The 2017 Ignatz Award nominations have just been announced, and this years honorees are a solid mix of mainstream (March Book 3), indie (My Favorite Thing is Monsters) and micro-press/self-published (Carolyn Nowak, Sabin Cauldron). I draw no wider implications from the list except that comics 2017 artistically speaking are strong. Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters – kind of the To Kill a Mockingbird of comics at this point – lead with three noms including Outstanding Artist, GN and Story.
Nominees were chosen by an elite judging panel: Neil Brideau, Glynnis Fawkes, Sara Lautman, Trungles and David Willis. Winners will be chosen by attendees at SPX – it’s the first and only comics festival prize in North America – and winners will be announced at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 16, 2017 at 9:30 P.M, a gala renowned throughout the comics world as the shortest and most fun of all comics awards ceremonies.
Well the ceremony will be a FEW minutes longer as starting this year, the Outstanding Anthology Award will be divided into two separate awards:
- Outstanding Anthology recognizes a book or other collection of selected writings by various writers usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject. e.g. a book of comics by various cartoonists selected from several books by many cartoonists.
- Outstanding Collection recognizes a book of selected writings from various sources by an author of the same theme or various themes. e.g. a book of selected short comics from various books by the same cartoonist.
This ia a very sensible decision especially with the rise of the Kickstarted anthology, several of which were nominated this year.
Outstanding Artist
- Pablo Auldadell – Paradise Lost (Pegasus Books)
- Emil Ferris – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Fantagrahpics)
- Manuele Fior – The Interview (Fantagraphics)
- Karen Katz – The Academic Hour (Secret Acres)
- Barbara Yelin – Irmina (Self Made Hero)
Outstanding Anthology
- ALPHABET: The LGBTQAIU Creators from Prism Comics – edited by Jon Macy and Tara Madison Avery (Stacked Deck Press)
- Comic Book Slumber Party’s Deep Space Canine – edited by Hanhah K. Chapman (Avery Hill)
- ELEMENTS: Fire – An Anthology by Creators of Color – edited by Taneka Stotts (Beyond Press)
- POWER & MAGIC: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology – edited by Joamette Gil (P&M Press)
- Spanish Fever: Stories by the New Spanish Cartoonists – edited by Javier Olivares & Santiago Garcia (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Collection
- Boundless – Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
- The Complete Neat Stuff – Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)
- Hip Hop Family Tree, Vol. 2 – Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)
- Johnny Wander: Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us – Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota (Oni Press)
- Time Clock – Leslie Stein (Fantagraphics)
Outstanding Graphic Novel
- Band for Life – Anya Davidson (Fantagraphics)
- Eartha – Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)
- March: Book 3 – John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin (Top Shelf)
- My Favorite Thing is Monsters – Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
- Tetris – Box Brown (First Second)
Outstanding Story
- Diana’s Electric Tongue – Carolyn Nowak (self published)
- March: Book 3 – John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin (Top Shelf)
- My Favorite Thing is Monsters – Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
- “Small Enough” from Diary Comics – Dustin Harbin (Koyama Press)
- “Too Hot to Be Cool” from Elements– Maddie Gonzales – (Beyond Press)
Promising New Talent
- Kelly Bastow – Year Long Summer (self published)
- Margot Ferrick – Yours (2D Cloud)
- Aud Koch – “Run” from the Oath Anthology (Mary’s Monster)
- Isabella Rotman – Long Black Veil (self-published)
- Bianca Xunise – Say Her Name (self-published)
Outstanding Series
- Chester 5000 – Jess Fink (self-published)
- Crickets – Sammy Harkham (self-published)
- Frontier – edited by Ryan Sands (Youth in Decline)
- Maleficium – Sabin Cauldron (self-published)
- The Old Woman – Rebecca Mock (self-published)
Outstanding Comic
- Canopy – Karine Bernadou (Retrofit/Big Planet)
- Libby’s Dad – Eleanor Davis (Retrofit/Big Planet)
- Public Relations #10 – Matthew Sturges, Dave Justus, Steve Rolston, Annie Wu (1First Comics)
- Sunburning – Keiler Roberts (Koyama Press)
- Your Black Friend – Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket)
Outstanding Minicomic
- The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs – Celine Loup
- Our Tale of Woe – Keren Katz & Geffen Refaeli
- Reverse Flaneur – M. Sabine Rear
- Same Place Same Time – Ann Xu
- Tender Hearted – Hazel Newlevant
Outstanding Online Comic
- Disability in the Age of Trump – Amanda Scurti: https://thenib.com/
disability-in-the-age-of-trump - The Meek – Der-Shing Helmer: http://www.meekcomic.
com - Normal Person/Maine Vacation – Lauren Weinstein: https://www.
villagevoice.com/2017/01/25/ cartoon-normel-person-16/ and http://muthamagazine.com/2016/ 08/lauren-weinsteins-perfect- maine-vacation-a-comic-about- what-we-remember/ - That’s Not Who We Are – Mike Dawson: https://thenib.com/
that-s-not-who-we-are - Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal: https://womanworld.
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The Ignatzes are sponsored by ComiXology, and their self-publishing portal Submit can be found at https://submit.comixology.