Worldcon, the World Science Fiction convention, held its 77th meeting in Dublin, Ireland, this weekend. The highlight of each convention is the presentation of the Hugo Awards, awarded (almost) every year since 1953. Anyone who purchases an Attending or Supporting membership is allowed to nominate and vote!
Since sci-fi geeks enjoy a variety of formats, there are awards for comics, zines, TV series and movies, and even podcasts! This year, 3,097 ballots were cast, 1,491 of which voted in the Best Graphic Story category which covers “[a] science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form, such as a comic book, graphic novel, or webcomic.” Comics also scored in other categories, so read on!
This year, Monstress, Volume 3: Haven won, making a three-peat for the series which also won in 2017 and 2018. This year, however, it barely won, as Black Panther: Long Live the King was the front-runner through the first four passes of tabulation. (The Hugo Awards use instant runoff voting, where voters rank the nominees by preference.)
Monstress gained the lead on the fifth pass, and won by eight votes on the sixth, 612-604!
The final order of nominees is:
1. Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
2. Black Panther: Long Live the King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford (Marvel)
3. Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä, colours by Jason Wordie, letters by Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)
4. Saga, Volume 9, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
5. Paper Girls, Volume 4, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image Comics)
6. On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
[For a summary of voting, as well as a look at the top 16 titles nominated, scroll to the bottom of this post!]
But wait! Monstress wasn’t the only comic to win a Hugo! Wonder Woman was also honored, with a Retro Hugo Award! (Worldcons can award retro Hugos for years which did not originally have a Hugo Award ceremony, at 50-, 75- and 100-year intervals.) This year, Hugo Awards were presented for works that would have been eligible in 1944, for categories active in 2019 if there were enough votes cast for nominees. That means there was a retro Hugo Award for comics! Who won?
Wonder Woman #5: Battle for Womanhood, written by William Moulton Marsden, art by Harry G. Peter (DC Comics)!
The (unofficial) final tally:
- Wonder Woman #5: “Battle for Womanhood”, Marsden and Peter (DC Comics)
- Plastic Man #1: “The Game of Death”, Jack Cole (Vital Publications)
- Garth, Steve Dowling (Daily Mirror)
- Le Secret de la Licorne [The Secret of the Unicorn], Hergé (Le Soir)
- Buck Rogers: “Martians Invade Jupiter”, Philip Nowlan & Dick Calkins (National Newspaper Service)
- Flash Gordon: “Fiery Desert of Mongo”, Alex Raymond (King Features Syndicate)
I teased that there were other comics winners this year, and here they are!
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony)
2. Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, directed by Ryan Coogler (Marvel Studios)
3. Avengers: Infinity War, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)
4. Annihilation, directed and written for the screen by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (Paramount Pictures/Skydance)
5. A Quiet Place, screenplay by Scott Beck, John Krasinski and Bryan Woods, directed by John Krasinski (Platinum Dunes/Sunday Night)
6. Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley (Annapurna Pictures)
Not a surprise, as Spider-Verse has won numerous awards this past year, including the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. While it is not surprising that the top three films featured superheroes, it should be noted that the top two prominently featured characters of color.
Back in 1944, Heaven Can Wait beat out Batman for the Long Form award, while Bugs Bunny’s Super Rabbit was not strong enough, coming in sixth, losing to Universal’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. (Yes, 74 minutes is considered “short”.)
Charles Vess was the big winner this year, winning Best Professional Artist as well as Best Art Book, a new category added by the Dublin committee. Since these books also appeal visually to comics fans, here’s the final tally:
1. The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press/Gollancz)
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie, by Ramin Zahed (Titan Books)
3. Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History, by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer (Ten Speed Press)
4. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine (Bodleian Library)
5. Daydreamer’s Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon, by Julie Dillon (self-published)
6. Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, ed. John Fleskes (Flesk Publications)
As promised, here is the breakdown for voting for Best Graphic Story:
If you want to delve deeper into the statistics, the PDF is available.
Best Graphic Story
1,491 ballots total; 1,442 not including No Award; 1,442 > 25% of 3,097.
1. Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
2. Black Panther: Long Live the King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino
and Tana Ford (Marvel)
3. Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä, colours by Jason Wordie, letters by Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)
4. Saga, Volume 9, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
5. Paper Girls, Volume 4, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image
Comics)
6. On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
| Winner | |||||||
| Finalist | Pass 1 | Pass 2 | Pass 3 | Pass 4 | Pass 5 | Pass 6 | Runoff |
| Monstress, Volume 3: Haven | 298 | 298 | 324 | 358 | 447 | 612 | 939 |
| Black Panther: Long Live the King | 338 | 338 | 355 | 369 | 435 | 604 | |
| Abbott | 288 | 288 | 298 | 353 | 414 | ||
| Saga, Volume 9 | 242 | 242 | 283 | 317 | |||
| On a Sunbeam | 159 | 159 | 165 | ||||
| Paper Girls, Volume 4 | 117 | 121 | |||||
| No Award | 49 | 90 |
| Second Place | |||||
| Finalist | Pass 1 | Pass 2 | Pass 3 | Pass 4 | Pass 5 |
| Long Live the King | 398 | 398 | 428 | 451 | 654 |
| Saga, Volume 9 | 317 | 317 | 386 | 444 | 589 |
| Abbott | 335 | 335 | 357 | 434 | |
| On a Sunbeam | 178 | 178 | 192 | ||
| Paper Girls, Volume 4 | 165 | 169 | |||
| No Award | 51 |
| Third Place | ||||
| Finalist | Pass 1 | Pass 2 | Pass 3 | Pass 4 |
| Abbott | 456 | 460 | 548 | 612 |
| Saga, Volume 9 | 371 | 372 | 412 | 548 |
| Paper Girls, Volume 4 | 212 | 216 | 260 | |
| On a Sunbeam | 212 | 212 | ||
| No Award | 60 |
| Fourth Place | |||
| Finalist | Pass 1 | Pass 2 | Pass 3 |
| Saga, Volume 9 | 462 | 463 | 627 |
| On a Sunbeam | 333 | 333 | 419 |
| Paper Girls, Volume 4 | 310 | 318 | |
| No Award | 68 |
| Fifth Place | |
| Finalist | |
| Paper Girls, Volume 4 | 506 |
| On a Sunbeam | 417 |
| No Award | 77 |
| Sixth Place | |
| Finalist | |
| On a Sunbeam | 692 |
| No Award | 97 |
531 voters submitted 333 nominees for Best Graphic Story. It took 95 rounds to determine the final 16 titles, of which the top six were listed as finalists.
Here’s that list:
- Monstress, Vol. 3: Haven
- Saga, Vol. 9
- Abbott
- Black Panther: Long Live the King
- On a Sunbeam
- Paper Girls, Vol. 4
- The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention
- The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins
- Ms. Marvel Vol. 9: Teenage Wasteland
- The Electric State
- Shuri: The Search for Black Panther
- X-Men Gold Annual #2
- Spider-Gwen
- Mister Miracle
- Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home
- The Forever War: Forever Free
We’ll update this post when the statistical data for the 1944 retro Hugos are posted.
Meanwhile, here’s the PR listing all the winners!
Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, the 77th World Science Fiction Convention, announced the winners of the 2019 Hugo Awards at a ceremony on the evening of Sunday, August 18, 2019.
BEST NOVEL
The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
BEST NOVELLA
Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
BEST NOVELETTE
“If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” by Zen Cho (B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, 29 November 2018)
BEST SHORT STORY
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018)
BEST SERIES
Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)
BEST RELATED WORK
Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
BEST GRAPHIC STORY
Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM
The Good Place: “Janet(s),” written by Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan, directed by Morgan Sackett (NBC)
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
Gardner Dozois
BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM
Navah Wolfe
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
Charles Vess
BEST SEMIPROZINE
Uncanny Magazine, publishers/editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor Michi Trota, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue editors-in-chief Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien
BEST FANZINE
Lady Business, editors Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay & Susan
BEST FANCAST
Our Opinions Are Correct, hosted by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders
BEST FAN WRITER
Foz Meadows
BEST FAN ARTIST
Likhain (Mia Sereno)
BEST ART BOOK
(A one-off category created as per WSFS rules by Dublin 2019)The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press /Gollancz)
The following awards which are administered by WSFS and voted on alongside the Hugo Awards were also included in the ceremony.
LODESTAR AWARD for BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt / Macmillan Children’s Books)
JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for BEST NEW WRITER
Jeannette Ng (2nd year of eligibility)
The 2019 Hugo Award winners were announced at a ceremony held at Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon on Sunday August 18th, 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. Detailed results, finalist placements, and nominations breakdowns are available here (PDF).
