Eisner Awards
Writer Del Connell passes away after winning Eisner
Disney artist Del Connell, who received the Bill Finger Excellence in Comic Book Writing Award during this year’s Eisner Award ceremonies just three weeks ago, has died at the age of 93. The Bakersfield Californian has a nice article about Connell, who could not attend the ceremony due to failing health, and Glen Weldon posts an appreciation at NPR’s Monkey See blog describing how Connell’s creation, Goofy’s alter ego Super Goof, changed his life. Mark Evanier, who worked down the hall from Connell for a while and was instrumental in getting him the award, adds his own memories of Connell.
Working at a time when artists and writers seldom signed their work, Connell wrote Disney, Dell, and Gold Key comics for 30 years but is still an unfamiliar name to most comics readers. “He did a three-panel gag for Mickey Mouse every day of his life, including Sundays, for 20 years,” his wife Ruth told the Californian. In addition to Super Goof, he came up with Space Family Robinson, which became the television series Lost in Space, as well as Wacky Witch. Yet few people (including the Eisner judges) knew his name, partly because his work was unsigned, and perhaps also because he was humble about it anyway—and when he retired from comics, he stepped away from the industry entirely.
- August 18, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’11 | Listen to 15 panels and the Eisner Awards
CBR's Jonah Weiland accepts the Eisner
Jamie Coville regularly attends a whole bunch of comic book conventions and records various panels (with the panelists’ permission), then posts them on the internet as podcasts. He’s now posted several from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, including the Dwayne McDuffie and Gene Colan tributes, several spotlight panels, the Eisner awards and the Indie Comics Marketing 101 panel (featuring Sam Humphries, Ben McCool, Chip Mosher, Laura Hudson and me!). He’s also got pictures from them posted on Picasa, which is where the above photo of our beloved leader comes from.
You’ll find the full list of available MP3s after the jump, or head over to Jamie’s site for his complete archive.
- August 1, 2011 @ 07:06 AM by JK Parkin
Raina Telgemeier follows Smile with Drama
Raina Telgemeier has been busy — it seemed like she made it to every single comic convention in the United States and several in Canada over the past year — and last weekend she capped it off by picking up the Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens for her graphic novel Smile. Despite all that traveling, she has managed to start work on her next graphic novel, and she announced it over the weekend: It will be called Drama, and, she says, “It’s about middle school theater geeks, stage crew, putting on a play, love and hate and friendship, and that’s all I can talk about for now.” The book is due out in fall 2012 from Scholastic/Graphix.
- July 27, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
SDCC ’11 | Winners announced for 2011 Eisner Awards
Eisner Awards
IDW Publishing led the 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards with five wins, including Joe Hill for best writer for Locke & Key and Darwyn Cooke for best writer/artist for Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit. The awards were announced last night during a ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Other winners included Vertigo’s American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque, for best new series, Image’s Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory, for best continuing series, and Skottie Young for best penciler/inker for Marvel’s The Marvelous Land of Oz. Comic Book Resources earned its second Eisner for best comics-related periodical/journalism.
