marvel)
• Matt Wilson, Cry Havoc, Paper Girls, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Black Widow, The Mighty Thor, Star-Lord (Marvel)

 

 

Best Lettering

• Dan Clowes, Patience (Fantagraphics)
• Brecht Evens, Panther (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Tom Gauld, Mooncop (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Nick Hayes, Woody Guthrie (Abrams)
• Todd Klein, Clean Room, Dark Night, Lucifer (Vertigo/DC); Black Hammer (Dark Horse)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)