EisnerfullLogo.jpgAs is tradition, this year’s Eisner Award judges have selected four cartoonists for entry into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. They are: Milt Gross (early newspaper cartoonist known for such strips as Count Screwloose of Tooloose, Nize Baby, andThat’s My Pop!), H. G. Peter (original Wonder Woman artist), Antonio Prohias (creator of MAD’s “Spy vs. Spy”), and Dori Seda (pioneering autobiographical underground cartoonist).

Normally judges sleect only two inductees, but this year the list was doubled as part of the Will Eisner Centennial.

While all the selections are excellent, I’m particularly pleased to see Seda acknowledged. Dying young and in tragic circumstances, Seda’s work was the equal of any male autobiographical cartoonist, and deserves a lot more attention.

Four more inductees will be chosen from a list of 17 chosen by the judges. They are: Peter Bagge, Howard Cruse, Steve Englehart, Justin Green, Roberta Gregory, Bill Griffith, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Francoise Mouly, Jackie Ormes, George Pérez, P. Craig Russell, Posy Simmonds, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Rumiko Takahashi, and Garry Trudeau.

Aside: It seems selecting the Hernandez brothers is a no brainers, meaning Gilbert could be elected into the hall of fame just two years after winning his very first Eisner!

More info on all them is at the Eisner website.

Eligible voters can vote online. The deadline for Hall of Fame voting is March 10.

The 2017 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of Comic-Con International board member Alan Campbell, reviewer/critic Rob Clough, comics retailer Jamie Newbold (Southern California Comics, San Diego), comics scholar Robert Moses Peaslee (Texas Tech University), librarian Dawn Rutherford (Sno-Isle Libraries, Washington State), and comics writer/columnist Martha Thomases (ComicMix.com).

 

More info:

 

Milt Gross - 2017 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Judges' Choice

 

Milt Gross (1895–1953)

Milton Gross began his cartooning career in 1915, producing a number of humorous newspaper strips. After serving in World War I, he went on to create strips like Frenchy, Banana Oil, and Help Wanted. His big break came with Gross Exaggerations, a weekly column of prose and cartoons. In 1926 Nize Baby, a book collection of some of these columns, appeared and was an instant hit. Under the same title, Gross began a Sunday page feature in 1927. Other books by Gross include Hiawatta Witt No Odder Poems, De Night In De Front From Chreesmas, Dunt Esk, and the pioneer wordless graphic novel He Done Her Wrong. In 1933, Gross was hired away from the New York World by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, for whom he produced such strips as Count Screwloose of Tooloose, Dave’s Delicatessen, Otto and Blotto, and That’s My Pop! Gross became a celebrity, famous for his cartooning, scriptwriting, radio shows, and columns.


 

H. G. Peter - 2017 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Judges' Choice

 

H. G. Peter (1880–1958)

At age 61, Harry G. Peter began drawing Wonder Woman, collaborating with writer William Moulton Marston. Peter started with the Amazon’s first appearance in Sensation Comics in 1941 and continued drawing the feature for close to two decades. Wonder Woman #97, cover dated April 1958, was Peter’s last issue.


 

Antonio Prohias - 2017 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Judges' Choice

 

Antonio Prohías (1921–1998)

Antonio Prohías is best known for his 30 years of work with MAD magazine on his comic feature “Spy Vs. Spy,” which has been adapted into a series of animated shorts, several video games, a series of live-action television commercials, and a Sunday strip. Prohías’s two feuding spies stand among the handful of comics characters with an immediate, globally recognized iconic meaning. In the late 1940s Prohias began drawing cartoons for the prestigious Cuban newspaper El Mundo. His wordless material enjoyed international appeal, and by the late 1950s he was the president of the Association of Cuban Cartoonists. On May 1, 1960, just three days before Castro gained control of El Mundo and the rest of Cuba’s free press, Prohías fled Cuba for New York City.


 

Dori Seda - 2017 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Judges' Choice

 

Dori Seda (1950–1988)

Dori Seda was one of the pioneers of the autobiographical comics genre in underground comix. She started her career when she was hired by Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner to do the bookkeeping for the company. Her stories were published in several comics and anthologies, including Wimmen’s Comix, Rip-Off Comix, Tits ‘n Clits, and Weirdo. Dori’s only full-length solo book was Lonely Nights Comics. Her work is collected in Dori Stories (1999), which also includes memorial essays by friends. In 1988, Last Gasp established the Dori Seda Memorial Award for Women, whose first (and only) recipient was Carol Tyler.

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. – “Milt Gross (early newspaper cartoonist known for such strips as Count Screwloose of Tooloose, Nize Baby, and That’s My Pop!)”

    I’d think him better known for his Chaplin-inspired graphic novella HE DONE HER WRONG (1930, repr. 2005), a worldless forerunner to the graphic novel.

    And THAT’S MY POP! (1939, repr. 2015) was a guide aka A CARTOON TOUR OF NEW YORK. The Encyclopedia of Cartooning has its public-domain, 80-page joy @ http://animationresources.org/comics-milt-gross-cartoon-tour-of-new-york/

  2. What an incredible quartet. Love the work of three of them dearly happen. Have only read a small amount of Wonder Woman in my time, but definitely read some of the ’55-’58 issues as a young boy. Subsequently have read 20 or so of the earliest stories. As the Artist of DC’s “Trinity” character, Wonder Woman, H.G. Peter deserves to join, Schuster, and Kane(Sprang) in the firmament of recognition.

    It took this long for Milt Gross to be in the Hall of Fame? If you’ve not read much of his prose books, find a copy of one. Some suggestions-Dear Dollink, Nize Baby, Famous Fimales Witt Odder Ewents from Heestory and, Dunt Esk!!, When you get one, read it aloud to yourself to get the full feel of it, and enjoy the dozens of accompanying Gross cartoon illustrations. Be prepared to laugh.

    Was completely floored that Dori Seda was inducted. A true undergrounder, brutally honest, with often shocking stories, She was not just a pioneering woman in the world of autobiographic, but a pioneering artist of biographic comics.

    It will be a formidable task to wean that list of already greats to only four more.

    After much thought, I would go Peter Bagge, Howard Cruse, Bill Griffith, and Rumiko Takahashi

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