CA: I rarely comment on the Eisners or other comics awards, but in reading this list a few thoughts occurred and I wanted to get ADD in on it. We both freely admit we haven’t read a lot of the nominated work here, so will not weigh in too much on who should win/what’s best/etc., but there are some books worth talking about for sure, as well as some other stuff related to the whole Eisner process. For what it’s worth, I was an Eisner judge in 2006, and while it was a pleasure and an honor to be asked, there are definitely some flaws in the system, at least when I did it. The biggest problem is judges not getting all the books well in advance of the couple of days they spend together in a hotel; essentially you pull an all-nighter trying to read or in some cases skim all the books. It’s exhausting, no doubt unfair to some books that are more subtle or lengthier, and with only five judges it’s not hard to understand why this or that book gets a lot of nominations if two or three of the judges happen to like it. So it’s a crap shoot, but largely an enjoyable one, with everyone getting to have their say, even the retailers who routinely have the worst taste. Kidding.

Best Short Story
* “Because I Love You So Much,” by Nikoline Werdelin, in From
Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the 3rd Millennium
(Fantagraphics/Aben malen)
* “Gentleman John,” by Nathan Greno, in What Is Torch Tiger? (Torch Tiger)
* “How and Why to Bale Hay,” by Nick Bertozzi, in Syncopated (Villard)
* “Hurricane,” interpreted by Gradimir Smudja, in Bob Dylan Revisited (Norton)
* “Urgent Request,” by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, in The
Eternal Smile (First Second)

CA: I’ve read none of these, like Bertozzi, think Yang and Kim are vastly overrated, and so can virtually guarantee they will win.

ADD: I’ll echo your thoughts on Yang and Kim, although I liked that one graphic novel by Kim, that one, you know the one I mean? Yang just blows right by me with his irrelevancy. I don’t know why I am so mean.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
* Brave & the Bold #28: “Blackhawk and the Flash: Firing Line,” by J.
Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz (DC)
* Captain America #601: “Red, White, and Blue-Blood,” by Ed Brubaker
and Gene Colan (Marvel)
* Ganges #3, by Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics)
* The Unwritten #5: “How the Whale Became,” by Mike Carey and Peter
Gross (Vertigo/DC)
* Usagi Yojimbo #123: “The Death of Lord Hikiji” by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)

CA: Colan’s a master, but I’m leery of sentimental or “body of work” nominations — honor him in the Eisner Hall of Fame artist list, but not
for work that’s not top tier for him or Brubaker. I’m not a JMS hater, but I can’t believe anything in his critically derided Brave & the Bold run is the best of the year. Ganges #3 was the most indulgent issue of the series, and my least favorite, but still an astonishing level of craft and exploration. Sakai and Carey are very good storytellers.

ADD: Did Jonah Hex #50 come out in 2009? Because that was one of the best single issues I’ve read in forever. As far as Straczynski’s comics writing goes, I enjoyed Babylon 5 while it was on the air.

CA: Good call — the Darwyn Cooke-drawn Hex should have been a shoo-in for this category, and I’ll give you a hint why. There is a very brief and intensive reading period for all the Eisner judges, historically, and so it should not be surprising that some of the more accessible, easier-to-read and/or flashier works register more with judges. The talents and characters above are all pretty well-known commodities (even Unwritten, while a new series, gets a little of its juice from being kind of a hipper, darker Harry Potter).

Best Continuing Series
* Fables, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew
Pepoy et al. (Vertigo/DC)
* Irredeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)
* Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)
* The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)
* The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard (Image)

CA: I dropped off Fables long ago, though not out of any real antipathy. These strike me as all some pretty high quality series, Irredeemable being for me a real blast and being some of Waid’s smartest and nastiest work, suffering some from the rather ordinary art of Krause.

ADD: I read the first few 20th Century Boys and really enjoyed them — the title would certainly get my pick of the choices in this particular category — but I seem to have trouble committing to long-term manga. I liked Oishinbo, too, but never went past the first volume, and gave up on Battle Royale before it ended. I think Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the only manga-ka whose work I adore enough to commit to buying all of it sight unseen from here to eternity.

Best Limited Series or Story Arc
* Blackest Night, by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Oclair Albert (DC)
* Incognito, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)
* Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)
* Wolverine #66-72 and Wolverine Giant-Size Special: “Old Man Logan,”
by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines (Marvel)
* The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young (Marvel)

ADD: Jesus Christ, the only award Geoff Johns will ever truly be eligible for is Best Ruining of Superhero Comics, Lifetime Achievement Award. Fuck him, fuck his lousy comic books and fuck whoever nominated him in this category.

