In the week leading up to the 2017 Will Eisner Awards voting deadline this Friday, the Comics Beat will feature a series of “For Your Consideration” posts highlighting a number of the nominees as a celebration of their well-deserved acknowledgement. We’ll feature some never-before-seen behind the scenes content and some of the books’ gorgeous interiors. We encourage all of our readers to check these titles out and all of the eligible comics industry members to vote for the titles they think best exemplify what make comics great.


In 2009, cartoonist John Allison began publishing Bad Machinery as a webcomic, following up his work on Scary Go RoundBad Machinery follows two groups of students who attend Griswalds Grammar School and also happen to be investigators! The two groups are in perpetual competition with one another to see who can solve a mystery first, keeping a tally of victories on a wall.

More than just its central premise though, Bad Machinery is a wonderful look at the inner and outer turmoil that comes with growing up. It’s surreal at times and always hilarious. In Volume 5 of the series, “Sonny meets a mysterious new girl who seems to have climbed out of the sea itself, while Mildred falls for the bad boy of Saturday detention. But can either of them succeed in the face of jealous exes, overprotective fathers, and the persistent tide of DESTINY?”

Bad Machinery, vol. 5: The Case of the Fire Inside is nominated for the Eisner for Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17). When asked how it felt to see his book nominated for an award, Allison said:

Bad Machinery is a series where the tone has changed slightly with every book as the characters have aged. When I was working on the fifth, I could tell I had hit the sweet spot between the mystery kids’ childhood naivety and the start of finding their place in the adult world. That made it an exciting story to tell, having already spent a few years with these characters, and bittersweet, knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to find that exact moment again.
I spent a lot of time making this book trying to remember how it felt to be thirteen, so I’m proud to see it nominated in this category.”
Oni Press provided the Beat with a look at the back matter from volume 5 of Bad Machinery as well as a sampling of the hi-jinx contained in the book:

 


Check out of all of our 2017 Eisner coverage.

1 COMMENT

  1. What a coincidence to see this nomination: I have just begun reading the FCBD Bad Machinery comic book. I’m halfway through the comic now, and so far, it is truly the best comic book I have read in YEARS. It is brilliantly written, I am looking forward to reading more, and I can’t say enough good things about this FCBD sampler, seriously!!

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