The complete list of winners can be found below:
- July 23, 2011 @ 05:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | FCBD attracts 1 million; Bill Finger Awards announced
Free Comic Book Day
Retailing | More than 1 million customers visited participating stores on Free Comic Book Day, according to a survey conducted by Diamond Comic Distributors. More than 2.4 million of the record 2.7 million comics ordered by retailers were handed out. What’s more, nearly 54 percent of stores saw higher profits than usual for a Saturday, while more than 37 percent reported higher profits than on a typical Wednesday. [ICv2.com]
Awards | Bob Haney and Del Connell will receive the 2011 Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing, established in honor of the late writer, considered the “unsung hero” of Batman. Haney, who passed away, in 2004, is best remembered as co-creator of the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho and for his work on DC titles like The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans and Aquaman. Connell, who began his career at Disney Studios working on such animated projects as Alice in Wonderland and The Three Caballeros, became a prolific writer and, eventually, editor-in-chief at Western Publishing. He also wrote the Mickey Mouse comic strips for more than 20 years. Connell, 94, will accept his award July 22 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International. [Comic-Con]
- June 17, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Comic sales fall 11% in May; CBLDF joins fight over Utah law
Fear Itself #2
Publishing | May marked the worst month of the year for the direct market since January as sales of comic books and graphic novels fell 11.21 percent versus May 2010. Chart watcher John Jackson Miller chalks up the decline to a combination of retailers ordering more Free Comic Book Day titles than “for-profit” books and publishers’ summer events heating up a little later this year. Marvel led Diamond Comic Distributors’ list of top comics for the month with Fear Itself #2, followed by the first issue of DC’s Flashpoint. Avatar topped the graphic novel chart with Crossed 3D, Vol. 1. [The Comichron]
Legal | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has joined a coalition that includes booksellers, media companies and the ACLU of Utah in seeking to permanently stop enforcement of a 2005 Utah statute that would regulate Internet speech that some consider “harmful to minors,” including works of art, graphic novels, information about sexual health and the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. The law has not gone into effect because Utah consented to a temporary injunction until the case can be decided. [press release]
Awards | A reminder: Online voting ends today for the 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The winners will be announced July 22 during Comic-Con International in San Diego. [Eisner Awards]
- June 13, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Comic Book Ink’s plea; DC’s deadline decree
John Munn, owner of Comic Book Ink
Retailing | Tacoma, Washington, store Comic Book Ink, a seven-time nominee for the Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award, could close as early as August because of mounting debt. In a plea to customers, owner John Munn attributes the store’s dire financial situation to a combination of the economy, relocation costs, an unresolved dispute with the previous landlord, the move by Diamond Comic Distributors to “call in short-term notes” in the wake of the Borders bankruptcy, and “personal trials.” In the extremely frank letter, he lays out what steps he’s taken (payment plans, using his salary from an outside job to cover payroll), and what he hesitates to do (fire staff, close the nearly nine-year-old store and declare bankruptcy): “I have juggled as far as I can juggle. I have kept a constant vigil on our shop, but currently it is resting on a house of cards and not a strong foundation (yet) that could go at any minute. [...] I need your help. This week is bad … Very bad.”
Munn asks that customers pick up any special orders or pull-list titles, purchase gift certificates, make a short-term loan or buy shares in the store. “I think we can make it,” he writes. “I wouldn’t have sent this message if I didn’t. I did not want to write this letter. I did not want to ask for help. All I ever wanted to do was to create a place where people could come and escape for awhile. A place that would invest in the community, and its organizations, that surrounded it.” [Comic Book Ink]
- June 7, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | FCBD 2011 generated $1.5 million in publicity
Free Comic Book Day
Retailing | Free Comic Book Day founder Joe Field reports that this year’s event drew between 300,000 and 500,000 people to participating retailers, and generated an estimated $1.5 million in publicity for comics and comics stores. “Free Comic Book Day may have been my idea ten years ago, but seeing the remarkable things this event has done for the entire comics world is really encouraging,” he writes on his store’s blog. “Many of my comics retailer colleagues in the U.S., Canada and 40 other countries bring energy, creativity and enthusiasm to FCBD, making it a very special community event that is now the world’s largest annual comics’ event. All of this shows just how current the comics’ medium is — and how vital comic book specialty stores are to our local communities.” [Flying Colors, via The Beat]