CA: Um…well, I’ll say I did read Blackest Night, did not hate it, but felt it was a very silly mishmash of superficially explored (though admittedly very commercial) ideas and gratuitous gross-outs. Urasawa is talented but I’ve yet to read Pluto. Oz doesn’t look like my cuppa but I doubt Shanower can deliver anything but good work, and I enjoyed Incognito a lot. Coincidentally, I thought it outdid Millar’s Wanted. I’m not interested in many future/alternate timeline/The End-type of superhero books like Old Man Logan. In a way, I think Agents of Atlas and Hickman’s Fantastic Four are getting jobbed here for the audacity to do short arcs and done-in-ones.

Best New Series
* Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image)
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, art by Tony
Parker (BOOM!)
* Irredeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)
* Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)
* The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)

CA: On principle, I have a hard time endorsing an adaptation of a novel as best new series—there has to be something better that a comics writer came up with all on their own, no? I haven’t been salivating over Chew, so to speak, but will get to it soon based on word-of-mouth, although the concept doesn’t do much for me. I like Lemire but after the first couple issues Sweet Tooth wasn’t grabbing me.

Best Publication for Kids
* Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, by Jarrett J. Krosoczeka (Knopf)
* The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis
(Bloomsbury)
* Tiny Tyrant Volume One: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and
Fabrice Parme (First Second)
* The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art
Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)
* The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and
Skottie Young (Marvel)

ADD: I’ve only read the TOON Treasury, which seemed unfortunately staid and twee and (just to rhyme, here) not for me.

CA: I read the first volume of Tiny Tyrant and it is pretty low-yield Trondheim, unfortunately. Based on the high concepts and lilt of the first two titles here, those sound like something kids might like. As a parent, I will tell you my kids couldn’t give less of a shit about Sugar ‘N Spike and the other antiques in here, and that newsprint look is a MAJOR barrier because there’s no nostalgia element for them of reading comics on the worst medium and with the worst printing possible. I would think black-and-white John Stanley work would work a little better for kids. Also, even without the nostalgia factor, Roger Langridge’s Muppet Show comics are kid-appropriate and attractive.

Best Publication for Teens
* Angora Napkin, by Troy Little (IDW)
* Beasts of Burden, by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
* A Family Secret, by Eric Heuvel (Farrar Straus Giroux/Anne Frank House)
* Far Arden, by Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf)
* I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura (Image)

ADD: I am not a teen, so I don’t really feel bad about not having read any of these.

CA: This is a YA-bomination. Do the judges think teens want to read humorous/non-scary zombie comics (Angora Napkin), a 400 pg pirate comic (Far Arden), mournful animal comics (Beasts of Burden), or, for fuck’s sake, an Anne Frank House-approved dose of graphic medicine (A Family Secret)? At least I Kill Giants is about a teen girl outcast who fantasizes about killing her tormentors (I think). That’s at least relatable. Too-late hint to judges: teens like what you like, only angstier, and any fantasy should have some sexual element.

Best Humor Publication
* Drinky Crow’s Maakies Treasury, by Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics)
* Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me, And Other Astute Observations, by
Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)
* Little Lulu Vols. 19-21, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp (Dark Horse Books)
* The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet the Muppets, by Roger Langridge (BOOM Kids!)
* Scott Pilgrim Volume Five: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, by Brian
Lee O’Malley (Oni)

ADD: Finally, a category with an actual competition — I won’t even try to estimate which is better, but The Muppet Show and Scott Pilgrim are two of the best comics of the past twenty years, and one of them should goddamn well win in this category.

CA: Right on. I’d be fine with any of these winning besides Little Lulu, just because I favor the living.

Best Anthology
* Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics)
* Bob Dylan Revisited, edited by Bob Weill (Norton)
* Flight 6, edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Villard)
* Popgun Vol. 3, edited by Mark Andrew Smith, D. J. Kirkbride, and Joe
Keatinge (Image)
* Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, edited by
Brendan Burford (Villard)
* What Is Torch Tiger? edited by Paul Briggs (Torch Tiger)

ADD: Syncopated bored me, sorry to say — Abstract Comics has some beautiful work in it, and I would certainly give it the nod over yet another unwelcome (at my house, anyway) volume of the apparently popular but quite trite and uninspiring Flight series.

