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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Nominees announced for the 2023 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 35th year for the awards, which will be given out at this year’s Comic-Con International on July 21.

In terms of publishers, Image Comics received the most nominations, followed by DC, Fantagraphics, Marvel and Dark Horse. Creator-wise, Zoe Thorogood led the pack with five nominations. Hall of Fame nominees and inductees were announced earlier this month.

And the nominees are …

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CCI announces 2023 Eisner Hall of Fame inductees and nominees

They also announced a programming change to when the Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized.

Comic-Con International has announced this year’s automatic inductees into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, as well as the field of nominees voters can choose from. They’ve also announced a big change to when the Hall of Fame inductees will be honored.

First off, the judges have selected 15 people who will automatically be inducted, which may be a record number — in previous years, the judges’ choices typically numbered less than six. The judges have chosen 11 deceased individuals and four living to induct.

The deceased greats are: Jerry Bails, Tony DeZuniga, Justin Green, Jay Jackson, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Win Mortimer, Diane Noomin, Gaspar Saladino, Kim Thompson and Mort Walker. The judges’ living choices are Bill Griffith, Jack Katz, Garry Trudeau and Tatjana Wood.

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Your 2022 Eisner Award winners

Barry Windsor-Smith, Phil Jimenez, James Tynion IV and more take home awards.

The winners were announced tonight in San Diego for the 2022 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. After two years of filmed ceremonies due to the COVID pandemic, the awards show returned to its traditional, multi-hour live show hosted during Comic-Con.

Barry Windsor Smith took home multiple awards for his graphic novel Monsters, including Best Lettering, Best Graphic Album – New and Best Writer/Artist, while James Tynion IV received awards for Best Continuing Series (Something is Killing the Children), Best Limited Series (The Nice House by the Lake) and for Best Writer. Other multiple award winners included Phil Jimenez and You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife.

Inductees into the Hall of Fame included six chosen by the judges: Marie Duval, Rose O’Neill, Max Gaines, Mark Gruenwald, Alex Nino and P. Craig Russell, and six chosen by voters: Howard Chaykin, Kevin Eastman, Moto Hagio, David Mazzucchelli, Grant Morrison and Larry Hama.

Several other awards were presented during the ceremony. Bob Bolling and Don Rico received the 2022 Bill Finger Award, while Annie Koyama received the 2022 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. The Spirit of Comics Retailer Award was given to Books and Pictures in Portland, Oregon. And Luana Vecchio won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award.

Check out the winners in bold below.

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Quick Hits | Hotel strike impacts Comic-Con events

Plus: Rick Veitch, Noah Van Sciver, Jeff Smith, Coagula and the infamous Hall H line!

Conventions | Both Voice of San Diego and ICv2 report on the workers’ strike at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel in San Diego, which is adjacent to the convention center where Comic-Con International is held every year and where many CCI events and panels are held. According to Voice of San Diego, workers and management have been negotiating for months, but could not come to an agreement.

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Bob Bolling, Don Rico will receive the 2022 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 Bob Bolling and Don Rico will receive the 2022 Bill Finger Award. The award recognizes creators who made lasting contributions to comics that went largely “unsung,” as Bill Finger’s contributions to Batman went unsung for several decades.

“We’re excited to be back presenting awards in our original format,” Evanier noted.  “And we couldn’t have better recipients than these two men, whose work in comics never received the recognition it deserved. Too often, they worked in utter anonymity, creating work that is fondly remembered even if those who enjoyed it were unaware of its authors’ names.”

Bolling spent the majority of his long career creating comics for Archie Comics, including stories featuring Pat the Brat, Little Archie, Life With Archie, Betty, Betty and Me, Sabrina and more. he also drew Wally the Wizard for Marvel’s Star line. Rico, meanwhile, wrote stories for Marvel/Timely back in the 1940s, working on Captain America, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and more. In the 1960s, he scripted the Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #52 that introduced Black Widow, who he co-created with Stan Lee and Don Heck.

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Annie Koyama will receive the 2022 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award

The former publisher’s grant initiative for comics creators, Koyama Provides, has given out almost $300,000 to comics creators.

Comic-Con International has announced that Annie Koyama and her Koyama Provides grant program for comics creators will receive the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award this year. According to CCI, Koyama has awarded around 90 grants to artists, with an expected $300,000 to be given out by the end of this year.

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Nominees announced for the 2022 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 34th year for the awards, which will be given out at this year’s Comic-Con International on July 22 — a return to a live awards show.

In terms of publishers, DC received the most nominations, followed by Image, Fantagraphics and IDW. Creator-wise, James Tynion IV led the pack with five nominations. Hall of fame nominees and inductees were announced earlier this month.

Check out the full list below.

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Mark Gruenwald, P. Craig Russell + four more inducted into Eisner Hall of Fame

Judges chose six individuals for automatic induction and 17 for voters to choose from.

Six individuals will automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame this summer, with four more to be chosen by voters before the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Those four will be chosen from a field of 17, which include many names that make you stop and think, “Wait, they’re not in the Hall of Fame yet?” It’s a loaded field, leading to some hard choices for voters: Howard Chaykin, Gerry Conway, Kevin Eastman, Steve Englehart, Moto Hagio, Larry Hama, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, David Mazzucchelli, Jean-Claude Mézières, Grant Morrison, Gaspar Saladino, Jim Shooter, Garry Trudeau, Ron Turner, George Tuska, Mark Waid and Cat Yronwode.

The judges chose the following six people for automatic induction into the HoF:

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Watch Wonder Woman’s induction into the Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame

Marie Javins, Becky Cloonan, Liam Sharp and many other comics creators talk about Wonder Woman’s impact on pop culture and the world.

The Comic-Con Museum today inducted Wonder Woman into their Character Hall of Fame, following in the footsteps of Batman and Pac-Man.

The occasion was marked with a video on the Comic-Con Museum’s YouTube channel that featured appearances by Marie Javins, Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott, Trina Robbins, Phil Jimenez, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Gal Gadot, Helen Mirren, Lynda Carter, Patty Jenkins, the Teen Titans and many more.

You can watch it below:

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Your 2021 Eisner Award winners

Simon Hanselmann, Gene Yang, Junji Ito and more receive awards.

The 2021 Will Eisner Awards were presented in a virtual ceremony earlier tonight on the Comic-Con@Home website. You can find the list of all nominees below, with the winners marked in BOLD.

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