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.

The 2013 Eisner Nominees, and My Picks

The 2013 Eisner Nominations are in, and it is a big year for IDW with their gorgeously designed archival material and reprints, Image with their plethora of quality new creator owned works, and Chris Ware for his masterpiece Building Stories. All of the nominees are deserved and unlike last year's debacle, there are no glaring omissions (except for maybe Fiona Staples).

Now, I'm not an Eisner voter, so I have as much say in this as a potato. Well, I just found out I can vote in the Eisners. So here is this year's list of Nominees for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards to be given out during the 2013 Comic-Con International in San Diego, as well as who I voted for in each category, in order of ascending importance (with a few I have no clue about at the bottom).

(The full list and my picks continue after the jump.)