Eisner Awards – SMASH PAGES

Quick Hits | Diamond bankruptcy: Publishers to recover consigned comics after settlement

Plus: News on Dan Boultwood, the 2026 Small Press Expo, San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum, a Marvel Compact Comics line and more.

Legal | After months of stalemate, resolution came this week in the case of Diamond’s trustee Morgan W. Fisher and a group of publishers concerning consigned goods being held by Diamond and Sparkle Pop. The settlement will allow BOOM!, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and other publishers to recover their inventory from the Sparkle Pop-controlled warehouse, in exchange for waiving roughly $600,000 in claims. It also resolves a side dispute over money Sparkle Pop collected from unauthorized inventory sales during the fight.

The legal battle followed in the wake of Universal Distribution and Ad Populum’s purchase of several Diamond assets, including the comics distribution business, after Diamond declared bankruptcy. Graphic Policy has more.

Creators | Comic creator Dan Boultwood, who worked on Chu, It Came!, Baker Street Irregulars and more, was sentenced in London after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child. Boultwood was sentenced to to three years’ imprisonment, which will be suspended for two years, as well as to rehabilitation activity, community service and sex-offender notification requirements in the United Kingdom. The offenses occurred in 2010 when Boultwood was 29 and the victim was 15; the case reached court after the victim reported it to police in 2023 and Boultwood was arrested in 2025.

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.

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.

Your 2026 Eisner Award nominees

The winners will be announced this summer at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which will be given out on July 24 in San Diego.

DC leads all publishers with 16 nominations, plus 10 shared with other publishers. Absolute Martian Manhunter has six nominations, including Best Limited Series, and Absolute Batman has 5, including Best Continuing Series, where it’s up against Absolute Wonder Woman. In addition to be a sales hit, the Absolute line, critically speaking, is working.

Fantagraphics had 14 nominations, spread across graphic memoirs, U.S. editions of international material, and archival collections.

Speaking of the Absolute line, Deniz Camp leads all creators with 5 nominations: Best Limited Series for Absolute Martian Manhunter, Best New Series for Assorted Crisis Events, two Best Single Issue nominations and Best Writer. He’s competing against himself, which is a remarkable position to be in. James Tynion IV has four nominations, while Juni Ba, Javier Rodriguez, Jesse Lonergan, Linnea Sterte, Kelly Thompson and Eric Zawadski all received three.

Comics’ biggest night will also recognize the new inductees into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, 18 of which are automatic inductees and six of which will be decided by voters.

Congrats to this year’s nominees!

16 nominees announced for the 2026 Will Eisner Hall of Fame

Four will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer in San Diego.

Following the announcement last month of the 18 judge’s picks for the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, the nomination committee has announced the 16 creators who will go on the 2026 ballot. Four of them will be chosen by voters to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The 16 nominees are Kate Carew, Colleen Doran, George Evans, Crockett Johnson, Peter Kuper, George McManus, Kevin Nowlan, Mimi Pond, Posy Simmonds, Jeff Smith, Paul Smith, Leonard Starr, Akira Toriyama, Mark Waid, Chris Ware and S. Clay Wilson.

They were chosen by a committee that includes Michael T. Gilbert, Karen Green, Alonso Nuñez, Diana Schutz, Jim Thompson and Maggie Thompson. Votes will be cast as part of the Eisner Awards by eligible voters, with the winners being announced during this summer’s Comic-Con International in San Diego.

You can find more information on each of the nominees, provided by CCI, below.

18 inductees announced for the Will Eisner Hall of Fame class of 2026

Don Heck, Denys Cowan, Carol Tyler and more will be inducted this summer.

Comic-Con International has announced 18 inductees for the Will Eisner Hall of Fame for this year.

The list ranges from legendary pros like Don Heck (who, like me, may have you wondering “Is he not already in the Hall of Fame?) to longtime pros who are still producing new work, like Denys Cowan, Carol Tyler and Rick Veitch. One that no doubt will prove controversial is Cerebus the Aardvark creator Dave Sim, a longtime lightning rod for controversy in the comics field.

Your 2025 Eisner Award winners

‘Lunar New Year Love Story’ takes home three awards, while ‘Santos Sisters’ won for Best Continuing Series.

The winners of the 2025 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced Friday night in San Diego.

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham, published by First Second, took home three awards, including Best Graphic Album – New and a Best Writer award for Yang. Santos Sisters by Greg & Fake, Graham Smith, Dave Landsberger and Marc Koprinarov, which is published by small press publisher Floating World Comics, took home Best Continuing Series, beating out several series by Marvel, DC and Image.

Other awards given out included the Bob Clampett Award, a humanitarian award that was given to Mad Cave Studios’ L.A. Strong charity anthology. Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer received the 2025 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. Richard Blake, writer and artist of Hexagon Bridge, won the Russ Manning Award. And Akira Comics in Madrid, Spain took home the Spirit of Comics Retailing Award.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, which you can see below, followed by the Hall of Fame inductees for 2025:

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.

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:

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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