The 37th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony was held Friday 25th July at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. Named for the pioneering comics creator and graphic novelist Will Eisner, the Eisner Awards, considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry, were given out in 32 categories for works published in 2024.
Topping the winners is Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (published by First Second/Macmillan), which took home the trophies for Best Graphic Album–New, Best Publication for Teens, and Best Writer for Yang.
The only other title with multiple wins was David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition (Best Archival Collection Project and Best Publication Design), published by IDW.
There was further recognition for British creator Luke Pearson, for Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain, as Best Publication for Early Readers.
Congratulations, also, to Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell et al, for their win for The One Hand, and Tula Lotay for Best Cover Artist.
No single publisher dominated this year, as awards went out to 24 different companies. With its three wins for Lunar New Year Love Story plus one for Best Publication for Kids (Vera Brosgol’s Plain Jane and the Mermaid), First Second received four awards.
Other publishers with multiple wins included DC Comics (three plus two shared), Fantagraphics (three plus one shared), IDW (three), Dark Horse (one plus two shared), DSTLRY (one plus two shared), and Image (one plus two shared).
The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, presented by Bob’s daughter Ruth, was presented to Mad Cave Studios for their L.A. Strong charity comic. The Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award went to artist Richard Blake; it was presented by past Russ Manning assistant William Stout and Jennifer Stevens Bawcum (sister of the late Dave Stevens, who was the first recipient of the Manning Award).
Comic-Con’s Humanitarian Award is presented in the name of famed animator Bob Clampett, who created the TV series Beany and Cecil, designed such popular characters as Porky Pig and Tweety Bird, and directed 84 classic Warner Bros. cartoons. Clampett was a regular guest at Comic-Con in the 1970s and early 1980s. After his death in 1984, the award was created to honour those people in comics and the popular arts who have worked to help others. The recipients are chosen by the Comic-Con committee.
The 18th annual Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing was presented by Mark Evanier to two recipients: Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer. Maggie Thompson introduced the special In Memoriam video salute to those from the Comic-Con family who died in the past year.
“As usual, the judges considered a long list of names, but these two jumped out at us,” Evanier remarked. “They’re two men who made important contributions to the comic book industry and artform and who haven’t received proper recognition and maybe not proper compensation.”
The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, given to a store that has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large, was awarded by Joe Ferrara to Akira Comics of Madrid, Spain.
Jim Thompson and Karen Green provided a recap of the Hall of Fame ceremony held earlier in the day. In addition to the 21 judges’ choices who were previously announced, this year’s voters selected Kyle Baker, Eddie Campbell, Roz Chast, Dan Clowes, Junji Ito, Todd Klein, and John Romita, Jr. for induction.
Eisner Awards Administrator Jackie Estrada opened and closed the ceremony, the event marking her retirement after over 30 years, whose contribution will be greatly missed in coming years.
2025 EISNER AWARDS
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BEST SHORT STORY
“Spaces,” by Phil Jimenez, in DC Pride 2024 #1 (DC)
This story rewinds to Jimenez’s childhood as a boy mesmerized by fantastical spaces. “Museums and theme parks, renaissance fairs and movie studios, roadside attractions and wild-animal parks, castles and mansions and aquariums…” Jimenez told The Provincetown Independent last year. “The boy in the story dreams of being adopted by a group of Amazons living on Paradise Island.
“All that mattered to me was their promise of something else, a way out.”
BEST SINGLE ISSUE/ONE-SHOT
The War on Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics)
A timely satirical broadside on Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza by the most acclaimed comics journalist working today.
Joe Sacco is well known as an unflinching chronicler of the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people (Palestine, 1993; Footnotes in Gaza, 2010). He continues this mission with War on Gaza, a series of graphic commentaries on Israel’s rampage that began more than a year ago and continues relentlessly today.
