Following a controversial 2023 awards program, the nominees have been announced for the 2024 Hugo Awards, which includes a “Best Graphic Story or Comic” category.
Before getting to the nominees, let’s talk about what happened last year. The selection committee for the annual awards program, which recognizes literary achievements in science fiction, excluded several authors over concerns that their work could be offensive to China, which hosted the World Science Fiction Convention where the awards are presented. A series of leaked emails showed how the judges decided not to include works that had received enough votes, including those by Paul Weimer, R.F. Kuang and Xiran Jay Zhao. While the controversy did not appear to impact the comics category, an episode of the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman was excluded from the Best Dramatic Presentation category.
This all led to several resignations and reprimands and a whole bunch of negative PR for WorldCon and the awards. So it’s no surprise that this year many people may be giving the Hugos a bit of a side-eye, and some nominees declined their nominations. It is worth noting that this year’s awards are being administered by a completely different group of people and WorldCon will take place in Scotland this August.
So, without further ado, here are this year’s nominees in the comics category:
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