Ignatz awards
Winners announced for 2012 Ignatz Awards
Love & Rockets New Stories #4
Love and Rockets New Stories took home three awards tonight at the 2012 Ignatz Awards, which were announced at SPX, the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md.
Nominees for the awards were chosen by a jury of five creators and voted on by attendees at the show. This year’s jury included Edie Fake, Minty Lewis, Dylan Meconis, Lark Pien and Julia Wertz.
The 2012 Ignatz award winners are:
Outstanding Artist: Jaime Hernandez – Love and Rockets New Stories (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Anthology or Collection: Hark! A Vagrant – Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Big Questions by Anders Nilsen (Drawn & Quarterly)
Outstanding Story: “Return to Me,” Love & Rockets New Stories #4, by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
Promising New Talent: Lale Westvind – Hot Dog Beach (Self-published)
Outstanding Series: Love and Rockets New Stories by The Hernandez Brothers (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Comic: Pterodactyl Hunters by Brendan Leach (Top Shelf)
Outstanding Mini-Comic: The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions by Corinne Mucha (Retrofit Comics)
Outstanding Online Comic: SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
Nominees announced for 2012 Ignatz Awards
The nominees were announced for the 2012 Ignatz Awards, which will be presented during the Small Press Expo, held Sept. 15-16 in Bethesda, Maryland.
Named in honor of the brick-wielding mouse in George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strip, the awards recognize achievement in comics and cartooning. Nominees are selected by a panel of five cartoonists — this year it was Edie Fake, Minty Lewis, Julia Wertz, Dylan Meconis and Lark Pien — and then voted on by SPX attendees.
The nominees are:
Outstanding Artist
• Marc Bell – Pure Pajamas (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Inés Estrada — Ojitos Borrosos (Self-published)
• Jaime Hernandez — Love and Rockets: New Stories (Fantagraphics)
• Craig Thompson — Habibi (Pantheon)
• Matthew Thurber — 1 800 Mice (Picturebox)
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
• Big Questions, Anders Nilsen (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Man Who Grew His Beard, Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics)
• Nobrow #6, Various artists (Nobrow)
• Ojitos Borrosos, Inés Estrada (Self-published)
Gabrielle Bell and the incredible disappearing award-nominated webcomic
Cartoonist Gabrielle Bell spent the entire month of July posting one diary comic per day on her blog. They were very good. People, including us, got excited about them. They were even nominated for the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Webcomic.
And then they were gone.
Some time after the 31st and final strip was posted, Bell removed all but that last comic. It was a move she’d promised to make from the beginning, but it still came as a surprise given all the attention and acclaim paid to the project. Why’d did the Lucky and Cecil and Jordan in New York: Stories author send those 30 strips down the memory hole? In an interview with Bell at CBR, Alex Dueben asked her:
Winners announced for 2011 Ignatz Awards
I Will Bite You
The winners of the 2011 Ignatz Awards were announced this weekend at SPX, the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md. Nominees for the awards were chosen by a jury of five creators and voted on by attendees at the show.
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Outstanding Mini Comic: Ben Died of a Train, Box Brown
Outstanding Anthology or Collection: I Will Bite You, Joseph Lambert
Outstanding Online Comic: Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton
Promising New Talent: Darryl Ayo Brathwaite
Outstanding Story: Browntown, Jaime Hernandez
Outstanding Series: Everything Dies, Box Brown
Outstanding Comic: Lose #3, Michael DeForge
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Gaylord Phoenix, Edie Fake
Outstanding Artist: Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You
The Library of Congress wants your minicomic!
You know those ideas that you’d never think of yourself, but when you hear about them, they’re so brilliant and so obvious that you wonder how you couldn’t have thought of them? This is one of those ideas: The Library of Congress is creating The Small Press Expo Collection, with the intent of adding a gravely under-preserved area of comics to the permanent archives of the United States’ official storehouse of knowledge.