Published in installments on The Comics Journal’s website, War on Gaza is a series of comics and single-panel illustrations that lay bare the naked immorality of the “war” itself and its dire and tragic consequences. Employing his trademark combination of honesty, compassion, and dark humor, Sacco’s War on Gaza is an uncompromising critique of Israel’s genocide and the complicity of President Joe Biden and the United States.
BEST CONTINUING SERIES
Santos Sisters, by Greg & Fake, Graham Smith, Dave Landsberger, and Marc Koprinarov (Floating World)
One day while combing the beach in their hometown of Las Brisas, the Santos Sisters discover a pair of beautiful medallions. What happens next changes their lives, forever. The medallions are imbued with the powers of a goddess, “Madame Sosostris,” and can transform them at will into flying, gun-wielding, mask-wearing murder-heroes with hearts of, if not gold, then at least candy. Follow Ambar and Alana, the Santos Sisters, as they balance spicy superheroics with the drama of their everyday lives in a playful mix of Archie Comics and Love and Rockets. The Santos Sisters fight crime, date guys, and try to just deal with day-to-day life as young women in a world of deadly assassins, roided-up footballers, zombie attacks, organized crime, and more — while their creators, Greg & Fake, help restore the concept of unabashed fun in comic books with a healthy infusion of nostalgia and laughs.
BEST LIMITED SERIES
Zatanna: Bring Down the House, by Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodriguez (DC)
Zatanna’s past and present collide in a brand-new series by Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki (Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, I Am Not Starfire) and Javier Rodríguez!
After a deadly mistake left her terrified of her own abilities, Zatanna found a home for herself in Las Vegas performing a free show full of sleight-of-hand and cheap card tricks at the crappiest casino on the strip. It’s not exactly glamorous – or heroic – but it sure beats the risk of dabbling in real magic! That is, until a mysterious stranger plunges Zatanna’s world into chaos, dredging up old wounds and cracking open an inter-dimensional rift in the process!
Now, Zatanna will have to face her fears and embrace her powers whether she wants to or not! But will the magic words do the trick, or will it all collapse around her like a house of cards?
BEST NEW SERIES
Absolute Wonder Woman, by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman (DC)
Without the island paradise, without the sisterhood that shaped her, without a mission of peace… she’s still the Absolute Amazon!
Spiralling out of the catastrophic events of Absolute Power, a new side of the DC Universe is born — the Absolute Universe!
In a different, darker world, Diana of Themyscira was not raised in paradise, but instead was exiled to the underworld as a baby and raised by an enemy. Darkness and exile did not destroy her; instead, they made her all the stronger, honed into an even greater weapon by tragedy, danger, and magic. Long denied her Amazonian heritage, Diana has finally reached the time for her to rejoin the surface world. Armed with new weapons forged in Hell, and a mission that looks a bit more like justice than peace, Diana will not be stopped on her quest to save the world and discover her place in it, even if that means carving it herself!
Eisner Award-winning writer Kelly Thompson is joined by breakout superstar artist Hayden Sherman to reinvent Wonder Woman from the ground up…
BEST PUBLICATION FOR EARLY READERS
Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye)
Hilda and Twig would never let a bit of rain get in the way of an adventure, but it’s different when your forest exploration is interrupted by a BIG storm.
Sheltering in a mysterious mound in the earth, Twig quickly realises that trouble is afoot, and that his best blue-haired friend is in danger. Unfortunately, he’s never really thought of himself as the brave one, but it looks like he’s going to have to step up and save Hilda from a whole load of big, scaly trouble!
Dive into this magical comic as we follow our lovable pair on a soggy adventure.
BEST PUBLICATION FOR KIDS
Plain Jane and the Mermaid, by Vera Brosgol (First Second/Macmillan)
Jane is incredibly plain. Everyone says so: her parents, the villagers, and her horrible cousin who kicks her out of her own house. Determined to get some semblance of independence, Jane prepares to propose to the princely Peter, who might just say yes to get away from his father. It’s a good plan! Or it would’ve been, if he wasn’t kidnapped by a mermaid. With her last shot at happiness lost in the deep blue sea, Jane must venture to the world underwater to rescue her maybe-fiancé. But the depths of the ocean hold beautiful mysteries and dangerous creatures. What good can a plain Jane do?
From Anya’s Ghost and Be Prepared author Vera Brosgol comes an instant classic that flips every fairy-tale you know, and shows one girl’s crusade for the only thing that matters – her own independence.
BEST PUBLICATION FOR TEENS
Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
Lunar New Year Love Story is a heartwarming, full colour, YA graphic novel rom-com about fate, family and falling in love, from superstars Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham.
She was destined for heartbreak. Then fate handed her love.
Val is ready to give up on love. It’s led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she’s pretty sure she’s cursed ― no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love.
But then a chance encounter with a pair of cute lion dancers sparks something in Val. Is it real love? Could this be her chance to break the family curse? Or is she destined to live with a broken heart forever…?
BEST HUMOUR PUBLICATION
Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It, by Tara Booth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Riotous bodies abound in these deeply honest comics that will get you through it (or at least help). “When you order CBD gummies for your anxiety but forget to consider your eating disorder.”
Known for her buzzing colors, delightful patterns, sharp humour, and unflinching vulnerability, Tara Booth does not miss any mark in this exquisitely woven collection of pure and nasty magic. Part advice column and exhibit, exploration of psychic pollution and tranquility, Processing is quite simply intrepid: in its honesty; its unapologetic grossness; its unrivaled and frank portrayal of life with a body that bleeds.
In the grand tradition of underground women cartoonists like Julie Doucet and Eileen Kominsky-Crumb, Booth draws a horned up woman laying rose petals on the bed, to distract from the bedbugs before her hookup arrives. She bears witness to the reality of wearing a t-shirt with no bra when you stretch, your boobs, sometimes, pop right out. This is all just life but we don’t often see it on the page. Undaunted, Booth draws it.
When advice from spiritual gurus like Tara Brach and Ram Dass just aren’t cutting it, take solace in the genuine arms of Tara Booth: a fearless cartoonist who is unafraid to put her existential angst, blemishes, and stains right on the page, and who with relentless relatability makes us all feel a bit more at home in our too-human vessels. With color that vibrates and fluids that impose, Processing lays Booth bare literally and figuratively.
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary, edited by Jake Williams and others (IDW)
An anthology of new and beloved Godzilla creators telling tales that get to the heart of Godzilla’s lasting popularity!
Celebrating 70 years of Godzilla! Since 1954, Godzilla has been King of the Monsters, and what better way to celebrate than a gigantic anthology of tales that get to the heart of Godzilla’s lasting popularity? From the American Old West to modern Tokyo and beyond, this collection features stories of Godzilla fighting with its allies like Mothra against old enemies like the terrible Mechagodzilla, and reshaping the lives of all who fall in its path!
Nine titanic stories by first-time and beloved Godzilla creators like Joëlle Jones (Catwoman), Michael Conrad (Wonder Woman), Matt Frank (Godzilla: Rulers of Earth), James Stokoe (Godzilla: The Half-Century War), Adam Gorham (Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant), and many more.
This deluxe edition book also includes a reprint of the Best of Godzilla one-shot for even more Godzilla goodness.
BEST REALITY-BASED WORK
Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S., by Caitlin Cass (Fantagraphics)
“She put in her work, but there’s so much left to do.” Begun in the Antebellum era, the song of suffrage was a rallying cry across the nation that would persist over a century. Capturing the spirit of this refrain, New Yorker contributing cartoonist Caitlin Cass pens a sweeping history of women’s suffrage in the U.S. – a kaleidoscopic story akin to a triumphant and mournful protest song that spans decades and echoes into the present.
In Suffrage Song, Cass takes a critical, intersectional approach to the movement’s history – celebrating the pivotal, hard-fought battles for voting rights while also laying bare the racist compromises suffrage leaders made along the way. She explores the multigenerational arc of the movement, humanising key historical figures from the early days of the suffrage fight (Susan B. Anthony, Frances Watkins Harper), to the dawn of the “New Women” (Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell), to the Civil Rights era (Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker). Additionally, this book sheds light on less chronicled figures such as Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, whose stories reveal the complex racial dynamics that haunt this history.
BEST GRAPHIC MEMOIR
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Feeding Ghosts is “a multigenerational story packed with drama, intrigue and heartbreak . . . A triumph of comics storytelling.” (Seattle Times)
In this evocative, genre-defying graphic memoir, Tessa Hulls tells the story of three generations of women: her Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself. Sun Yi was a Shanghai journalist caught in the political crosshairs of the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong with her young daughter, Sun Yi wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival– then promptly had a breakdown that left her committed to a mental institution.
Growing up, Tessa watches her mother care for Sun Yi, both of them struggling under the weight of Sun Yi’s unexamined trauma and mental illness. Vowing to escape her mother’s smothering fear, Tessa leaves home and travels to the farthest, most remote corners of the globe. But once she turns thirty, her roaming begins to feel less like freedom and more like running away, so she returns to face the history that shaped her family.
Extensively researched and gorgeously rendered, Feeding Ghosts is Tessa Hulls’s homecoming, a vivid journey into the beating heart of one family, set against the dark backdrop of Chinese history. By turns fascinating and heartbreaking, inventive and poignant, this graphic novel exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together.
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – NEW
Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (First Second/Macmillan)
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – REPRINT
The One Hand and The Six Fingers, by Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell, and Sumit Kumar (Image)
Two of the hottest writers in comics – Ram V and Dan Watters – have teamed up with artists Laurence Campbell and Sumit Kumar to tell the most unique crime thriller, now collected in the manner it was intended to be read in – with the miniseries issues as alternating chapters!
The One Hand tells the story of Neo Novena detective, Ari Nasser, a grizzled homicide detective who’s about to retire with an enviable record, until a brutal murder occurs bearing all the hallmarks of the “One Hand Killer”… which should be impossible since Ari already put him away not once but twice in years past.
In The Six Fingers, Neo Novena archaeology student, Johannes Vale has always been so very in control of his life. But when he commits a brutal murder using the M.O. of an historic and notorious serial killer, everything begins to spiral out of control… and Johannes doesn’t remember doing it.
What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game told through two intertwined narratives. Both men will stop at nothing to unravel the secrets and ciphers of this case- but each revelation only leads further into the dark heart of this future-metropolis.
BEST ADAPTATION FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, adapted by Manu Larcenet (Abrams)
The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize–winning postapocalyptic classic, The Road, approved and authorised by McCarthy and illustrated by acclaimed comic creator Manu Larcenet.
The story of a nameless father and son trying to survive with their humanity intact in a postapocalyptic wasteland where Earth’s natural resources have been diminished, and some survivors are left to raise others for meat, The Road is one of Cormac McCarthy’s bleakest and most prescient novels.
Manu Larcenet ably transforms the world depicted by McCarthy’s spare and brutal prose into stark ink drawings that add an additional layer to this haunting tale of family love and human perseverance.
Cormac McCarthy personally approved the making of this book before his death, and the adaptation bears the approval of the McCarthy estate.
BEST U.S. EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL MATERIAL
The Jellyfish, by Boum, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher (Pow Pow Press)
Odette is a twenty-something year old with their own place, a steady job at a local bookstore, an adorable pet rabbit, and a budding crush on one of their customers. But Odette is haunted by something only they can see: a jellyfish that’s floating in their eye, blocking their vision. It’s a seemingly minor annoyance… until the jellyfish starts multiplying.
Showcasing stunning and inventive artwork by Boum (Boumeries), The Jellyfish is a tour-de-force of graphic storytelling, a powerful, occasionally terrifying story of facing the thing that we fear the most and finding a light to guide us through the darkness.
The Jellyfish has already been awarded Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize Honour Book, and was the winner of the Doug Wright Nipper Award, Graphic Medicine Award, Bédéis Causa Award, ACBD Critic’s Award, Québec Booksellers Prize, and more.
BEST U.S. EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL MATERIAL – ASIA
Tokyo These Days, vols. 1–3, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translated by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)
On his final day as an editor, Shiozawa takes a train he’s ridden hundreds of times to impart some last advice to a manga creator whose work he used to edit. Later, he is drawn to return to a bookshop at the request of a junior editor who wants his help dealing with an incorrigible manga creator who used to be edited by Shiozawa and now refuses to work with anyone else. For Shiozawa, Tokyo these days is full of memory and is cocooned in the inescapable bonds among manga creators, their editors, art, and life itself…
BEST ARCHIVAL COLLECTION/PROJECT – STRIPS
Thorn: The Complete Proto-BONE College Strips 1982–1986, and Other Early Drawings by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)
Reprinting the entire run of his earliest rendering of the world-famous BONE characters for the first time.
The comic strips reveal an early version of BONE called THORN that was written for a college audience in the 1980s. THORN appeared in the pages of The Ohio State University’s student newspaper The Lantern. A few were reprinted in a self-published 1983 book called THORN: Tales from The Lantern. Another small selection was published in 2008’s limited edition fundraiser for OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum called Before BONE. Both books are long out of print and sell at collector’s prices. There has never been an official, complete run published until now.
This beautiful edition includes plenty of bonus material such as recently discovered early drawings of the BONE characters, essays and interviews.
BEST ARCHIVAL COLLECTION/PROJECT – COMIC BOOKS
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
An Artist’s Edition featuring the groundbreaking reinterpretation of Batman’s origin by comic book titans Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. The entire groundbreaking story is included in this 14 x 21 inch collection, the same size as most of the pages were drawn.
In 1986, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli produced this groundbreaking reinterpretation of the origin of Batman: who he is and how he came to be. Sometimes careless and naive, this Dark Knight is far from the flawless vigilante he is today. In his first year on the job, Batman feels his way around a Gotham City far darker than the one he left. His solemn vow to extinguish the town’s criminal element is only half the battle. Along with Lieutenant James Gordon, the Dark Knight must also fight a police force more corrupt than the scum in the streets. Batman: Year One stands next to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns on the mantle of greatest Batman graphic novels of all time.
This edition includes the complete graphic novel and a new introduction by David Mazzucchelli. All of Mazzucchelli’s layouts are presented, giving true insight into a master storytellers process from initial spark to completed page. This is an art book featuring rare and beautiful imagery, a collection for connoisseurs of the form. Chip Kidd, the legendary designer, will be guiding the look of the project
BEST COMICS-RELATED PERIODICAL/JOURNALISM
The Beat, edited by Heidi MacDonald and others
A fully deserved win for the news site offering incisive reporting on developments, reviews, interviews and more. Congratulations to Heidi and team.
BEST COMICS-RELATED BOOK
Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, by Caitlin McGurk (Fantagraphics)
Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins doubles as an official biography and coffee table art collection honoring the life and art of pioneering cartoonist Barbara Shermund, an unheralded early master of magazine cartooning whose career spanned the heyday of American magazines from the 1920s–1960s. Her sharp wit and loose style boldly tapped the zeitgeist of first-wave feminism, with vivid characters that were alive and astute. Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage, and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so. Shermund left behind a body of work that was ahead of its time and remains insightful, witty, relevant, and contemporary.
As one of the first women cartoonists to work for The New Yorker the year of its launch in 1925, she created nine covers and more than 600 cartoons for the magazine, in addition to countless spot illustrations, giving the nascent publication its unique visual brand. Shermund later became a mainstay at Esquire; contributed to Life, Colliers, Judge, and more; had a syndicated newspaper cartoon published by King Features; and illustrated a variety of books. In 1950, Shermund was among the first three women to be accepted as a member of the male-dominated National Cartoonist Society. A compelling facet of Shermund’s work is her frequent nods to queer audiences, which appeared in her work more than that of any of her contemporary New Yorker cartoonists. There are indications in her personal files that she also may have been queer, including love letters and other personal archives.
Readers will discover Shermund’s unique and vibrant life and art and gain an understanding of how women’s place in the history of cartooning has been controlled and sublimated by greater societal and cultural allowances. Through close readings, archival research, reproductions of original art, correspondence and photographs, this volume uncovers and celebrates a trailblazing female magazine cartoonist, and rightfully places her in the canon of cartoon art history.
BEST ACADEMIC/SCHOLARLY WORK
Drawing (in) the Feminine: Bande Dessinée and Women, edited by Margaret C. Flinn (Ohio State University Press)
Drawing (in) the Feminine celebrates and examines the richness of contemporary women’s production in French and Francophone comics art and considers the history of representations made by both dominant and marginalized creators. Bridging historical and contemporary comics output, these essays illuminate the interfaces among genre, gender, and cultural history.
Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, and across a variety of methodologies and disciplinary orientations, challenge prevailing claims about the absence of women creators, characters, and readers in bande dessinée, arguing that women have always been part of its history.
While still far from achieving parity with their male counterparts, female creators are occupying an increasingly significant portion of the French-language comics publishing industry, and creators of all genders are putting forth stories that reflect on the diversity and richness of women’s and gender-nonconforming people’s experiences. In the essays collected here, contributors push back against the ways in which the marginalization of women within bande dessinée history has overshadowed their significant contributions, extending avenues for further exploring the true diversity of a flourishing contemporary production.
BEST PUBLICATION DESIGN
David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year One Artist’s Edition, designed by Chip Kidd (IDW)
BEST DIGITAL COMIC
My Journey to Her, by Yuna Hirasawa (Kodansha)
After graduating university, Yuna spent several years going through the motions and working an office job. Until one day, while in pursuit of an essential missing piece of her life, she receives a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which opens up new doors for her. As she takes on medical treatments and tries out new makeup and outfits, she sees just how lonely and difficult the process of transitioning can be. But in 2015, when Yuna travels to Thailand for her gender-affirming surgery, the support of her siblings, new strangers, and documenting her experience through manga helps her begin to heal in more ways than one. Told in an honest and, at times, humorous tone, this memoir is a blend of manga and detailed prose that does not shy away from sensitive topics, such as suicidal ideation, transphobia, and the simultaneously harrowing, yet joyous, experience of gender-affirming surgery.
BEST WEBCOMIC
Life After Life, by Joshua Barkman, (False Knees)
The adventures of a gang of chickadees in post-apocalyptic Montréal. A breathtaking quest to taste peanuts again!
BEST WRITER
Gene Luen Yang, Lunar New Year Love Story (First Second/Macmillan)
BEST WRITER/ARTIST
Charles Burns, Kommix (Fantagraphics); Final Cut (Pantheon); Unwholesome Love (co-published with Partners & Son)
BEST PENCILLER/INKER OR PENCILLER/INKER TEAM
Bilquis Evely, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse)
Following the tragic death of her late father C.K. Cole, the esteemed pulp writer and creator of the popular warrior character Othan, Helen Cole is called back to her Grandfather’s enormous and illustrious estate, Wyndhorn House. Scarred by Cole’s untimely passing and lost in a new, strange world, Helen wreaks drunken havoc upon her arrival. However, her chaotic ways begin to soften as she discovers a lifetime of secrets hiding within the myriad rooms and hallways of the expansive manor. For outside its walls, within the woods, dwell the legendary adventures that once were locked away within her father’s stories…
BEST PAINTER/MULTIMEDIA ARTIST
Eduardo Risso, The Blood Brothers Mother (DSTLRY)
In the old West, three children set off across the wild Texas frontier to rescue their mother–kidnapped by ruthless outlaws who gunned down their preacher father. Throughout their journey, they’ll face the harsh elements of an unforgiving landscape, deadly animals hungry for blood, merciless bounty hunters, and so much more… all in a relentless quest to rescue their family.
They’ll learn the terrible cost of revenge – not just in lives, but in how it stains a soul. While revenge may be satisfying in the moment, it leaves a yearning behind that lasts a lifetime. And once you taste it, nothing else is ever so sweet.
BEST COVER ARTIST
Tula Lotay, Helen of Wyndhorn #1, Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #3, Dawnrunner #1, Barnstormers TPB (Dark Horse); Somna, Groupies (DSTLRY); The Horizon Experiment (Image)
BEST COLOURING
Jordie Bellaire, Absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America, The Nice House by the Sea (DC); The City Beneath Her Feet (DSTLRY); The Exorcism at 1600 Penn (IDW); W0rldtr33 (Image); G.I. Joe, Duke (Image Skybound)
BEST LETTERING
Clayton Cowles, Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios); FML, Helen of Wyndhorn (Dark Horse); Absolute Batman, Batman, Batman & Robin: Year One, Birds of Prey, Jenny Sparks, Wonder Woman (DC); Strange Academy, Venom (Marvel)
VOTERS CHOICE HALL OF FAME
- Junji Ito
- Kyle Baker
- Eddie Campbell
- Roz Chast
- Dan Clowes
- Todd Klein
- John Romita, Jr.
They are in addition to the twenty-one picked by the judging panel shown below, which were announced in February.
WILL EISNER COMIC AWARDS HALL OF FAME FOR 2025 (Previously announced)
- Peter Arno
- Gus Arriola
- Wilhelm Busch
- Richard “Grass” Green
- Rea Irvin
- Jack Kamen
- Joe Maneely
- Shigeru Mizuki
- Bob Oksner
- Bob Powell
- Ira Schnapp
- Phil Seuling
- Steve Bissette
- Lucy Shelton Caswell
- Philippe Druillet
- Phoebe Gloeckner
- Joe Sacco
- Bill Schanes
- Steve Schanes
- Frank Stack
- Angelo Torres
2025 WILL EISNER SPIRIT OF COMICS RETAILER AWARD
Akira Comics in Madrid, Spain, owned by Jesús Marugán, Iván Marugán, Mariano Marugán, and Justina Escobar.
Hosting the Eisner Award gala evening were voice actor Phil LaMarr (Futurama, Samurai Jack, Justice League) and comics artist/writer/editor Bill Morrison (The Simpsons, Futurama). Among presenters were actor/comedian/comics writer Patton Oswalt; actress/stuntwoman Janeshia Adams-Ginyard (Black Panther, Falcon and the Winter Soldier); producer/writer Steven L. Sears (Xena: Warrior Princess, Swamp Thing, Sheena); actor/voice actor Keone Young (Deadwood, Ultraman Rising, Avatar: The Last Airbender); actress Chase Masterson (Leeta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine); actor/comics writer David Dastmalchian (Suicide Squad, Murderbot, Count Crowley); voice actors Zeno Robinson (Cyborg/Victor Stone on Young Justice, Hawks on My Hero Academia) and Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes characters); and comics creators Bob Burden (Flaming Carrot, Mystery Men), Eddie Campbell (From Hell, Bacchus), Kim-Joy (baker, graphic novel Turtle Bread), Tony Weaver Jr. (nominee, Weirdo graphic novel), Rantz Hoseley (editor-in-chief, Z2 Comics), and Greg and Karen Evans (the Luann newspaper strip).
The major sponsor of the 2025 Eisner Awards is Lunar Distribution. The principal sponsors are Comic Shop Assistant, Comixology Originals, mycomicshop.com, and Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide. Supporting sponsors are Alternate Reality Comics(Las Vegas), Atlantis Fantasyworld (Santa Cruz, CA), Cape & Cowl Comics (Oakland, CA), DSTLRY, and Midwest Tape/Hoopla Distribution. The afterparty was sponsored by HarperAlley.
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- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, International Comic News, US Comics
Nothing from Marvel, I note.
Nat,
Interesting point. Had you purchased and read many of the winners?