The 2013 Eisner Award Winners - Full List and Analysis

Chris Ware (4 wins, including Best Graphic Novel and Best Writer/Artist) and Brian K. Vaughan (3 wins) are the big winners at this year's Eisner Awards. Artists David Aja, Fiona Staples and Juanjo Guarnido (2 wins each) also made their mark. On the strength of Vaughan and Staples' Saga (3 wins, including Best New Series and Best Ongoing Series) Image Comics was this year's most awarded publisher (4 winning publications plus one shared win); Pantheon (Ware's seminal Building Stories won 4 times) and Dark Horse (3 winning publications plus 1 shared) also had banner years. And also of note, there were two ties in this year's balloting, for Penciler/Inker and Reality Based Work.

The dominance of Ware for Building Stories and Vaughan & Staples for Saga is no surprise and well deserved. Ware's extraordinary graphic novel is one of the best reviewed comics of this decade, and Saga is a best-selling critical darling. (Both were on my Best of List for 2012, and on pretty much every other Best of List, too.) Even without the nominations, 2012 was the year of Saga and Building Stories; despite the crowded field of high quality nominations from the best creators in comics doing the best works of their careers, it's hard to see anyone else winning those categories. David Aja's wins for his inventive work on Hawkeye with Matt Fraction for Marvel were also well-deserved, as was Juanjo Guarnido's wins for his and Juan Díaz Canales' entertaining anthropomorphic noir Blacksad.

I was 16 for 24 in categories I voted in this year, which either says I have my finger on the pulse of what makes a damn good comic in America, or I ride the tide of critical consensus. I'd like to think the former, but Saga Saga Saga Saga Ware Ware Ware Ware Ware Hawkeye Hawkeye.

The FULL LIST of winners, with commentary, continues after the jump - For the full list of Nominees, as well as who I voted for this year, click here.



WINNERS of the 2013 The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Given Out Friday, July 20 at Comic-Con International in San Diego

Best Lettering
Chris Ware, Building Stories (Pantheon)
(Lettering is just as much an art as the art in comics itself. Some letterers are more prolific or influential, but there frankly has not been a singular lettering tour de force in the entire history of comics like what Ware achieved in his entirely hand-lettered masterpiece.)

Best Coloring
Dave Stewart, Batwoman (DC); Fatale (Image); BPRD, Conan the Barbarian, Hellboy in Hell, Lobster Johnson, The Massive (Dark Horse)

Best Digital Comic
Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
Babymouse for President, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12)
Adventure Time, by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb (kaboom!)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle, adapted by Hope Larson (FSG)
(While I voted for one of my favorite comics of 2012, Meredith Gran's wonderful Adventure Time mini Marceline and The Scream Queens here, Larson's work in adapting L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time was a pretty remarkable achievement and a well-deserved win.)

Best Penciller/Inker (TIE)
David Aja, Hawkeye (Marvel)
Chris Samnee, Daredevil (Marvel); Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom (IDW)
(Like most of the major awards this year, Penciler/Inker was a packed category filled with deserving candidates. I voted for Aja, who I'd have bet on to win, too. Samnee's win, though - whose work on Daredevil has been superb if slightly under the radar - was a genuine surprise, let alone as part of a tie.)

Best Publication Design
Building Stories, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad (Dark Horse)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
The Comics Reporter, by Tom Spurgeon
(Huge congrats to Tom Spurgeon, whose Comics Reporter is one of the few truly indispensable daily comic news reads anywhere.)

Best Comics-Related Book
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe (HarperCollins)

Best Educational/Academic Work
Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass, by Susan E. Kirtley (University Press of Mississippi)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
Pogo, vol. 2: Bona Fide Balderdash, by Walt Kelly, edited by Carolyn Kelly and Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil Born Again: Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
(Dunbier's work at IDW in the past few years - between the consistently extraordinary artist's editions, the Library of American Comics reprints, the various high quality art books, and his championing of material like Cooke's - has cemented the company as one of comics' most important publishers.)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
Blacksad: Silent Hell, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)
(I enjoyed Blacksad but voted for Jason. There's always next year.)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia
Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)
(Naoki Urasawa is one of the finest storytellers working in comics today, not just in Asia but in the world.)

Best Writer/Artist
Chris Ware, Building Stories (Pantheon)

Best Writer
Brian K. Vaughan, Saga (Image)
(And with the year that Vaughan is having this year, I think this may be the start on a long run of consecutive Eisners for the scribe.)

Best Cover Artist
David Aja, Hawkeye (Marvel)

Best Short Story
“Moon 1969: The True Story of the 1969 Moon Launch,” by Michael Kupperman, in Tales Designed to Thrizzle #8 (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
The Mire, by Becky Cloonan (self-published)
(I voted for Pope Hats #3, but I kind of wish I can go back in time and vote for Lose #4 by Michael DeForge, which I just read and is one of the best comics I've read this year. Nonetheless, Congrats to Cloonan.)

Best Anthology
Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson (Dark Horse)

Best New Series
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)

Best Continuing Series
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)
(Two jam-packed categories, and part of me is surprised that folks didn't split the vote on Saga giving it Best New Series and something else Best Continuing. But then again, I voted for it in both as did the rest of the Eisner voters for the damn good reason that it deserved both.)

Best Humor Publication
Darth Vader and Son, by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
King City, by Brandon Graham (TokyoPop/Image)

Best Reality-Based Work (TIE)
Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, by Joseph Lambert (Center for Cartoon Studies/Disney Hyperion)
The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song, by Frank M. Young and David Lasky (Abrams ComicArts)

Best Graphic Album—New
Building Stories, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
(Dominance.)

Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer Artist
Russell Roehling (Wasteland)

Bill Finger Excellence in Comic Book Writing Award
Don Rosa
Steve Gerber

Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award
Chris Sparks (Team Cul de Sac)

Will Eisner Hall of Fame Class of 2013
Mort Meskin
Spain Rodriguez
Lee Falk
Al Jaffe
Joe Sinott
Trina Robbins