Spearheaded by SPX executive director and chairman of the board Warren Bernard, the Collection will serve multiple purposes. It will archive the ephemera of the Bethesda-based alt/indie comics convention itself, including the posters, badges, and programs created by cartoonists for the Expo, and even each year’s SPX website. It will also include every print comic nominated for the Expo’s festival award program, the Ignatz Awards. (For the time being, only the winner of the Best Webcomic Ignatz will be digitally archived.) And it will collect a selection of the comics that are available for purchase at each year’s show — a selection dominated by minicomics and other self-published works that are often difficult if not impossible to find once their tiny initial print runs have sold out.
As someone who’s gotten a lot out of SPX over the years, I think this is providing a vital service — a time capsule of the state of alternative and art comics, updated yearly. An Please read TCJ.com editor Dan Nadel’s entire interview with Bernard about this fascinating project. Then be sure to go to this year’s SPX next weekend, where my fellow Roboteer Chris Mautner and I will be hosting panels about the kinds of comics that will soon make the Library of Congress their permanent home.
DeForge, Fake, Harkham lead the 2011 Ignatz Award nominations
The nominees for the 2011 Ignatz Awards have been announced on the website for the Small Press Expo. Awarded every year at SPX and named after the brick-throwing mouse from Krazy Kat, the Ignatzes are selected by an anonymous jury of five creators and voted on by attendees of the show. There’s nothing in comics quite like lugging around the actual, honest-to-god bricks awarded as trophies to the winners.
This year, cartoonists Michael DeForge, Edie Fake, and Sammy Harkham top the list of nominees with three nods apiece. DeForge’s Lose, the third issue of which was released this year by Koyama Press, earned him nominations for Outstanding Artist, Outstanding Series, and Outstanding Comic. Fake received an Outstanding Artist nomination for his Secret Acres graphic novel Gaylord Phoenix, which is also up for Outstanding Graphic Novel, while the the fifth issue of the series collected in the GN earned an Outstanding Mini-Comic nod. Harkham’s self-published Crickets is up for Outstanding Series thanks to its third issue, which is nominated for Outstanding Comic and contains “Blood of the Virgin,” nominated for Outstanding Story.
On the publishing side, Fantagraphics leads the pack with five nominations, split between Joe Daly (Outstanding Series, Dungeon Quest), Joyce Farmer (Outstanding Graphic Novel, Special Exits), Jaime Hernandez (Outstanding Story, “Browntown,” from Love and Rockets: New Stories #3), and Carol Tyler (Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Graphic Novel, You’ll Never Know, Vol. 2: Collateral Damage).
Secret Acres and Sparkplug tie for the silver with four nominations each. Secret Acres boasts the two nods for Fake’s Gaylord Phoenix graphic novel, plus another two for Joe Lambert’s I Will Bite You (Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Anthology or Collection). Sparkplug was tapped for editor Annie Murphy’s Gay Genius (Outstanding Anthology or Collection), Elijah Brubaker’s Reich (Outstanding Series), Dunja Jankovic’s Habitat #2 (Outstanding Comic), and Chris Cilla’s The Heavy Hand (Outstanding Graphic Novel).
Not to tip my own hand here, but as with the Harveys, it’s refreshing to see that Hernandez’s “Browntown” and Chris Ware’s Lint, arguably two of the best comics of all time, are nominated in the relevant categories for best comics of the year. You’d think you could take that for granted, but you’d be surprised! Moreover, DeForge, Fake, and Harkham’s books really are excellent, and Fantagraphics, Secret Acres, and Sparkplug are high-quality, gutsy publishers. Not a lot to be unhappy about with this list!
Hosted by cartoonist Dustin Harbin, the Ignatz Awards gala will take place on Saturday, September 10 at SPX in Bethesda, Maryland. See the entire slate of nominees after the jump.
SPX programming lineup announced
Organizers have released the programming schedule for the Sept. 10-11 Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, which includes panels featuring Jessica Abel, Kate Beaton, Roz Chast, Sarah Glidden, Tom Neely, Alex Robinson, Johnny Ryan, Craig Thompson, Jim Woodring and more.
