Awards – SMASH PAGES

Craig Thompson, Deniz Camp, ‘Absolute Batman’ + more win at the 2026 Ringo Awards

The winners were announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

The winners of this year’s Ringo Awards were announced last weekend at the Baltimore Comic-Con. The awards program is named for artist Mike Wieringo, the artist of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Tellos and more who died in 2007, and recognizes creators, comic books, graphic novels and webcomics in multiple categories.

The Mike Wieringo Spirit Award, presented annually during the ceremony, went to The Avengers in the Veracity Trap by Chip Kidd and Michael Cho. This award is selected every year by perennial jurors Todd Dezago, Craig Rousseau, Mark Waid and Matt Wieringo, Mike’s brother.

Below you’ll find the full list of winners:

Carol Tyler, Lee Lai, Jesse Lonergan + more win at the 2026 Ignatz Awards

The annual awards were given out at the Small Press Expo in Maryland this weekend.

The 2026 Ignatz Awards, recognizing the best in small press comics, were presented last night during the Small Press Expo. The event featured a keynote by cartoonist Lisa Hannawalt, which you can watch in the replay of their livestream. I’d also recommend checking out Carol Tyler’s heart-felt acceptance speech at the end as well.

The winners list includes some (now) multiple Ignatz Award winners, including Lee Lai, Jesse Lonergan and Michael DeForge. While many of the winners were self-published, Drawn + Quarterly took home two awards, the most of any publisher.

The Ignatz Awards have been presented since 1997 and celebrate the outstanding achievements of independent comics, graphic novels and minicomics. They are named for the brick-throwing mouse that appeared in the Krazy Kat comics by George Herriman.

Congratulations to this year’s winners:

American Manga Awards honor ‘Billy Bat,’ ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ + more

The awards were presented last night in conjunction with AnimeNYC.

The third annual American Manga Awards were presented Thursday night at the Japan Society in New York City, in conjunction with AnimeNYC. Zack Davisson served as host for an evening celebrating the creators, publishers and localization teams behind manga released in North America.

In addition to the winners in the awards’ main categories, the ceremony presented the American Manga Award of Distinction to Princess Jellyfish creator Akiko Higashimura. The awards also inducted two new members into the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame: Chigusa Ogino, an advisor and former executive director on the board of Tuttle-Mori Agency who helped pave the way for manga’s entrance into Western markets, and the late Ioannis Mentzas, co-founder of Vertical and former editorial director at Kodansha USA.

Congratulations to last night’s winners:

Nominees announced for the 2026 Ignatz Awards

Winners will be announced at the Small Press Expo in September.

The Small Press Expo has revealed the nominees for the 2026 Ignatz Awards, which recognize alternative comics, graphic novels and more, and are given out during the SPX every Fall.

Named for the mouse that appears in the Krazy Kat comics by George Herriman, the logo changes each year as a new artist draws the mouse and his weapon of choice, the brick. The logo for this year was drawn by Léa Murawiec, who won the Most Promising New Talent award last year.

The nominees were chosen by a team of jurors that included Maria Hoey, Joel Christian Gill, Nick Bertozzi, Maggie McCready, Vik Alexander, Meg Lentz, Michael Albrecht and Sofia Lesage. The winners are chosen through open voting; you can request a ballot here. Voting ends on Sept. 11, and the winners will be announced Sept. 12 during SPX in Bethesda, Maryland.

Congrats to this year’s nominees:

Mark Tatulli wins the Reuben Award

Stan Sakai, Liniers and more were presented with NCS Divisional Awards during the National Cartoonists Society’s annual awards program.

In a ceremony held last night, The National Cartoonists Society named Mark Tatulli, creator of the comic strips Lio and Heart of the City, as ‘Cartoonist of the Year” and presented him with the Reuben Award.

The National Cartoonists Society also announced the winners of their annual NCS Divisional awards, which recognize creators of comic strips, illustrations, comic books and more. Nominees were announced back in April, with winners were selected through a vote open to all NCS members. This is the 80th year for the awards program.

On the comics front, Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai won in the comic book category, while Sunder creator Pierre-Alexandre Comtois won in the graphic novel category.

You can see the complete list of winners below.

Nominees announced for the 2026 Ringo Awards

Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con in September.

I’m still getting over staying up too late covering the Eisner Awards, and it looks like it’s already time for the Ringos! The annual Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, named for creator Mike Wieringo and sharing a nickname to boot, announced the nominees for their annual awards program across 18 categories.

