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Via PR, the Eisners this year will have two hosts — returning in the Alec Baldwin role, we have Bill Morrison. And portraying Steve Martin will be newcomer Maurice LaMarche, a voice actor best known for playing “The Brain” in Pinky and the Brain. Our big question–will he mention “crumb-crisp coatings”?

Comic-Con International, the largest comic book convention in the Western Hemisphere, today announced its hosts for the 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Noted voice actor Maurice LaMarche will be co-hosting along with Bongo Comics creative director Bill Morrison, who has been the MC for the last few years. The 22nd annual ceremony presenting the comics industry’s “Oscars” will be held in the Indigo Room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Friday night, July 23 as part of the convention.

Maurice LaMarche is best know as the voice of “The Brain” in the animated series Pinky and the Brain and as Kif in Futurama. Other credits include roles in The Real Ghostbusters (Egon), The Tick, The Critic, Harvey Birdman, and Inspector Gadget. Bill Morrison, one of the co- founders of Bongo Comics with Matt Groening, has drawn hundreds of covers and stories for Simpsons Comics and other Bongo titles and is an art director for the Futurama animated series. The doors of the Indigo Ballroom will open for Eisner Awards VIP seating at 7:30 p.m., and general seating will open at 8:15 p.m., with the festivities starting at 8:30 p.m.. Attendees can expect to see celebrity presenters from the worlds of comic books, graphic novels, TV, and films. Awards will be given out in 29 Eisner categories. In addition, Comic-Con’s own special awards will be presented: the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, and the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

No tickets are required—attendees just need their badges to get in. All who attend the awards will receive a free Will Eisner graphic novel. Eisner, in whose name the awards are given, is considered the “father” of the graphic novel, having popularized the term with his book A Contract with God, which was published in 1978.

The Hilton San Diego Bayfront is located at 1 Park Boulevard near Harbor Drive, across the street from PETCO Park, home of the San Diego Padres. It can be reached from both Harbor Drive and the waterfront walkway along the park behind the Convention Center. The Eisners would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. Principal Sponsors for the 2010 Eisner Awards include Gentle Giant, Lebonfon Printing, and LongBox. Supporting sponsors are Alternate Reality Comics of Las Vegas, Atlantis Fantasyworld of Santa Cruz, CA, comicsunlimited.com, Diamond Comic Distributors, Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA, Isotope Comics of San Francisco, mycomicshop.com, and Mel Thompson and Associates.

The Eisner Awards are part of, and underwritten by, Comic-Con International, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture. More information about the Eisner Awards can be found here.

1 COMMENT

  1. The Brain co-hosting the EISNERS??

    Hmm. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

    (If it’s LaMarche enlivening the event with his recreation of an infamous Orson Welles commercial recording, then you are.)

  2. I think so, Brain, but how do we get the lederhosen on the mountain goat?

    If memory serves, there was an episode which parodied “All About Eve”, which flashbacked from an awards presentation…