Among the moderators will be Robot 6 contributors Sean T. Collins, talking with Thompson and leading a discussion about drawing the grotesque, and Chris Mautner, interviewing Ryan.
Held at the Bethesda North Marriott Convention Center, SPX includes the presentation of the annual Ignatz Awards, a festival prize that recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. See the full programming schedule after the break.
Winners announced for 2010 Ignatz Awards
Ignatz Awards
The winners of the 14th annual Ignatz Awards were announced Saturday during the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland.
Named for the character in George Herriman’s classic comic strip Krazy Kat, the Ignatz Awards are a festival prize recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. SPX attendees vote on nominees selected by a panel of five cartoonists (this year the jury members were Anders Nilsen, David Kelly, Rob G, Joshua Cotter and Trevor Alixopulos).
The winners of the 2010 Ignatz Awards are:
Read Jim Rugg’s Rambo 3.5 for free
from Rambo 3.5 by Jim Rugg
If you’ve ever thought that our whole al-Qaeda problem was nothing a little team-up between George W. Bush and John J. Rambo couldn’t fix, then have I got the comic for you. Over on his blog, Afrodisiac/Street Angel artist Jim Rugg is offering free copies of his celebrated, Ignatz Award-nominated minicomic Rambo 3.5, in convenient Flickr, Comicpress, .cbr, .cbz and .pdf formats. Do we get to win this time? You’ll have to read the comic to find out!
Ignatz nominations are out
Julia Gfrörer's Flesh and Bone
Nominations for the Ignatz Awards, which go to outstanding independent comics, were released today at the Small Press Expo site; the awards will be presented at SPX on Sept. 11. Here’s the list:
Outstanding Artist
Eddie Campbell, Alec: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Sized Omnibus) (Top Shelf Productions)
Al Columbia, Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days (Fantagraphics Books)
Mike Dawson, Troop 142 (self-published)
John Pham, Sublife #2 (Fantagraphics Books)
Sully, The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
The Hipless Boy, Sully (Conundrum Press)
Lemon Styles, David King (Sparkplug Comic Books)
Masterpiece Comics, R. Sikoryak (Drawn & Quarterly)
Red Snow, Susumu Katsumata (Drawn & Quarterly)
Ten Thousand Things to Do, Jesse Reklaw (self-published)
Outstanding Graphic Novel
The Complete Jack Survives, Jerry Moriarty (Buentaventura Press)
Market Day, James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days, Al Columbia (Fantagraphics Books)
Summit of the Gods Vol. 1, Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Years of the Elephant, Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Winners of the 2009 Ignatz Awards
Ignatz Awards
The winners of the Ignatz Awards were announced yesterday during a ceremony at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland.
Named in honor of the brick-wielding mouse in George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strip, the awards recognize achievement in comics and cartooning. Nominees are selected by a panel of five cartoonists and then voted on by SPX attendees.
The winners of the 2009 Ignatz Awards are:
Outstanding Artist: Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
Outstanding Anthology or Collection: Kramer’s Ergot #7, edited by Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura)
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
Outstanding Story: “Willy,” Papercutter #10, Damien Jay (Tugboat)
Promising New Talent: Colleen Frakes, Woman King (self-published)
Outstanding Series: Uptight, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Comic: Uptight #3, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Mini-Comic: Stay Away From Other People, Lisa Hanawalt
Outstanding Online Comic: Year of the Rat, Cayetano Garza
Congratulations to all of the winners. The complete list of nominees can be found here.
Unbound: Checking out the Ignatz nominees
The major gag in George Herrimann’s Krazy Kat comic strip, which ran from 1913 to 1944, was Ignatz Mouse’s repeated attempts to clobber the title character with a brick.
I’m not sure why the Small Press Expo folks thought this Ignatz would be the best character to represent their indy-comics awards. Perhaps the organizers think of independent creators as lurking in the shadows, waiting to pelt the behemoths of the industry with bricks, or perhaps it was just getting late and everyone wanted to go home.
Anyway, the nominations for this year’s awards are out, and voting will be taking place at SPX, which is actually rather soon, so I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the nominees for Best Online Comic.