Legal | In the wake of the latest confiscation of comics by Canadian customs agents, Laura Hudson looks at how creators and fans can protect themselves when crossing the border. [Comics Alliance]
Comic strips | Tundra marketing director Bill Kellogg has launched Ink Bottle Syndicate, which represents eight comic strips: That Monkey Tune, by Mike Kandalaft; Holy Molé, by Rick Hotton; Sunshine State, by Graham Nolan; Half Baked, by Rick Ellis; Future Shock, by Jim and Pat McGreal; 15 Minutes, by Robert Duckett; Biz, by Dave Blazek; and, of course, Tundra, Chad Carpenter. [The Daily Cartoonist]
- May 18, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Comic sales slide slows; Thor press kit triggers bomb scare
Fear Itself #1
Publishing | The drop in year-over-year sales in the direct market slowed in April, with periodicals slipping 1.75 percent and graphic novels just .84 percent. Overall sales were down 1.46 percent for April and 6.5 percent for the first four months of the year. Marvel topped Diamond’s comics chart with Fear Itself #1, while DC led the graphic novel category with the 15th volume of Fables. [ICv2.com]
Crime | Police evacuated the bus terminal in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan, Friday afternoon after a suspicious package was discovered across the street. The Michigan State Police bomb squad was called in, and it was determined the mysterious package was merely a briefcase-shaped media kit promoting Acura’s involvement with Marvel’s Thor. A writer for Automobile, whose offices are next to the terminal, had discarded the “S.H.I.E.L.D. Assessment Test” kit in the recycling bin, but it wasn’t picked up — apparently because it isn’t recyclable. [WXYZ, Jalopnik]
- May 16, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
‘I thought it would be funnier if I got left off the Eisner ballot’
Voting for the Eisner Awards kicked off late last week, which is open to all professionals in the comic industry. The online ballot had an error on it — Shannon Wheeler‘s I Thought You Would Be Funnier was left off the humor category. It’s since been corrected, but not before some people had already voted. And not before Wheeler had the opportunity to have some fun with it:
Professionals who have already voted online at www.eisnervote.com can change their votes any time before June 13, while voters who elected to download the PDF ballot and mail it in need not worry, as that ballot was unaffected by the error.
BOOM! Studios, publisher of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel under their BOOM! Town imprint, have made it available online to be read for free, and are also giving away physical copies to eligible voters — email freefunnier@boom-studios.com with your eligibility status to have a physical copy sent to you.
- April 27, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
2011 Will Eisner Award nominees announced
Eisner Awards
DC Comics, Mike Mignola and Return of the Dapper Men top the list of nominees for the 23rd annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which were announced today by Comic-Con International and are presented every July in San Diego.
Dapper Men, by Jim McCann and Janet Lee, received five nominations, including best writer, best painter/multimedia artist and best graphic album. Other comics that received multiple nominations include Morning Glories, Locke & Key, Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, Chew, Wilson and Hellboy. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola received five nominations, while Nick Spencer (Morning Glories) and Joe Hill (Locke & Key) each received four.
DC Comics and its various imprints received 14 nominations, plus three that were shared with other publishers, with Vertigo books receiving the majority of those. Both IDW and Image received 12 each. Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly both received 11, Dark Horse received nine plus two shared, Archaia received nine, VIZ received four, Marvel received three, plus two shared ones.
The 2011 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of comics store rep John Berry (Metropolis Comics, Bellflower, California), Comic-Con board of director Ned Cato (geekroundtable.com), librarian Karen Green (Columbia University), comics writer/editor Andy Helfer (The Shadow; Paradox Press), publishing consultant Rich Johnson (previously with DC Comics and Yen Press), and retail manager Chris Powell (Lone Star Comics, Dallas, Texas). Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers.
You can find the complete list of nominees after the jump.
- April 7, 2011 @ 04:39 PM by JK Parkin
Eisner judges pick four for Hall of Fame
This year’s panel of Eisner judges have named four creators to the Will Eisner Awards Comics Hall of Fame: Ernie Bushmiller, Jack Jackson (Jaxon), Marty Nodell, and Lynd Ward. Traditionally, the judges pick two automatic inductees, but in the official press release, Eisner Awards administrator Jackie Estrada said, “The judges felt that some significant contributors to comics’ history were being consistently overlooked by the regular voter. Choosing only two creators to induct was proving too difficult this year. The solution they chose was to single out individuals from four aspects of the medium.”