CA: Syncopated lost me right with the subtitle (picto-essays), kind of like no matter how good the books may be, “Sequart” sounds bad on the tongue. I’m curious about Torch Tiger but apparently not enough to do much more than write that. Abstract is good, Popgun middling, Dylan a nice idea that doesn’t pan out, and Flight, well, let’s say my editorial sensibilities do not line up with Kibuishi’s. I would rather have emphasis on the story than pretty pictures.

ADD: I’m sorry, did you say someone sequarted on your tongue?

Best Digital Comic
* Abominable Charles Christopher, Karl Kerschl
* Bayou, Jeremy Love
* The Guns of Shadow Valley, David Wachter and James Andrew Clark
* Power Out, Nathan Schreiber
* Sin Titulo, Cameron Stewart

ADD: Haven’t read any of these, because longform online comics really don’t do it for me, but I would definitely read a collected Sin Titulo and love Cameron Stewart’s work pretty unreservedly.

CA: Agreed. And I wouldn’t hesitate much to say that almost without question, “pretty unreservedly” is the nigh-pinnacle—the Alpha and Gamma, if you will—of your praise.

Best Reality-Based Work
* A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan/Holt)
* The Imposter’s Daughter, by Laurie Sandell (Little, Brown)
* Monsters, by Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
* The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre, and
Frederic Lemerier (First Second)
* Stitches, by David Small (Norton)

ADD: I’d give the prize to Tatsumi, but Sacco and Guibert are equally deserving. I gave Stitches a positive review when it came out, but as time goes on I feel less and less positive about it and its weird vibe.

CA: Stitches gave me a weird vibe right away. That guy is really fucked up, and not as knowingly as Dahl is in Monsters. Credit to both for dealing with personal matters — this category is kind of like documentaries are to the Oscars, where Holocaust and war stuff are shoo-ins for at least nominations. However, I lean heavily to Tatsumi (and lie down on tatami) as I can connect emotionally to it, which I can’t to Sacco despite his obvious gifts. As far as The Imposter’s Daughter, hopefully if Sandell doesn’t win here she can dig up some dirty laundry about another relative for her next book. Jesus.

Best Adaptation from Another Work
* The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)
* Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation,
adapted by Michael Keller and Nicolle Rager Fuller (Rodale)
* Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, adapted by Tim Hamilton (Hill & Wang)
* Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
* West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques
Tardi (Fantagraphics)

ADD: I keep picking up Crumb’s Genesis book and flipping through it in Borders and will probably get it one of these times when they send me a 40 percent off coupon; Parker: The Hunter was a really entertaining adaptation, though not the best one of this particular story (that’d be the movie Point Blank); I need to see a few more Parker volumes before I really know what to think about the series, although I like it better than Cooke’s Spirit efforts.

CA: A tricky category; it’s a sure bet no one gave much thought to what constituted “best adaptation” aside from whether the result was good. You’ve got to be kidding me with the Darwin—there’s just no intelligent design behind that choice. I liked Parker just fine, keep ‘em coming, though it’s not revelatory work. West Coast Blues was revelatory, for me, because it was my first exposure to Tardi and I thought it was terrific. Instant fan. Wonder if the Do Androids Dream…adaptation was considered for this category as well — seems more appropriate here if they liked it so much. I’m hestitating on the Crumb as well — sort of tests the adage that an artist is so good he could draw the phone book. I wouldn’t really be reading this for the story, you know? More for the craft and beards.

Best Graphic Album — New
* Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
* A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)
* My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and
Amile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier LefAvre, and Frederic
Lemerier (First Second)
* Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

ADD: I wish I liked Asterios Polyp. I really wanted to. But it wasn’t a patch on Mazzucchelli’s best comics story, Discovering America.

CA: It is a patch? I’d go with Asterios or Distant Neighborhood, as I do likes Taniguchi. Photographer leaves me cold, as does My Mommy (take that however you’d like). Seriously, My Mommy seems like a neither fish nor fowl effort, not quite comics, looks like a children’s book but with a heavy theme.

Best Graphic Album — Reprint
* Absolute Justice, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithewaite (DC)
* A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)
* Alec: The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf)
* Essex County Collected, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
* Map of My Heart: The Best of King-Cat Comics & Stories, 1996-2002,
by John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly)

ADD: Yeah, Absolute Justice. Good one. You know, April Fool’s Day is over, right? You gotta be fucking kidding me. Alec, King-Cat and Essex County are equally deserving, although my heart says Essex County is the best single work of the bunch that reads best as just that.

CA: You make a good point about Essex, as Alec, gorgeous as it is in this omnibus, is just too much to digest that way (note the paucity of reviews). I like Neufeld a lot but he’s outdistanced here. I did find, though, that Map of My Heart works very well in the collected format because of the dramatic ups and downs of Porcellino’s life during this time. Life-affirming, though harrowing at times, the latter of which isn’t something I ever felt about his work before. I’m not even a Ross hater, but this glossy turd has no business being here. There is always a hardheaded superhero freak Eisner judge or two, and this nom feels like someone didn’t feel like fighting him, or one of the other nominations was their personal victory.

Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips
* Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 1, by Berkeley Breathed,
edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
* Bringing Up Father, Vol. 1: From Sea to Shining Sea, by George
McManus and Zeke Zekley, edited by Dean Mullaney (IDW)
* The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons 1913-1940,
edited by Trina Robbins (Fantagraphics)
* Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, by Gahan Wilson, edited
by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
* Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938, by Hal Foster, edited by Kim
Thompson (Fantagraphics)
* Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, Walt
McDougall, and W. W. Denslow (Sunday Press)

ADD: If I live long enough, someday I hope to read the Gahan Wilson book.

CA: I’m pulling for you, pal. You know, when I was a pre-teen and somehow getting a hold of National Lampoon and Playboy, I rarely understood Gahan’s work, though I always liked looking at it and somehow always felt favorably towards him. I’m not a big Oz fan, but if Sunday Press published it, it’s got to be beautiful stuff. I read Bloom County and felt Breathed’s work here isn’t quite “ready” yet — maybe the next volume is where the strip finds its groove. I really loved the Prince Valiant volume — beautiful and really quite entertaining.

Best Archival Collection/Project — Comic Books
* The Best of Simon & Kirby, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, edited by
Steve Saffel (Titan Books)
* Blazing Combat, by Archie Goodwin et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
* Humbug, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)
* The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures deluxe edition, by Dave
Stevens, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
* The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art
Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)

ADD: Blazing Combat was a landmark collection, truly, and should be on the bookshelf of anyone that appreciates Kurtzman’s EC war books or
Joe Sacco’s reportage. I would love to see the Rocketeer book, having been a huge fan of the original ’80s issues, but I have not seen it
anywhere in my travels.

CA: Those are my two faves here as well, and I can tell you Rocketeer is gorgeously presented (see below, as I note the coloring is being nominated for it). I’m happy to have any more hardcover Kirby reprints, especially on what has to be better paper than the newsprint DC uses. TOON is fine as long as we’re all agreed it’s for old farts. Humbug made me sad how unfunny and dated it was. I mean, Kurtzman! Elder! Jaffee! Davis! Heartbreaking.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
* My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and
Amile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefavre, and
Frederic Lemerier (First Second)
* Tiny Tyrant Vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and
Fabrice Parme (First Second)
* West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques
Tardi (Fantagraphics)
* Years of the Elephant, by Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

CA: What I’m seeing here is that Fanfare/Ponent Mon and First Second are aggressively pursuing an Eisner Award. Also, that’s too many French people! I still like West Coast Blues and anything engaging Kim Thompson is all right with me.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material — Asia
* The Color Trilogy, by Kim Dong Haw (First Second)
* A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Oishinbo a la Carte, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by
Akira Hanasaki (VIZ Media)
* Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)
* Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)

ADD: I’d give it to Tatsumi (hell, I’d give him my kids, if he asked!), but I bet the Taniguchi stuff is top-shelf too.

CA: So I guess the previous category is really Best U.S. Edition of International Material (no Asians allowed). I’m also fine with Tatsumi but instead of splitting the Urasawa vote, why not give one of the slots to Inoue’s What a Wonderful World? I liked both volumes of that a lot.

Best Writer
* Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil, Marvels Project (Marvel)
Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon)
* Geoff Johns, Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, The Flash: Rebirth,
Superman: Secret Origin (DC)
* James Robinson, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)
* Mark Waid, Irredeemable, The Incredibles (BOOM!)
* Bill Willingham, Fables (Vertigo/DC)

ADD: Johns again? Fuck off. Brubaker’s superhero work mostly leaves me cold, but he makes up for it with Criminal and definitely is the best
writer in this category anyway, although considering Johns isn’t really even a writer (more of an action figure scenarist, if we are to be honest), that’s sort of damning with faint praise.

