awards
Comics A.M. | Arizona legislature pulls back electronic censorship bill
Arizona state flag
Legal | A proposed Arizona law that would make it a crime to annoy or offend anyone through electronic means has been held back for revision after a number of concerned parties, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, protested that it was too broad. The bill, which was passed by both houses of the Arizona legislature, basically took the language from the statute criminalizing harassing phone calls and applied it to all electronic devices, without limiting it to one-to-one communications. As a result, the language appears to make it a crime to post anything annoying or potentially offensive on the internet. [CBLDF]
Retailing | Brian Hibbs questions Mark Waid’s math, both with regard to comic shops and the cost of self-publishing, and brings up a number of arguments in favor of the Direct Market. He argues that having gatekeepers in the market is a good thing and that rather than refusing to take a risk on a new or different comic, retailers will go out of their way to stock comics they think their readers will like. [Savage Critics]
- April 9, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Eisner ballot change; more on March comics sales
Eisner Awards
Awards | The Guy Davis short story “The Phototaker” has been removed from the 2012 Eisner Awards ballot after it was determined to be ineligible. “The ‘Phototaker’ Eisner nomination was a mix up,” Davis wrote on Twitter. ” Jackie Estrada messaged me after I posted asking about the original English version, which came out in Metal Hurlant #9 (2003). So it’s not eligible for the 2012 Eisner nomination and has been removed. Thanks for all the congratulations yesterday, but I’m happy to clear this up and have it removed from the running.” [Eisner Awards]
Publishing | DC Comics’ Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne and Vice President of Marketing John Cunningham respond to March’s direct-market sales estimates, which saw Marvel claim three of the Top 10 spots after a February shutout. “We are pleased that we gained share, and we never expected that we would hold ten out of ten at the top of the chart for ever,” Wayne said. “I think it is better for the business if everybody is firing on all cylinders, that our competitors are doing interesting things, and we are doing interesting things. It keeps everybody on their toes and it keeps enthusiasm in the readership. The retailers remain involved wanting to make sure that they have enough of everything. I think it’s a good thing all around.” [ICv2.com]
- April 6, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
2012 Eisner nominees announced
Daredevil and Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand lead the nominations for the 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which were announced today by Comic-Con International.
Topping the 2012 list with six 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 five 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.
DC and Marvel tied for the most nominations for a publisher, each having 11 nominations plus two 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 two 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 nine (plus one shared) is Fantagraphics, including three 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.
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 Comic Book Resources and Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson; retailer Calum Johnston of Strange Adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York librarian Jesse Karp; Beanworld creator Larry Marder; comics historian Benjamin Saunders from the University of Oregon; and Comic-Con board member 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.
“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,” said Eisner Awards Administrator Jackie Estrada. “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 will also be 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.
The complete list of nominees can be found after the jump.
- April 4, 2012 @ 11:50 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | DMCA used to retaliate against comics blogger
The 3 Geeks, by Rich Koslowski
Legal | Comics reviewer and journalist Don MacPherson was notified by his web-hosting service of a complaint accusing him of violating the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. According to MacPherson, the complaint was filed by Scott Courrier, owner of Geeks Galore Computer Center in Marmora, Ontario, who lost a copyright-infringement lawsuit in 2009 after using one of cartoonist Rich Koslowski’s 3 Geeks images without permission. MacPherson wrote about the original judgment; he also posted a follow-up noting Koslowski hadn’t been paid and that the computer center was still using his artwork about a year later. In his complaint to the web-hosting service, Courrier accuses MacPherson of infringing on his copyright by “using my personal name and business information in a negative way without consent.” MacPherson’s hosting company briefly took down his site, but has since restored it, saying it won’t pull it down again unless ordered to do so by a court. MacPherson also followed up with Koslowski, who said the computer center is still using his artwork and hasn’t paid him the court-ordered monetary award from his case. [Eye on Comics]
- April 3, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Vote now in the Stumptown Comic Arts Awards
Stumptown 2012
The nominees for the annual Stumptown Comics Arts Awards, which are presented in conjunction with the yearly Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Ore., have been announced on their website. Head over there if you’d like to cast your vote.
Nominees were selected by a jury of industry professionals after an open call for submissions. The awards will be presented to the winners during the Comics Fest After Party on Saturday, April 28 at the Jupiter Hotel. This year’s festival runs April 28 and 29 at the Oregon Convention Center.
