Tag: Comic-Con International

Quick Hits | Rest in peace, KC Carlson

Plus: Rob Liefeld, Neil Gaiman, DSTLRY, convention news and more!

Former Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes editor KC Carlson has passed away. His wife, Johanna Carlson-Draper, reported the news on her blog.

A longtime comics fan, Carlson came into prominence as an editor at DC in the early 1990s, working on Legion of Super-Heroes, its sister title Legionnaires, Who’s Who in the DC Universe, Zero Hour, the Superman titles and collected editions of V for Vendetta and Sandman, among other titles. In addition, he also worked in comics distribution for Capital City and for mail-order retailer Westfield Comics as a blogger.

“Sad to hear of the passing of KC Carlson, one of the gentlest effective editors DC had in my decades,” wrote former DC executive Paul Levitz. “KC had a love for comics that came out in all his work in the field, in all his writing about comics, and in the open encouragement he offered creators. He did a stint guiding the Legion after my second run, and while it wasn’t to my taste (what parent likes the approach of adoptive ones to their kids?), it’s a time many Legion fans recall fondly.”

We offer our condolences to Johanna for her loss, as well as KC’s other family, friends and fans.

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Your 2024 Eisner Award winners

Winners were announced during a ceremony in San Diego.

The winners of the 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced Friday night in San Diego.

Roaming by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki took home three awards, for best graphic album, best writer and best penciler/inker, while Daniel Warren Johnson’s work on Transformers brought him awards for best continuing series and best writer/artist. Becky Cloonan also received multiple awards, winning for best short story and for best new series, for Somna with Tula Lotay.

Other awards presented tonight included the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which went to Oliver Bly, creator of The Mushroom Knight. The Women in Comics Collective International, or WinC, received the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, while the Bill Finger Award went to Jo Duffy and Ralph Newman.

During the ceremony, the inductees into the Eisner Hall of Fame were honored. They were actually inducted earlier in the day in a separate ceremony, but this year’s class included Jill Thompson, Jim Lee, Mike Mignola and Klaus Janson, who were selected by voters. Also, 19 people were automatically inducted by the judges this year; you can find the list here.

Here’s the full list of this year’s winners:

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Quick Hits | Counting down to San Diego

Are hotels too expensive during Comic Con? (Yes!) Plus news on the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, DSTLRY goes exclusive, 23rd Street Books and more.

The 55th annual San Diego Comic Con is coming up in two weeks, so expect to see a lot of news between now and then not only on upcoming comics and the like, but also on the convention itself, pop culture trends, its impact on the economy and whatever other angle news outlets can squeeze from the event. I’m sure there are mainstream journalists chomping at the bit to do cosplay round-ups as I type this.

One question that comes up every few years related to the con is, “Will it always be in San Diego?” San Diego is an events city with a huge convention center and a welcoming downtown area, and SDCC means big business for the businesses in the area. But this article by Rob Salkowitz for Forbes notes that the Comic-Con International team is concerned about hotel price gouging in the city during the convention, as hotels are putting fewer rooms into the block offered by CCI every year because they can book them for more on the open market.

“We would never want to leave, but if push came to shove and it became untenable for us, it’s something that we would certainly have to look into,” David Glanzer, Chief Communication and Strategy Officer for Comic-Con International, told Forbes. “As event planners, we’re always contacted by different cities and it would be reckless for us to not at least acknowledge that.”

CCI has a contract with San Diego through 2025, so any changes would have to come after that.

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Jo Duffy + Ralph Newman will receive the 2024 Bill Finger Award

The awards will be presented at Comic-Con International later this month during the Eisner Award ceremony.

Comic-Con International has announced that Jo Duffy and Ralph Newman will receive the 2024 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, which recognizes comic writers who made lasting contributions to comics that went largely “unsung.” The award is named for Bill Finger, whose contributions to the creation of Batman and related characters went unsung for many decades.

The two recipients were chosen by a committee headed up by comic historian and Groo writer Mark Evanier that included editor Charles Kochman, writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw! and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

“Since 2005, we have been honoring writers whose work in the comic book industry has not, we feel, received the attention and recognition that their work deserved,” Evanier said. “This year’s posthumous recipient wrote hundreds if not thousands of comic book scripts without, as far as we can tell, ever getting his name on any of them. That’s about as unrecognized as you can be.”

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Nominees announced for the 2024 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award

The annual awards program that recognizes promising artists will be presented during the Eisner Awards in July at Comic-Con International.

Comic-Con International has announced this year’s Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award nominees. Named for the creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrator of the Tarzan and Star Wars comic strips, 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 and Luana Vecchio. Last year Zoe Thorogood won the Manning Award.

The 2024 nominees are:

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Nominees announced for the 2024 Eisner Awards

Winners will be announced at Comic-Con International in July.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. This is the 36th year for the awards, which will be given out at this year’s Comic-Con International on July 26.

In terms of publishers, Image Comics and DC received the most nominations, followed by Fantagraphics, First Second and IDW. In terms of creators, Kelly Thompson leads the pack with five nominations, while Emily Carroll, Juano Guarnido, Bill Griffith and Tom Taylor each received three nominations.

