Tag: Comic-Con International

SDCC Slugfest | Comic-Con renews with San Diego through 2030

Plus: Anniversary specials for Archie and Captain Britain, Halloween specials for Spider-Man and Terrorbytes, and more!

With the San Diego Comic-Con kicking off tonight, we have news and announcements dropping left and right, starting with one about the convention itself.

Comic-Con International and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced earlier today that the San Diego Comic-Con will stay in the city through 2030, a year that will mark 60 years of the pop culture convention.

Gloria made the announcement before preview night kicked off alongside officials from Comic-Con, the San Diego Convention Center and the San Diego Tourism Authority.

“Comic-Con belongs in San Diego, and today’s announcement ensures this incredible tradition will continue here through 2030,” Gloria said. “This agreement is the result of years of partnership and reflects our shared commitment to the fans, creators, businesses and workers who make Comic-Con unlike anything else in the world. We’re proud to welcome everyone back to San Diego for another unforgettable year and excited about the future we’re building together.”

Rumors have circulated for years that the convention could move to another city, for reasons that include the price and availability of hotels, as well as the convention center size. As San Diego’s largest convention, it is of course a huge money maker for the city, with the 2026 event expected to attract more than 135,000 attendees and generate more than $160 million in regional economic impact and $3 million in hotel and sales tax revenue for the city.

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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:

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Anthology that included AI-generated content removed from Eisner contention

The editor of ‘Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology’ has rescinded the book from the ‘Best Anthology’ category.

A comics anthology that featured pages created with AI has been withdrawn from this year’s Eisner Awards. The book’s editor, Van Jensen, rescinded the nomination after it came back to light that a submission in the book by Michael Todasco was generated using artificial intelligence.

Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology, edited by Van Jensen and published by Blue Creek Creative, was crowdfunded through Zoop and featured a stellar line-up of talent, including Mike Allred, Francesco Francavilla, Pete Woods, Ron Marz, Zander Cannon, Cecil Castellucci, Jesse Lonergan, Jeff Parker, Tom Fowler and many more. The stories featured the legendary Fletcher Hanks’ Stardust, a public domain character from the Golden Age known for his zany adventures.

The Daily Cartoonist shared a statement from Comic-Con International that said this year’s judges did not know the anthology included an AI submission, and they “indicated that had they been aware of this information, they would not have voted for its inclusion.” It also noted that Jensen rescinded the submission, making it ineligible for an Eisner.

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Quick Hits | Rounding up the awards

See who’s up for what awards this Friday during the Eisner Awards ceremony in San Diego.

The 56th annual San Diego Comic-Con kicks off today with preview night, which means we’re only a few days away from the Will Eisner Awards ceremony and Hall of Fame inductions. Which means it’s a good time to not only review the nominees for the prestigious awards, but also take a look at some of the other awards that will be given out this week.

The 37th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony will be held Friday July 25 in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront, for those attending in person. For those not attending, you can follow along with us on BlueSky as we cover the results live like we have in years past.

In addition to the Eisner Awards and the Russ Manning Awards, the ceremony will include the presentation of the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Bill Finger Award and the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

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Nominees announced for the 2025 Russ Manning Award

The annual awards program recognizes the comic industry’s most promising newcomers and will be presented alongside the Eisner Awards in July at Comic-Con International.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for this year’s Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which will be presented 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, Luana Vecchio and Zoe Thorogood. The Mushroom Knight creator Oliver Bly won the Manning Award last year.

Here are this year’s nominees:

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Nominees announced for the 2025 Eisner Awards

Fantagraphics, DC and Tom King lead the pack this year; 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, which will be given out on July 25 in San Diego.

Fantagraphics and DC received the most nominations, followed by First Second Abrams and Pantheon. In terms of creators, Tom King leads the pack with four nominations, while Leela Corman, Bilquis Evely, Emil Ferris, LeUyen Pham, Ram V, Javier Rodriguez, Olivier Schrauwen, James Tynion IV, Gene Luen Yang and Quentin Zuttion each received three nominations.

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

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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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