The nominee are:
Best Writer
Joshua Willamson, Sketch Monsters
Phillip Gelatt, Petrograd
Cullen Bunn, The Sixth Gun V. 2: Crossroads
Brandon Graham, Prophet
John Arcudi and Mike Mignola, BPRD: Hell on Earth — Russia
- March 30, 2012 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Finalists announced for 2012 Doug Wright Awards
From "Margot's Room," by Emily Carroll
The finalists have been announced for the 2012 Doug Wright Awards, which recognize the best in English-language comics by Canadians. The awards are named for Doug Wright, the late cartoonist whose strip Doug Wright’s Family appeared for more than 30 years in newspapers across the country.
The winners of the eighth annual awards will be presented May 5 during the Toronto Comics Art Festival. The finalists are:
- March 27, 2012 @ 02:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
National Cartoonists Society announces Divisional Awards nominees
From "Hellboy: The Fury" #3, by Duncan Fegredo
The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for its 2012 NCS Divisional Awards, which will be presented May 26 during the 66th annual NCS Reuben Awards in Las Vegas.
TELEVISION ANIMATION
• Ben Bocquelet and Antoine Perez, production design on The Wonderful World of Gumball (Cartoon Network)
• Penn Ward, character design on Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)
• Erik Wiese, production design on The Mighty B (Nickelodeon)
FEATURE ANIMATION
• Mark McCreery, character design: Rango
• Carlos Saldanha, director: Rio
• Jennifer Yuh-Nelson, director: Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom
- March 26, 2012 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Batwoman wins GLAAD Media Award
Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer, from "Batwoman" #1
Batwoman, by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, won the GLAAD Media Award for “Outstanding Comic Book.” The award was announced last night in New York.
“This is extremely gratifying, because we’ve been working very hard to make this character multifaceted and someone to believe in, while showing her develop realistic personal relationships over time,” Williams wrote on his blog. “So the recognition from the GLAAD awards bolsters us greatly. And thank you for all of the support the series has been getting from you all, the comics readership community.”
The awards honor outstanding portrayals of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in various media. Other comics that were nominated in the category included Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, by Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung; Secret Six, by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore; Veronica Presents: Kevin Keller, by Dan Parent; and X-Factor, by Peter David, Emanuela Lupacchino, Valentine De Landro and others.
You can find the complete list of winners on the GLAAD site.
- March 25, 2012 @ 03:40 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Matt Bors receives Herblock Award; SPACE winners announced
Matt Bors comic
Awards | Matt Bors is the 2012 winner of the Herblock Award, and the first alternative political cartoonist to do so, according to the Herb Block Foundation. The award includes a $15,000 prize — and that’s $15,000 after taxes, which is mighty thoughtful of them. “The prize money is extremely generous and important, as it is more than I’ve ever made in a year from my editorial cartoons,” said Bors, who plans to use it to upgrade his website. The finalist for the prize is Jen Sorensen, creator of Slowpoke and also an alternative cartoonist; she gets a $5,000 prize. [Comic Riffs]
Awards | The Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, or SPACE, has announced the winners of its annual awards, which will be presented April 21 at the convention in Columbus, Ohio. Winners include Diabetes Funnies by Colin Upton, Sing, Sing by Paul Zdepski, and Spoilers by Kevin Czapiewski. [SPACE]
- March 13, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Archie co-CEO talks Kevin Keller marriage, boycott
Life with Archie #16
Comics | Bryan Young talks to Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater about the attempted boycott of Life With Archie #16, which featured the marriage of Kevin Keller, as well as the changes that have taken place within the company to make that marriage possible. “When I got to Archie my first mandate was to talk to the staff and creators and say ‘Change things up. Try new things. Be bold. Be daring. Be creative.’ If there was an idea I felt was out of line or too crazy, I’d nix it. But for the most part, people like Dan Parent came to me with excellent ideas and suggestions. Kevin Keller is a perfect example of that. I don’t think you would have seen the previous regime publish Kevin.” [The Huffington Post]
Awards | Cartoonist Alison Bechdel has won the 24th annual Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the Publishing Triangle, the association of lesbians and gay men in publishing. [GalleyCat]
- March 9, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
2012 Glyph Comics Awards nominees announced
Rich Watson sent over this year’s nominees for the Glyph Comics Awards, which will be presented in May at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention in Philadelphia. The awards recognize “the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year.” Rich also announced that this will be his final year as chairman of the awards.
