Awards

Anders Nilsen's acclaimed BIG QUESTIONS has won the second Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize. The award recognizes the best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, by a living American and is sponsored by Penn State University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

There is always some shock when the Eisner Award nominees for the year are announced. This thing got included, that thing was left off. It's natural. In recent years the judges have seemingly gone the way of recognizing more things in more categories and spreading around the wealth then singling out a few books/creators for TITANIC-level encomiums. Even the PR for this year's nominees praised the list's diversity—and 26 different publishers were mentioned, 15 with one nomination each. But as always, there was one omission that seemed to stun a lot of people, us included.

This year's nominees are up led by Marvel's DAREDEVIL, with six noms, and Jim Henson/Ramon K. Perez's TALE OF SAND with five. This year's judges were reviewer Brigid Alverson (Graphic Novel Reporter, CBR, Robot 6) , retailer Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures, Halifax, Nova Scotia), librarian Jesse Karp (LREI, New York), cartoonist Larry Marder (Beanworld), comics historian Benjamin Saunders (University of Oregon), and Comic-Con board of director Mary Sturhann. They added two new categories while dropping four:

Holy crap, it is award season! Here's this year's Stumptown Award nominees. The nominees were selected by a screening committee; winners will be selected by online voting at this link, which is open until 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 18. The awards will be presented to the winners during the Comics Fest After Party on Saturday, April 28 at the Jupiter Hotel.

The Doug Wright Awards, which recognize English language Canadian comics creators in three categories, have just announced the 2012 finalists. Expected names like Chester Brown and Kate Beaton are mixed with newer folks like Ethan Rilly and Connor Willumsen. There's not a title on this list that isn't worthy of reading.

Yes, we know that there is only one Reuben Award, the big one, but for the sake of a headline, here are the NCS divisional nominees. This is the first time the NCS Awards have recognized webcomics, a welcome and inevitable move towards modernization. The choices — The Oatmeal, Penny Arcade and Scenes from a Multiverse (above)—aren't too groundbreaking but they are all good strips. The winners will be announced Memorial Day weekend at the annual NCS meeting, to be held this year in Las Vegas.

March 23rd is the deadline for voting in The 2012 Eisner Hall of Fame Awards. There are 14 nominees; four will go in:

Congats to Matt Bors on becoming the first alt-comix type to win the2012 HERBLOCK PRIZE, and its $15,000 cash award.

The nominees for the 2012 GLyph Awards—honoring the best in comics' portrayal of African Americans—and as you might expect, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN by Bendis and Pichelli garnered a ton of noms. The awards will be presented on May 18 at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia.

Unlike last year's extremely uncomfortable Oscar® telecast, with its poorly-matched, inexperienced hosts, this year was as comfy as a cup of warm borscht, as Billy Crystal busted out venerable schtik and timing. Other than that, it was all a parade of white dresses, sequins, and very, very predictable wins. But a few moments stood out for Our Kind:

As we do every year, it's time to take a look at the five Animated Shorts in this year's Oscar race. Picking this obscure category is a key to winning your pool. Anyone can pick the best Movie or Actor (although this year Oscar may finally have reached parity in the Best Picture race as it's almost anyone's guess what will win.) But it's those pesky, unknown short subject films that really separate the knowledgeable from the guessers.

As comics become more accepted, we see more mainstream awards covering them. The Bram Stoker Awards are from the Horror Writer's Association. The Stoker's have added a graphic novel category and the nominees were recently announced: