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.
Two years ago, publisher First Second began an ambitious experiment when they announced their “Science Comics” line. Our own Heidi MacDonald called the line “applied comics,” (a term invented by CCS’s James Sturm) referring to the series’ intent to create educational nonfictional content. It’s a cool idea that has resulted in a hugely successful series of titles including books about Coral Reefs and Volcanos. It even helped cartoonist Maris Wicks secure a prestigious grant to make comics in Antarctica, of all places.
This year, one of the comics from this line, Science Comics: Dinosaurs, is up for the Eisner award for Best Publication for Kids (9-12). Created by MK Reed and Joe Flood, Dinosaurs examines these ancient majestic creatures through both a scientific and historical perspective. More than a simple regurgitation of facts and figures, Dinosaurs presents a narrative about how our ideas about dinosaurs have evolved over time. It’s candid about what we know and what we don’t– and we don’t know a surprising amount! All of this is wrapped in a gorgeous package that you can take a look at for yourself:
Check out of all of our 2017 Eisner coverage.