CA: Don’t listen to him, Geoff — the I.R.S. will not accept “action figure scenarist” as an occupation on your tax form. This is a really wrongheaded group. Cry for Justice? When multiple people are doing fumetti parodies of it, just maybe it’s not award-worthy work. And that’s a shame because I still like Robinson’s Starman just fine, but that was a long time ago. I have no problem with Brubaker’s Cap or DD, though I do take issue with throwing in almost everything he wrote last year for consideration. Marvels Project is one of his least successful efforts. Aside from Blackest Night, I can’t say much about the rest of Johns’ work except that I think he left Adventure abruptly and without really finishing what he started, and the Flash and Superman projects seem creatively unnecessary (moreso than most). Waid’s Irredeemable, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Incorruptible, are quite good superhero comics. You can at least say that he and Brubaker are doing some different things with the genre.

Best Writer/Artist
* Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
* R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated (Norton)
* David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
* Terry Moore, Echo (Abstract Books)
* Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, Pluto: Urasawa X
Tezuka (VIZ Media)

ADD: Funny that the first two guys on this list didn’t even write the books they’re nominated for. 20th Century Boys has to be the best written original work on the list.

CA: Less for the writing than the artistic experimentation, I’ll go with Mazzucchelli here.

Best Writer/Artist-Nonfiction
* Reinhard Kleist, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (Abrams ComicArts)
* Willy Linthout, Years of the Elephant (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan/Holt)
* David Small, Stitches (Norton)
* Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

ADD: Sacco and Tyler both created transcendant works of real-life storytelling, and are equally deserving of the win.

CA: Despite decent reviews and my being a big fan of Johnny Cash, I just don’t have any interest in Kleist’s book. Could be because I read Cash’s autobio already, so drawing selected bits of it is kind of redundant for me. As a father of a son myself, I’m not sure I can take it (once I had kids I stopped watching things like ER that often depicted children dying or in danger), but I think I need to read Years of the Elephant, dealing with the suicide of Linthout’s son (jumping off the roof, Christ!). I can’t count that book out, though the cartoony cover is off-putting given the subject matter. And yes, I am drawing a line between Linthout working through grief via a graphic memoir vs. Sandell (see above) exploiting her resentment over her father’s lies and credit card fraud.

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
* Michael Kaluta, Madame Xanadu #11-15: “Exodus Noir” (Vertigo/DC)
* Steve McNiven/Dexter Vines, Wolverine: Old Man Logan (Marvel)
* Fiona Staples, North 40 (WildStorm)
* J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)
* Danijel Zezelj, Luna Park (Vertigo/DC)

ADD: Jesus Christ, Steve McNiven wouldn’t be the best penciler on the list if all the other nominees were blind and limbless. Who the hell
is nominating all this SHIT this year?

CA: I thought you’d mellowed? Caucasian, please — Williams all the way. I am curious, since it seems that Criminal and Incognito were submitted, why Sean Phillips didn’t make it. And really, which judge has the North 40 boner? I’m always curious when titles with little buzz make it on the list.

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
* Emile Bravo, My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill
(Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* Mauro Cascioli, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)
* Nicolle Rager Fuller, Charles Darwin on the Origin of Species: A
Graphic Adaptation (Rodale Books)
* Jill Thompson, Beasts of Burden (Dark Horse); Magic Trixie and the
Dragon (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
* Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

ADD: Tyler, Tyler, Tyler. End of message.

CA: There’s a disturbing influx of untalented Italians in comics these days. I’m just sayin’.

Best Cover Artist
* John Cassaday, Irredeemable (BOOM!); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)
* Salvador Larocca, Invincible Iron Man (Marvel)
* Sean Phillips, Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon); 28 Days Later (BOOM!)
* Alex Ross, Astro City: The Dark Age (WildStorm/DC); Project
Superpowers (Dynamite)
* J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)

ADD: I love Sean Phillips and his covers, I truly do, but Williams blows away everyone else in the category. It’s shame he and Rucka will apparently never finish what they started with Batwoman.

CA: Agreed, though I will give some love to those very forward-thinking Iron Man covers by Larocca. Cassaday is great but I honestly don’t think most of his Irredeemable or Lone Ranger covers are his best work, though still well above average.

Best Coloring
* Steve Hamaker, Bone: Crown of Thorns (Scholastic); Little Mouse Gets
Ready (Toon)
* Laura Martin, The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (IDW); Thor,
The Stand: American Nightmares (Marvel)
* David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
* Alex Sinclair, Blackest Night, Batman and Robin (DC)
* Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane,
Umbrella Academy, Zero Killer (Dark Horse); Detective Comics (DC);
Northlanders, Luna Park (Vertigo)

ADD: Damn, a genius in every slot here. Seriously. Five-way tie.