Check out the complete list of nominees below.
Story of the Year
The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury, Brandon Thomas, writer, Lee Ferguson, artist
“On Being Crazy” from African-American Classics: Graphic Classics Vol. 22, Tom Pumplun, writer, Kyle Baker, artist
Princeless, Jeremy Whitley, writer, Mia Goodwin, artist
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Volume 1, Brian Michael Bendis, writer, Sara Pichelli, artist
- March 8, 2012 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Jules Feiffer honored; ToonSeum begins cleanup
Jules Feiffer
Awards | Chicago’s Columbia College has announced it will bestow the 2012 John Fischetti Lifetime Achievement Award on Jules Feiffer. What is it? “The Fischetti Lifetime Achievement Award honors an outstanding career of editorial cartooning, work skewering cultural mores, misguided public policies and self-important people.” [The Daily Cartoonist]
Comics | As workers begin cleaning up the mess left by a flooded warehouse full of comics, officials at Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum are appealing to the public for donations to help replace the lost works. [Post-Gazette]
Creators | Gerry Alanguilan posts his rejection letters from Marvel and DC Comics from the days when, as a young artist, he sent in samples of his work. He also tells the story of how he blew his first big chance, which should prove inspirational to others in the same boat. [Komikero]
- March 8, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Voting opens for 2012 Eagle Awards
Eagle Awards
Voting is open through April 2 for the 2012 Eagle Awards, the United Kingdom-based fan awards recognizing U.K. and U.S. creators and works. Fans can vote online for their favorites in 29 categories, from newcomer and publisher to single story and roll of honor. Comic Book Resources, which won the 2010 and 2011 awards for favorite comics-related website, is nominated again this year.
The winners will be announced May 25 in conjunction with the London MCM Expo. The nominees are:
Favorite newcomer writer
• J.H. Williams III
• Jeff Lemire
• Michael Carroll
• Nathan Edmondson
• Robert Curley
Favorite newcomer artist
• Axel Medellin
• Declan Shalvey
• Emanuela Lupacchino
• Francesco Francavilla
• Mahmud Asrar
- March 1, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Berenstain Bears co-creator Jan Berenstain dies
Jan Berenstain
Passings | Jan Berenstain, who with her husband Stan created the popular children’s book characters the Berenstain Bears, passed away Friday at a hospital near her home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Berenstain, 88, had suffered a stroke earlier in the week. Since the release of The Big Honey Hunt in 1962, the Berenstain Bears series has grown to more than 300 books and sold about 260 million copies worldwide, inspiring animated television specials and series, museum exhibits and a stage show. Stan Berenstain passed away in 2005 at age 82. [The Washington Post]
Events | This year’s 24-Hour Comics Day will be held Oct. 20. [ComicsPro]
Comics | Here’s a variation on the comics-aren’t-for-kids-anymore theme, with reasonable parents who know they need to check what their kids are reading, and a retailer who gets it. [WNYT.com]
- February 28, 2012 @ 06:55 AM by JK Parkin
More book awards: Check out the Bram Stoker nominees
Here’s an even more eclectic list than the Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominees: The graphic novel contenders for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award:
Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol (First Second)
Locke & Key, Volume 4, by Joe Hill (artist: Gabriel Rodriguez) (IDW)
Green River Killer, by Jeff Jensen (artist: Jonathan Case) (Dark Horse)
Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine, by Jonathan Maberry (penciler: Laurence Campbell) (Marvel)
Baltimore: The Plague Ships, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (artist: Ben Stenbeck; colorist: Dave Stewart) (Dark Horse)
Neonomicon, by Alan Moore (artist: Jacen Burrows) (Avatar Press)
I added in the artists because apparently the Stoker folks were only thinking about writers. I’m impressed with how broad the selection of books is, given that they all qualify as “horror” to someone: Anya’s Ghost, while genuinely scary, is a teenage ghost story, Green River Killer is true crime, Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine is a superhero story, admittedly with something that sounds a lot like a zombie twist. The other three are closer to what I think of when I think of “horror,” but they are all still quite different from one another.
- February 22, 2012 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson