Eisner Award winners

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, August 2021; written by Kelly Johnson.

For those of you unfamiliar with the world of graphic novels you may not be aware that there is a very special set of awards for them. Though more akin to the Oscars than the Booker Prize or the Caldecott, the Eisner awards are the top American prize when it comes to graphic novels. Though, as with most things the last two years, they are currently handled online, previously the awards were the main focus of the San Diego’s Comic-Con’s big Friday night event. Originally the Jack Kirby Awards, created by Fantagraphics in 1984 and administrated by Dave Olbrich, the first awards were given out at the 1985 Comic-Con and Jack Kirby himself handed out the awards. In 1987 two new award programs replaced the Kirby’s: Fantagraphic’s Harvey Awards (for Harvey Kirtzman, a cartoonist and editor) and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards which were set up as a non-profit organization by Olbrich. The Eisner Awards continued to be part of the Comic-Con, with Will Eisner now distributing the awards. In 1991 Comic-Con took over the responsibilities of the Eisner Awards with Jacki Estrada administrating and has continued ever since. By the way, Will Eisner was a very well respected comic book artist who pioneered many techniques and popularized the term “sequential art”.

In 2020’s online event the top winners Eisner winners were Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell for “Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me”, a YA book following the ups, but mostly downs of Frederica Riley’s relationship with Laura Dean. It is a sweet story of a young person trying to figure out what they really want – and need – in a relationship. Another big winner that night was the comic book series “Invisible Kingdom” by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward, a science fiction epic that tells the story of two very different women who uncover a conspiracy and their efforts to share their truth.

This year’s top winner was Gene Luen Yang who won three awards, two for his “Superman Smashes the Klan” which the library does not currently have on the shelves and “Dragon Hoops”, an autobiographical novel focusing on the basketball team at the high school where he teaches. Though he himself was never great at sports he finds the stories of the team, and its members pull him into the game. Another YA winner was “Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio” by Derf Backderf. This work focuses on the four days in May and the four lives that were lost during this Vietnam War protest.

Many 2021 Eisner winners can also be found in the adult collection including “Menopause: A Comic Treatment” which won for best anthology and within it is “When the Menopausal Carnival Comes to Town” by Mimi Pond winner of the best short story. Actually all of the short stories in the collection are pretty wonderful, especially considering the somewhat difficult topic.

“Sports Is Hell” by Ben Passmore won the best single issue award with its satirical look at football, politics and racial issues. “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen” by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber won both for best limited series and best humor publication, it is described as “an irreverent, hijinks-filled journey across the weirdest and wildest corners of the DCU.” “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist” by Adrian Tomine which won for best graphic memoir and best publication design is his look back over his life and his work. And finally the best U.S. edition of international material (Asia) and best writer/artist award went to Junji Ito and his work “Remina” a surrealistic science fiction story about a new celestial body that suddenly appears in our universe via a wormhole and its odd relationship to the girl it gets named after.

All of these are, of course, excellent works and you will find many, many more wonderful graphic novels in the library’s three collections. I will say I have enjoyed most of these titles and am looking forward to exploring more, however I will also say that I have read at least a dozen others that have come out this year and enjoyed them as well. I hope you will come and explore these collections and perhaps even create your own list of award winners. Good Reading!