In this edition of ye olde Awards Roundup: three annual awards – including the Eisners – have opened for submissions, France introduces yet another comics award, and the British Book Awards introduce a graphic novel category (which is also open for submissions).
SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR THE 2026 EISNER AWARDS
Comic-Con International have announced that submissions have now opened for the 2026
Eisner Awards. The deadline will be March 13. Shortlists will be announced in May and winners declared at the Eisner Award ceremony will take place Friday, July 24 (SDCC ’26 weekend).
Publishers, subsidiaries and imprints can submit up to 5 nominees per category. The tentative categories (subject to change) are:
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GRAPHIC MEDICINE AWARD 2026 OPENS FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) opened for submissions for their annual Graphic Medicine Awards. They are seeking any work completed or published that meaningfully engage with healthcare and health issues (physical, mental, and social).
The three submission categories are for Long-form, Short-form (under 28 pages), and Educational Comics. While Educational Comics must have an instructional aim, the Long and Short Form categories can be fiction, nonfiction, biography, memoir, graphic journalism etc.
Eligibility period covers January 1 to December 31, 2025. The deadline is January 31. Shortlists will be released April 30 and the winners announced during the 2026 Graphic Medicine Conference, set to take place July 23-25 at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Winners will each receive $600 and a keepsake.
Entirely supported by donations, GMIC introduced the Graphic Medicine Awards in 2022. All nominees and winners have been pretty interesting, and their website has been a handy resource for seeking work that engages with confusing or difficult topics.
Last year’s winners were Boum’s The Jellyfish (Pow Pow) for Best Long Form Comic; Sunflowers, by Keezy Young (Silver Sprocket) for Best Short Form Comic; and Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding, by Maia Kobabe and Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier (Penguin Random House).
CARTOONIST STUDIO PRIZE 2026 OPENS FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Center for Cartoon Studies has just opened submissions for their 14th annual Cartoonist Studio Prize. Described as an annual award focused on cartooning in the world of small press and self publishing, it comprises two categories: Best Long-form Comic of the Year and Best Short-form Comic of the Year.
Eligible works must have been produced in (or translated into) English and first released in print or online/digital between January 1 to December 31, 2025. Short form work is defined as under 100 pages, while Long-form is 80 pages+; any work between 80-100 pages is left to author’s discretion on which category to go for. Deadline is February 28, 2026. Winners receive $500 each; shortlists and winners are announced in April.
Last year’s respective long and short form winners were Evil Eyes Sea, by Ozge Samanci (Uncivilized Books) and Autobiography Has Become A Stone In My Shoe by Peony Gent
A NEW FRENCH COMICS AWARD DEBUTS FIRST SHORTLIST
France has a pretty competitive market for both comics (locally called bande dessinée, BD) and comics awards – many of which run by press agencies, bookstores, and major festivals. Now a new one has entered the mix: le Prix BD France Télévisions (The France TV Comics Prize).
France TV is the country’s state-funded public broadcaster. Announced on December 18, the new Prix BD France TV will complement the company’s existing awards – the Prix Roman (Book Prize) and Prix Essai (Essay Prize). On January 6 the shortlist was released.
The works in contention are:
- Ancolie, by Salomé Lahoche with Thaïs Guimard (Glénat)
- Ces lignes qui tracent mon corps [tr. ‘These lines that trace my body’], by Mansoureh Kamari (Casterman)
- Detroit Roma, by Elene Usdin & Boni (Sarbacane)
- Rouge Signal [tr. ‘Red Signal‘], by Laurie Agusti (2042)
- Sangliers [tr. ‘Wild Boars‘], by Lisa Blumen (L’Employé du Moi)
- Silent Jenny, by Mathieu Bablet (Label 619) — English edition coming from Magnetic Press October 2026
- Une obsession [tr. ‘An Obsession‘], by Nine Antico (Charivari/Dargaud)
- Virgile, by Zidrou & Lucy Mazel (Le Lombard) — digitally available in English via Europe Comics
A selection jury of nine France TV literature and culture specialists picked the eight shortlisted titles. A panel of eleven members of the public from the populus Île-de-France region (where Paris is located) will now read them before a January 30 meeting with the selection jury to pick the winner.
This announcement will coincide with a week (January 26-31) of special public programming on France TV focused on comics, which is usually when the country’s biggest comics event – Angoulême – takes place.
GRAPHIC NOVELS JOIN THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS
Announced December 11, The British Book Awards (aka The Nibbies) have finally added a dedicated graphic novel category.
In a major shakeup of the awards (which has seen some categories phased out, renamed, or merged), three new categories were introduced to the gala industry event’s roster: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romantic Fiction, and Graphic Novels. This is likely a reflection of the massive sales growth all three book categories saw in the UK in recent years. The last expansion of the awards took place in 2023 when two audiobook categories (fiction/non-fiction) were added.
The Nibbies are currently run by UK trade publication The Bookseller and have been in existence since 1990. The 2026 edition will take place in London, May 11, and shortlists will be announced in March. Submissions are now open, with a deadline set for January 29, 5pm (GMT).
According to the guidelines: the work must be “book-length and printed or distributed in the UK in a sequential art format for the first time in 2025.” The category includes manga. Among the requirements, publishers will need to supply sales data and any other award nominations/wins for that book, acquisition stories, the marketing and sales strategy for the book, and more. They will also need to submit eight copies of the book. Should they be shortlisted, they will need to supply an additional ten copies plus pay £1,825 ($2500) – or £300 ($400) for small publishers of under 10 employees – to cover the overall promotion and marketing for the event.
Comics/graphic novels hold a rather awkward place in the UK book trade as attitudes to the medium have often been dismissive at best (they have been invisible in London Book Fair programming for years). Thankfully money talks – with the ‘book category’ seeing a deluge of younger and YA readers hoovering up kids titles and manga (the adult side has been comparatively flat in terms of sales growth). The Graphic Novel Book of the Year will cover both kids and adult titles published or distributed in the UK in 2025, which will make for a very curious mix when the shortlists are announced.
It will be odd either way since, according to the Nibbies website, “To win the Graphic Novel Book of the Year Award you need a combination of three elements: the writer’s and/or the illustrator’s creative genius; brilliant publishing; and fantastic sales/charts success, including sustained sales over the year.” This latter part will definitely skew the shortlist towards bestselling kids, YA and manga.
Up to now, comics had managed to sneak their way onto the British Book Award lists through the backdoor of the Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year category. Many a year has seen Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper and Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey (and the UK edition of Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man) proudly sit alongside hit early readers titles. On top of that, both Oseman and Smart have been named Illustrator of the Year in 2023 and 2024.
The UK is home to several solid publishers and imprints of the form. Naming a few: Titan, Rebellion, SelfMadeHero, Jonathan Cape Graphic Novels, David Fickling Books, Avery Hill Publishing, Bog-Eyed Books, and Breakdown Press.
