Joelle Jones, Tom King, Lee Weeks and more win 2018 Ringo Awards

Marc Andreyko receives the Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award, while Denny O’Neil receives the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 2018 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards were presented this weekend at the Baltimore Comic-Con, celebrating the “creativity, skill and fun of comics.” The awards program is named for artist Mike Wieringo, who passed away in 2007.

This is the second year the awards were presented, and they include both “fan favorites,” which were selected by open voting, and “jury and fan winners,” selected by a combination of open nominations and jury voting. You can see the breakdown of how the winners were selected on the Ringo Awards website.

Congratulations to all the winners:

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Fiona Staples nominated for a World Fantasy Award

The ‘Saga’ artist adds another award nomination to her long list, just as she and Brian K. Vaughan announce the book will go on hiatus for a year.

Saga artist Fiona Staples has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award, in the “Artist” category. Although other nominees have created comics or comic covers in the past, she’s the only nominee in the category who is known primarily for her comics work.

The winners will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in November.

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Celebrating local comic creators is the best thing to do today

From Eisner winning heavyweight Fiona Staples to industry newbie H.C. Gislason, Panel One’s Comic Creator Festival spotlights local talent.

In the age of Hollywood-driven mega-cons, the Panel One Comic Creator Festival promises to bring the spotlight of comic conventions back to (gasp!) comics! Now in its third year, the Festival, which is held in Calgary, seems small and humble, but truly packs a punch for local creators, that feel lost and forgotten at the big shows. In its short life, the Panel One Comic Creator Festival has been renowned as “THE” place for creators to sell comics, some noting they have larger sales at this tiny festival as opposed to the 100,000 people attended monolith cons. This isn’t Artist Alley, so you won’t find fanart here, but this is the perfect market for the curious and the diehard comic fan to discover and buy new comic books.

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‘Monstress,’ ‘Black Bolt’ among this year’s Hugo nominees

‘Bitch Planet,” ‘Paper Girls,’ ‘My Favorite Thing is Monsters’ and ‘Saga’ round out this year’s nominees in the ‘Graphic Story’ category.

The nominees for the 2018 Hugo Awards have been announced, including the “Graphic Story” category — which features four comics from Image, one from Marvel and a graphic novel from Fantagraphics.

Presented annually since 1955, The Hugo Awards recognize the best science fiction in books, comics, movies, TV and more. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention every year. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded since 2009, with previous winners including volumes of Saga, Ms. Marvel, Girl Genius and Sandman: Overture. Monstress won the award last year and is up for the award again this year.

Here are this year’s nominees:

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Nominees announced for the British Fantasy Awards

‘2000AD,’ ‘Saga’ and the webcomic ‘Skal’ included on the shortlist of nominees in the comics category.

The British Fantasy Society has announced the nominees for the British Fantasy Awards, including the “Best Comic/Graphic Novel” category.

The nominees were decided by members of the society, with additional nominees added by the award’s jury to ensure “egregious omissions” made the list. Winners will be decided by jury and announced at FantasyCon 2017, which runs Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

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Comics Lowdown: Original Crumb art sells for $717,000

Plus news and updates on NBM, ‘Saga,” Dan Parent and more.

Robert Crumb’s original art for the cover of the 1969 Fritz the Cat collection has set a new record price for a piece of original American comics art: The drawing sold for $717,000 at an auction run by Heritage Auctions; the next highest price for a piece of American comics art is the $657,250 that someone paid for the last page of Incredible Hulk #180, which features the first appearance of Wolverine. Internationally, Tintin art is still top of the heap; one set of drawings brought in $3.5 million, and two other original Tintin drawings have sold for over $1 million apiece.

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‘Saga’ celebrates Image’s 25th anniversary with 25-cent issue

Issue #43 kicks off a new storyline for Hazel and company “at the westernmost edge of the universe.”

To celebrate their 25th anniversary — and no doubt to encourage new or lapsed readers to pick up the title — Image Comics has announced that Saga #43 will cost 25 cents.

The award-winning series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples kicks off a new storyline in that issue, which is due out in May. Image is also offering retailers a 25th anniversary print featuring new Saga artwork by Staples.

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‘Monstress,’ ‘Paper Girls’ among this year’s Hugo nominees

‘Black Panther,” ‘Ms. Marvel,’ ‘The Vision’ and ‘Saga’ round out this year’s nominees in the ‘Graphic Story’ category.

The nominees for the 2017 Hugo Awards have been announced, including the “Graphic Story” category, which features six not-unexpected choices.

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‘Love is Love,’ ‘Lumberjanes,’ ‘Black Panther’ among 2017 GLAAD Award nominees

DC Comics, IDW, Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Image and Black Mask Studios all represented as comics category expands to 10 nominations.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, have announced the nominees for their annual Media Awards, which recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and the issues that affect their lives.

DC Comics and Marvel Comics both received three nominations apiece (Dc shares one of theirs with IDW, as the co-published the Love is Love anthology), while BOOM! Studios received two — which include last year’s winner, Lumberjanes.

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Black-and-white Lying Cat statue coming for Local Comic Shop Day

From the pages of ‘Saga’ — if it wasn’t colored — leaps the popular, living lie detector.

Skybound will release a limited edition, black-and-white version of its Lying Cat statue for this year’s Local Comic Shop Day.

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Not lying: Skybound taking preorders for Lying Cat statue

The breakout character from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga will soon be available in all three dimensions.

Lying Cat will soon leap from the page straight to your shelf, as Robert Kirkman’s Skybound has announced they will produce a Lying Cat statue in early 2016.

Featuring the breakout character from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, the statue will be hand-painted and 8″ tall statue. Skybound began taking pre-orders for the $75 statue on Friday; it will only be available online. You can pre-order it here.

No word yet if it will act as a miniature lie detector.

Lying Cat
Lying Cat

Ok, probably not. Check out a prototype of what it will look like below.

lying-cat-large