Here’s the full list of this year’s nominees:

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Nominees announced for the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame class of 2024

The final inductees will be announced during a ceremony at Comic-Con International in July.

Comic-Con International has announced  16 nominees for this year’s Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, from which voters will choose the final four inductees.

The 16 nominees are Gus Arriola, Eddie Campbell, Mike Friedrich, Don Heck, Klaus Janson, Abe Kanegson, Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, Tom Palmer, Bob Powell, Mike Royer, Ira Schnapp, Phil Seuling, Leonard Starr, Jill Thompson and Angelo Torres.

Voting will be conducted online among comic book creators, retailers and other industry personnel. You can find more details on the CCI website.

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Eisner Hall of Fame announces 19 inductees for 2024

The inductees will be honored at a ceremony at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Comic-Con International has announced 19 inductees for the Will Eisner Awards Hall of Fame this year, as chosen by their panel of judges. These 19 will automatically be inducted, while additional choices for the general vote will be announced in April.

With four more inductees typically chosen by voting professionals, that means we’re looking at a Hall of Fame class of 23 people. So it’s a good thing they have their own separate ceremony now, prior to the evening’s ceremony where the Eisner winners are announced.

Last year the Eisners announced the split in the ceremony, which was also the first year they began honoring a larger group of people. Typically the Eisner judges would pick 2-6 people to automatically induct, and then voters would choose four more. Last year that number jumped to 15 automatic inductees.

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Your 2023 Eisner Award winners

Kate Beaton, Tom King, Bruno Redondo and more were honored with awards tonight.

The winners were announced tonight in San Diego for the 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

DC was the big winner tonight, when looking across publishers, with multiple awards for the Human Target miniseries and Nightwing, among others. Kate Beaton’s Ducks, published by Drawn + Quarterly; Parker: The Martini Edition–Last Call by Darwyn Cooke and published by IDW; Ducks by Kate Beaton; and The Night Eaters by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda also brought home multiple awards. Chivalry, a short story by Neil Gaiman adapted to comics by Colleen Doran, has proven to be one of the most nominated graphic novels this awards season, and it took home an Eisner for Best Adaptation.

Other awards given out tonight included the Russ Manning Award. Although she didn’t take home an Eisner despite her multiple nominations, Zoe Thorogood brought home the trophy for the prestigious Russ Manning Award. Beth Accomando and Scott Dunbier received the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, and the Bill Finger Award went to both Sam Glanzman and Barbara Friedlander. Cape and Cowl Comics in Oakland won the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

You can check out the full list of Eisner winners after the jump.

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Nominees announced for the 2023 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award

Annual award for the ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ comic artist will be presented during the Eisner Awards in July at Comic-Con International.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for the 2023 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, named for the creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrator of the Tarzan and Star Wars comic strips.

Presented almost annually since 1982, the award recognizes an artist who, early in their career, “shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics.” The awards took a break during the pandemic, but returned last year when Luana Vecchio received the award.

Previous winners include Dave Stevens, Eleanor Davis, Jeff Smith, Marion Churchland, David Petersen, Tyler Crook, Dan Mora, Lorena Alvarez and Nate Simpson.

The nominees are:

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Barbara Friedlander, Sam Glanzman will receive the 2023 Bill Finger Award

The awards will be presented at Comic-Con International next month during the Eisner Award ceremony.

Comic-Con International has announced that Barbara Friedlander and Sam Glanzman will receive the 2023 Bill Finger Award. The award recognizes creators who made lasting contributions to comics that went largely “unsung,” as Bill Finger’s contributions to the creation of Batman and related characters went unsung for several decades.

“Once again, we’re excited to honor two folks who wrote great comic books that perhaps didn’t receive the attention and recognition that their work deserved,” said Mark Evanier, who oversees the awards program. “Readers who only know from fictional superheroes should be aware of the excellent writing that has sometimes been found in comics about real-world romance and real-world war— two areas represented well by this year’s recipients.”

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Open letter calls for more transparency from the Eisner Awards

The request comes after Thomas Woodruff’s multiple, controversial nominations.

In the wake of this year’s Eisner Award nomination controversy, a group that includes comics professionals, journalists and readers has asked for more transparency from Comic-Con International on the Eisner Award process.

Editor/journalist Jennifer de Guzman, who has worked for SLG and Image Comics in the past, and Mariah McCourt, a comics writer and former editor at Vertigo, wrote the open letter following the controversial nomination of Francis Rothbart! The Tale of a Fastidious Feral by Thomas Woodruff in several categories this year. It’s been co-signed now by more than 30 individuals.

“This troubling disparity between who is judging the work to be nominated and the makeup of the industry itself has created an environment of systemic inequality,” the letter reads “There is a distinct need for more diverse and inclusive backgrounds in the people responsible for these nominations, every year. We need the active participation of creators of color, LGBTQIA+ creators, artists, writers, letterers, colorists, cover artists, editors, and those with more direct and every day experience with the medium itself. Right now the panel appears to be made up mostly of journalists, librarians, and academics which, intentionally or not, skews the point of view of the nominations.”

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