Awards

The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, and comics turned up in two categories. RED, based on the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner comic, was tagged in the Picture, Musical or Comedy category and The Walking Dead got a nom for Best Series, Drama.

The judges for the 2011 Eisner Awards have been announced. They are Comic-Con board of Directors member Ned Cato, Jr., librarian/curator Karen Green, writer/editor Andrew Helfer, publishing executive (and BEAT contributor) Rich Johnson and retailer Chris Powell. The five will convene in late March to deliberate on the nominations, and the awards will be presented at next year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The 2011 Angoulême comics festival fast approaches, and they have just announced their official selections. Rather than nominate various books in different categories, these selections are a pool from which the Gran Prix and other prizes are given. A jury -- led this time by Baru -- will make final selections.

Via email from Jeff Lemire, the exciting news that "ESSEX COUNTY BECOMES THE FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL TO BE NAMED ONE OF THE TOP TEN ESSENTIAL CANADIAN BOOKS OF THE DECADE!" The selection comes as part of Canada Reads, a yearly literacy campaign aimed at spotlighting the best in Canadian literature. Voting was open to the public, and comics types have supported a vote for ESSEX COUNTY as a vote for comics legitimacy, but it's certainly a deserved honor. Lemire's bleak, spare tales of rural Canadian life and coming of age are timeless and powerfully told.

Continuing on with the end of year announcements, PW's annual Best Books issues is out, and it includes 10 graphic novels, as follows:

It's starting! PW's Best Books will be out on Monday, but here's the Amazon editors' choices for the year:

Presented last night at at the Long Beach Comic Con. Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work: Diana Nock, The Intrepid Girlbot Best Female Character: Ramona...

The Eagle Awards were presented at the MCM Expo in London Last night,. And the winners are: Roll of Honour – Brian Bolland Favourite Newcomer Writer...

The looooong convention schedule is just about set to wrap up with the last big regional show of the year, the Long Beach Comic Com, in balmy downtown Long Beach this weekend. Guests include Marv Wolfman, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jeph Loeb, Stan Lee, Thomas Jane, and more. One last chance to frolic! Programming is here in a form you can import right into your social media. It's going to be a fun, Halloween themed weekend with lots of Walking Dead-related activities.

Canada Reads, a yearly contest to pick the best Canadian books of the year, has launched a campaign to select the Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade, and two graphic novels have been selected by the public, ESSEX COUNTY by Jeff Lemire and SKIM by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

Anyone setting eyes on the Library of America's gorgeous new Lynd Ward boxed set will immediately add it to the Christmas wish list. (It's the first time a graphic novel has been added to the list on classic works.) But the pioneering graphic novelist is getting a new honor -- Penn State is naming an award after him, The Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize (also the Lynd Ward Prize for the Best Graphic Novel of the Year). Ward's daughters donated a collection of his wood engravings, original book illustrations, and other graphic art donated to the Penn State University Libraries, establishing an association. The prize of $2500 will be announced each spring and be presented to the best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, published in the previous calendar year in the United States by a living American citizen or resident.

The Inkwell Awards for inking were handed out on Sunday at Wizard World New England in Boston, and Mark Morales won Favorite Inker. Klaus Janson and Al Williamson won the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame awards. Complete winners in bold below.