2016 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2016 Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, given for creative achievement in American comic books, often referred to as the Comics Industry's equivalent of the Oscar Awards, have been announced.

The awards were presented in a special ceremony during this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The Winners:

Best Short Story

• “Killing and Dying,” by Adrian Tomine, in Optic Nerve #14 (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

• Silver Surfer #11: “Never After,” by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (Marvel)

Best Continuing Series

• Southern Bastards, by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour (Image)

Best Limited Series

• The Fade Out, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)

Best New Series

• Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8)

• Little Robot, by Ben Hatke (First Second)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12)

• Over the Garden Wall, by Pat McHale and Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios/KaBOOM!)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)

• SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Humour Publication

• Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection, by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Digital/Web Comic

• Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain/comiXology)

Best Anthology

• Drawn & Quarterly, Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary, Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, edited by Tom Devlin (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Reality-Based Work

• March: Book Two, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf/IDW)

Best Graphic Album—New

• Ruins, by Peter Kuper (SelfMadeHero)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Nimona, by Nicole Stevenson (Harper Teen)

Best Adaptation From Another Medium

• Two Brothers, by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

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

• The Eternaut, by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano Lòpez, edited by Gary Groth and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)

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

• Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales, edited by Craig Yoe (IDW)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

• The Realist, by Asaf Hanuka (BOOM! Studios/Archaia)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

• Showa, 1953–1989: A History of Japan, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Writer

• Jason Aaron, Southern Bastards (Image), Men of Wrath (Marvel Icon), Doctor Strange, Star Wars, Thor (Marvel)

Best Writer/Artist

• Bill Griffith, Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist (Fantagraphics)

Best Penciller/Inker

• Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls (Image)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

• Dustin Nguyen, Descender (Image)

Best Cover Artist

• David Aja, Hawkeye, Karnak, Scarlet Witch (Marvel)

Best Colouring

• Jordie Bellaire, The Autumnlands, Injection, Plutona, Pretty Deadly, The Surface, They’re Not Like Us, Zero (Image); The X-Files (IDW); The Massive (Dark Horse); Magneto, Vision (Marvel)

Best Lettering

• Derf Backderf, Trashed (Abrams)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

• Hogan’s Alley, edited by Tom Heintjes (Hogan’s Alley)

Best Comics-Related Book

• Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America, by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics)

Best Scholarly/Academic Work

• The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, edited by  Frances Gateward and John Jennings (Rutgers)

Best Publication Design

• Sandman Gallery Edition, designed by Graphitti Designs and Josh Beatman/Brainchild Studios (Graphitti Designs/DC)

Bill Finger Award For Comic Book Writing

• Elliot Maggin

 

Russ Manning Awards For Most Promising Newcomer

• Dan Mora

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award

• Orbital Comics

Bob Clampett Award For Best Humanitarian

• Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal)

Hall Of Fame

• Tove Jansson, Carl Burgos, Rube Goldberg, Jacques Tardi, Lynda Barry, Matt Groening