Quick Hits | Idaho graduate offers her superintendent a banned graphic novel while accepting her diploma

Plus: Tom Luth, Bram Stoker Awards, Broom Hilda and the Ernie Bushmiller Society.

One of this year’s high school graduates from the Idaho Fine Arts Academy tried to hand her superintendent a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, a book that was removed from her school’s library earlier in the year.

The ABC affiliate KVUE reports that Annabelle Jenkins, one of 44 seniors to walk at the graduation, brought the book with her and tried to give it to Superintendent Derek Bub as she went on stage to accept her diploma. Bub would not accept the copy of the book, so Jenkins then dropped it at his feet.

Jenkins, a volunteer at her local library and a lifelong reader, said an argument between a teacher and the school librarian brought the book to her attention. “It was over the graphic novel The Handmaid’s Tale and I was just so shocked because I had never seen school staff behave that way in a school setting,” she said.

The book ended up being contested and removed from West Ada school shelves.

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Nominees announced for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards

Comics by Cullen Bunn, Leomacs, Adam Cesare, David Stoll, Amy Chu, Soo Lee, Junji Ito and Gou Tanabe were nominated this year.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the final nominees for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards, which includes a graphic novel category.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction, with a category dedicated to graphic novels. This year Dark Horse received three nominees, while BOOM! Studios and Viz Media each garnered one nomination. Last year’s winner was Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel edited by James Aquilone and published by Moonstone.

The nominees for the “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category are:

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Quick Hits | ‘Demon Slayer,’ Dav Pilkey, Bill Watterson top 2023 graphic novel sales charts

Plus: ‘Monica’ wins in Angouleme, the Bram Stoker Awards ballot and more.

Pulling information from Circana BookScan, ICv2 has listed the top 20 graphic novels sold in 2023 in the superhero, manga and “author” categories. They’ve also posted lists of the top adult and kid’s graphic novels.

Looking through the lists (which don’t provide exact numbers, just rankings), it looks like the first volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge is the big winner, topping both the manga chart and the adult graphic novel chart. Or maybe I should say “a big winner,” because over on the kid’s graphic novel chart, Dav Pilkey rules supreme, as Dog Man and its Cat Kid Comics Club spinoff took 13 of the 20 positions, including the top 3.

Also, I’m not exactly sure how the superhero and author categories are defined. For instance, the Invincible Compendium shows up on the author list — which makes sense, given how popular the Amazon show is — with Robert Kirkman listed as the author. But I would have expected it to be on the superhero list, given it’s about superheroes and Kirkman isn’t the sole author.

Then for superhero graphic novels, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin hardcover topped the list, followed by Tokyopop’s Nightmare Before Christmas: Battle for the Pumpkin King manga. I think you could make the argument that the Last Ronin is a superhero title, but the Nightmare Before Christmas manga seems like it’s in the wrong place. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the catgeories.

All that aside, sales numbers for comics disappeared during the pandemic when the industry went from a single distributor to multiple distributors, so seeing any kind of data like this is appreciated and interesting.

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Nominees announced for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards

Comics by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Sarah Gailey, Pius Bak and more were nominated this year.

Following the reveal of the preliminary ballot earlier this year, the Horror Writers Association has announced the final nominees for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction, with a category dedicated to graphic novels. This year BOOM! Studios received two nominees, while Image Comics, Moonstone and Independent Legion Publishing each garnered one nomination.

The nominees for the “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category are:

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Preliminary ballot announced for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction, including graphic novels.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

The graphic novel category includes 10 selections that voting members can choose from to select the final ballot and eventual winner. The final ballot is expected to be announced in late February.

Four selections this year come from Image, while three were published by BOOM! Studios. Of particular note is that James Tynion IV appears on the ballot for four different works — The Closet, The Nice House on the Lake, House of Slaughter and Something is Killing the Children.

The preliminary books listed in the graphic novel category are:

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Quick Hits | A quick awards round-up

‘The Inhabitant of the Lake’ wins the Bram Stoker Award, plus nominations for the Graphic Medicine International Collective Award, Locus Awards and more.

It’s awards season, so today seems like a good day for a quick awards round-up post. Here we go …

The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards. In the graphic novel category Alessandro Manzetti and Stefano Cardoselli’s The Inhabitant of the Lake, published by Independent Legions Publishing, won the award, beating out what started as a large and very competitive field.

You can find the complete list of winners across all categories on the HWA website.

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Nominees announced for the Bram Stoker Awards

Comics by Grant Morrison, Dan Panosian, Marianna Ignazzi, Mico Suayan, Kami Garcia and more have been nominated for the annual awards for horror fiction.

Following the reveal of the preliminary ballot earlier this year, the Horror Writers Association has announced the final nominees for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror/dark fiction. This year BOOM! Studios dominates the list with three nominees, while DC and Independent Legion Publishing each garnered one nomination.

Winners will be announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon 2022 in Denver. Here are the nominees in the graphic novel category: 

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Preliminary ballot announced for the Bram Stoker Awards

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror/dark fiction.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

BOOM! Studios is represented by four different graphic novels on the list, with TKO Studios, Vault Comics and DC represented by one apiece. Last year Nancy Holder, Chiara Di Francia and Amelia Woo won for their work on Mary Shelley Presents, which was published by Kymera Press.

The final ballot will be announced in late February, while the winners are typically announced in conjunction with the annual StokerCon, which is currently scheduled for May 12-15 in Denver.

The preliminary books listed in the graphic novel category are:

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Nominees announced for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror/dark fiction.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the nominees for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

Winners are typically announced in conjunction with the annual StokerCon, which will be held virtually in May 2021. The nominees in the graphic novel category are:

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Nominees announced for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards

Winners of the annual awards for horror/dark fiction will be announced April 18.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the nominees for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

Presented annually since 1987, the winners will be announced at StokerCon 2020 in Scarborough, England on April 18. The nominees in the graphic novel category are:

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Comics Lowdown: Awards round-up

See recently announced nominees and winners for several different awards.

Today seems like a good day for an awards rundown …

The nominees for the L.A. Times Book prize have been announced, including the five books chosen in the “Graphic Novel/Comics” category. They include:

  • Michelle Perez and Remy Boydell, The Pervert
  • Eleanor Davis, Why Art?
  • Aisha Franz, … Is Real
  • Jérôme Ruillier, The Strange
  • Tillie Walden, On a Sunbeam

Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the University of Southern California’s Bovard Auditorium on April 12, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

The L.A. Times has given an award in the graphic novel category since 2009, when Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli won the award. Other previous winners include The Love Bunglers by Jaime Hernandez, Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines and Beverly by Nick Drnaso.

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