Now in their 10th year, the final list was selected by an open call for nominees from fans, overseen by a panel of judges. The awards period included any materials published in 2025.

Winners will be announced on Sept. 26 at The Baltimore Comic-Con. Congrats to this year’s nominees:

Your 2026 Eisner Award winners

‘Absolute Martian Manhunter’ and its creative team took home multiple awards on the comic industry’s biggest night.

The winners of the 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced Friday night in San Diego, after being accidentally leaked a few days before. That didn’t stop the event from happening, however, or the excitement for the winners, and we carried on posting results on BlueSky.

Javier Rodriguez had a big night, taking home three Eisners, all tied to Absolute Martian Manhunter: Best Limited Series, Best Penciller/Inker and Best Cover Artist. His collaborator, Deniz Camp, wasn’t far behind with two wins for, again, Best Limited Series for Absolute Martian Manhunter and Best New Series for Assorted Crisis Events. Overall DC walked away with the most wins of any publisher. Abrams and Fantagraphics also had multiple wins at the event.

In addition to the Eisners, other awards given out included:

The Bill Finger Award, which went to Jenny Blake Isabella and Martin Pasko.
The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which went to Stipan Morian.
The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, presented to Richard and Wendy Pini.
The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award, which went to Books With Pictures in Eugene, Oregon.
And of course the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, which had 23 inductees this year.

Congrats to this year’s winners!

Jeff Smith, Colleen Doran, Chris Ware + Akira Toriyama join the Eisner Hall of Fame

Congrats to the Eisner Hall of Fame class of 2026.

In a ceremony held earlier today at the San Diego Comic-Con, the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame added 23 new inductees into their ranks.

The Hall of Fame committee chose most of those inductees earlier this year, while voters chose four to join them from a field of 16.

The four who were voted in are:

Jenny Blake Isabella + Martin Pasko to receive the 2026 Bill Finger Award; Wendy + Richard Pini to receive Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award

Both awards will be presented July 24 during the Eisner Award ceremony at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Writers Jenny Blake Isabella and Martin Pasko will receive the Bill Finger Award this year, while Elfquest creators Richard and Wendy Pini will receive the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

Both awards are given out each year during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The ceremony will take place Friday, July 24 in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego.

The Pinis will receive their award for donating $500,000 to establish the Wendy and Richard Pini Comics and Cartoon Endowment at Columbia University.

Nominees announced for the 2026 Harvey Awards

Winners will be announced at the New York Comic-Con in October.

The nominees for this year’s Harvey Awards have been announced; the annual awards named for MAD Magazine founding editor Harvey Kurtzman are presented every autumn at the New York Comic-Con.

The awards recognize graphic novels, manga, digital comics and “adaptations” across seven categories.

Congrats to this year’s nominees:

Nominees announced for the 2026 Russ Manning Award

Named for the creator of ‘Magnus, Robot Fighter,’ the awards program recognizes the comic industry’s most promising newcomers.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for this year’s Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which will be presented during the Eisner Award ceremony in July.

Named for the creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter, the award recognizes a new artist who “shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics.”

Previous winners include Dave Stevens, Eleanor Davis, Jeff Smith, Marion Churchland, David Petersen, Tyler Crook, Dan Mora, Lorena Alvarez, Nate Simpson, Zoe Thorogood and Oliver Bly. Richard Blake, writer and artist of Hexagon Bridge, won the award last year.

Congratulations to this year’s nominees:

Mike Mignola wins Bram Stoker Award for ‘Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown’

The Hellboy creator’s Dark Horse graphic novel beat out four other nominees at the Horror Writers Association’s annual gala in Pittsburgh.

Mike Mignola’s first project in his shared universe with Ben Stenbeck has won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel. Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, which was published by Dark Horse in January of 2025, took home the award Saturday night at StokerCon in Pittsburgh.

“It all started with an Italian Folktale about a boy who goes bowling with corpses,” Mignola said about the story back when it was announced. “I fell in love with the story as soon as I discovered it but I wanted to play fast and loose when adapting it, so I created a whole new world. Not TOO different than our world a few centuries ago, but with a lot more gods and monsters. Once I created that world new characters and stories just started pouring out of it. There is a whole lot to play with here and I expect to be at it for a very long time.”

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