The quartet certainly is eclectic. Nancy, originally a spinoff of the flapper comic Fritzi Ritz, has been a staple of the funny pages since the 1930s, and although it seems trivial to look at (Art Spiegelman once commented that it was easier to read Nancy than to not read Nancy), Bushmiller has his admirers. Jaxon was one of the first underground cartoonists and co-founded Rip Off Press with Gilbert Shelton (creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers). Nodell, a comics artist from the Golden Age, worked for DC and Marvel before they were DC and Marvel and was the co-creator of the Green Lantern. And Ward has just returned to public notice with the Library of America’s new edition of his wordless graphic novels, which were created entirely as woodcuts.
Voters (who must be active in the comics industry in some way) will get to choose four more inductees from a list of 14: Bill Blackbeard, Chris Claremont, Kim Deitch, Rudolph Dirks, Mort Drucker, Jenette Kahn, George McManus, Dennis O’Neill, Harvey Pekar, Cliff Sterrett, Roy Thomas, Rodolphe Töpffer, George Tuska, and Marv Wolfman. The last day to vote is March 25, and the results will be announced at Comic-Con in San Diego next July.
- February 24, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Spider-Man musical delayed again? Tokyo manga restrictions
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Broadway | The planned Jan. 11 opening for the $65-million musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark likely will be pushed back again, Kim Masters reports. Yet despite technical problems, actor injuries and repeated delays, preview performances are selling at an impressive 98.2 percent capacity. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Legal | Roland Kelts provides commentary on the passage by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly of controversial legislation to further restrict sexual content in manga and anime: “Now we have Version 2 of the non-existent youth bill, with its opaque language promising to monitor depictions of fictional characters government officials decide are too young to be engaging in the fictional activities government officials decide are too harmful to real youth that government officials decide are too youthful to view or read about them. Meanwhile, it remains legal in Japan to possess child pornography, live-action or illustrated, rendering most attempts at enforcement toothless.” Meanwhile, Japan Real Time, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal report on the new ordinance and the surrounding controversy. [TCJ.com]
- December 16, 2010 @ 08:43 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Brenda Starr to retire; women like superhero comics, too
Brenda Starr
Comic strips | Tribune Media Services has announced it will cancel the 70-year-old comic strip Brenda Starr rather than find replacements for writer Mary Schmich and artist June Brigman, who have decided to end their lengthy run. The final installment will appear on Jan. 2. Created by Dale Messick, the flame-haired reporter debuted in The Chicago Tribune on June 30, 1940, and later appeared in comic books and movies, and on merchandise. Messick retired in 1980, and has been succeeded on the strip only by women, from Ramona Fradon to Linda Sutter to Schmich and Brigman.
Kiel Phegley offers commentary, and catches a series of tweets from writer Dan Slott, who relates that his great-grandfather’s sister championed Brenda Starr at The Chicago Tribune. In related news, Tribune Media Services is partnering with Hermes Press on a multi-volume hardcover series titled Brenda Starr, Reporter by Dale Messick: The Collected Daily and Sunday Newspaper Strip. The first volume will be released in June. [press release]
Retailing | Borders Group reported a third-quarter loss of $74.4 million, nearly double the loss incurred during the same period in 2009. ICv2.com provides analysis. [GalleyCat]
- December 10, 2010 @ 08:24 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Diamond plans digital service? Eisner judges named
Diamond Comic Distributors
Retailing | Rich Johnston confirms that Diamond Comic Distributors is developing a digital comics service that, in the words of a company representative, “will be entirely focused on driving sales of digital comic-related content through brick and mortar comic book specialty retailers.” No details were made available, but an official announcement is expected “in the near future.” In the meantime, Johnston gathers initial reactions from several retailers. [Bleeding Cool]
Publishing | Amit Desai, who has worked at Warner Bros. since 2004, has been named as DC Entertainment’s senior vice president, franchise management: “In his new role, Desai will develop and implement the individual franchise plans for Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, MAD Magazine, Vertigo titles, and other DC properties. This will include driving wider cross-promotional support across all Time Warner divisions.” [press release]
Publishing | Alex Segura, former publicity manager at DC Comics, has been hired by Archie Comics as executive director of publicity and marketing. [press release]
- December 6, 2010 @ 07:28 AM by Kevin Melrose