CA: I thought Martin did a great job recoloring The Rocketeer, though she wasn’t exactly starting from scratch. But yes, all are good. Sinclair’s work on Blackest Night easily lifted it up an extra star for me (to two).

Best Lettering
* Brian Fies, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts)
* David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
* Tom Orzechowski, Savage Dragon (Image); X-Men Forever (Marvel)
* Richard Sala, Cat Burglar Black (First Second); Delphine (Fantagraphics)
* Adrian Tomine, A Drifting Life (Drawn & Quarterly)

ADD: I love Sala’s weird, wonky lettering. And his weird, wonky comics, for that matter.

CA: Me, too. Tomine’s a fine letterer, though nothing about his work on A Drifting Life jumped out at me (not that that was the intent, anyway).

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
* Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows)
* ComicsAlliance, www.comicsalliance.com
* Comics Comics, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel
(www.comicscomicsmag.com) (PictureBox)
* The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy
Valenti (Fantagraphics)
* The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon (www.comicsreporter.com)

ADD: I can unreservedly say Spurge gets the win on this one. The Comics Journal has been troubled for quite some time, and it remains to be seen if the new print edition will get past the editiorial wobbliness that has plagued it online and in print for the past few years.

CA: I’m fine with that, though it’s a tough category in that there are some pretty different aims here. The last print TCJ aside, agree with the wobbles when considering the online version. Alter Ego I can’t completely dismiss due to the occasionally interesting interview, And ComicsAlliance has its moments (the recent Rucka WonderCon transcript), but pound for pound have to go with CR for the wealth of links and news and reviews and analysis every bit as good as the excellent, but much sparer, ComicsComics.

Best Comics-Related Book
* Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel, by Annalisa
Di Liddo (University Press of Mississippi)
* The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, by Denis
Kitchen and Paul Buhle (Abrams ComicArts)
* The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, by Helen McCarthy (Abrams ComicArts)
* Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater, by Eric P. Nash
(Abrams ComicArts)
* Will Eisner and PS Magazine, by Paul E. Fitzgerald (Fitzworld.US)

ADD: The Tezuka book was gorgeous, but the content of the Kurtzman book has me rooting for it.

CA: Fine with either, and I’m assuming the Best American Comics publisher didn’t submit it??

Best Publication Design
* Absolute Justice, designed by Curtis King and Josh Beatman (DC)
* The Brinkley Girls, designed by Adam Grano (Fantagraphics)
* Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, designed by Jacob Covey
(Fantagraphics)
* Life and Times of Martha Washington, designed by David Nestelle
(Dark Horse Books)
* Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, designed by Philippe
Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
* Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? designed by Neil Egan
and Brian Fies (Abrams ComicArts)

ADD: Gotta go with Covey on here, it’s long past time his incredible work was recognized. Assuming it hasn’t been yet, I mean.

CA: Covey’s terrific. The Martha Washington slipcase was very nice as well, and am sure the Oz book looks great. I also like Grano, and this is not at all his fault, but I was “flipping” through The Brinkley Girls on Amazon and saw among the pages reprinting various Brinkley artifacts a sheet music cover for something called “The Brinkley Coon,” which, “despite a title that seems racist by today’s standards” has lyrics that “are not insulting.” Seems racist? Can’t we just say it is racist, and by the standards of not today but 40 years ago? Coon? Are you kidding me?

ADD: The thought I’m left with in considering this year’s nominations is that the Eisners get so much right — there’s a lot of truly great work recognized — but so much more far wrong. If these awards are to honour great achievments in comic art — and I assume they’re called “The Eisners” for that reason — then disposable, barely-competent work like the kind Geoff Johns trades in should never, ever make the cut. There is just too much good work being done, arriving in stores every week, really, for an award based on artistic merit to give the nod to an energetic amateur like Johns, whose only real achievement is in selling comic books. As Chris noted, they can be entertaining (though I don’t see it), but in no way, shape, manner or form is anything Johns has ever turned out even one-one-hundredth as artistically rewarding as the worst thing Eisner ever churned out. I realize that I’m still bitching about Johns after all these years, but when crap of the sort he creates is deemed worthy of being nominated for an award named after one of the biggest proponents of the “art” in the artform of comics, well, there’s still plenty of reason to complain. For nominating bad Geoff Johns comic books, for nominating tripe like Old Man Logan and Absolute Justice, it’s obvious that these awards are far more flawed than should be acceptable by anyone who actually care more about comics for the art they can aspire to than the sales some publishers desperately claw after.