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Important Information Regarding Programs and Autographs at Comic-Con
All event and program rooms have limited capacity as set by the Fire Marshal. Even though your badge
is needed to get into all events, it does not guarantee you access to any event if it has reached its
capacity. We do not clear rooms between events. Most autograph signings are of a limited nature.
Your badge does not guarantee autographs at any event.
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What are the
Eisner Awards?
Explanations and
a Brief History of the Awards
Questions about the Eisner Awards? Ever wonder how they got started?
This page should help answer both those queries!
The Will Eisner
Comic Industry Awards:
The "Oscars" of Comics
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are considered the "Oscars" of the comic
book industry. They are handed out each year in a gala ceremony at Comic-Con
International: San Diego, the largest and oldest comics convention in the United
States.
The Eisner Awards are named for renowned cartoonist Will Eisner (creator of "The
Spirit" and several award-winning graphic novels), who, until his death in 2005, always attended the ceremony to personally congratulate the winners.
The Awards are given
out in more than two dozen categories covering the best publications and
creators of the previous year (such as Best Short Story, Best Graphic Album,
Best Writer, and so on). The finalists on the ballot are selected by a blue-
ribbon committee that considers thousands of entries submitted by publishers and
creators. The nominees are then voted on by all parts of the comic book
industry: writers, artists, and other creators; publishers; editors; and
retailers and distributors.
The Eisner Awards, established in 1987, came under the auspices of the San Diego
Comic Convention, Inc., a nonprofit corporation, in 1990. The Awards
Administrator is Jackie Estrada. The awards program has been funded by
contributions from distributors, retailers, media companies, and such industry
suppliers as major printers of comics.
"The primary purpose of these awards," says Estrada, "is to call attention to
and celebrate the best that the comics artform has to offer. A glance at any of
the ballots from the last several years reveals a wide range of projects,
subject matters, and levels, from such serious works as art spiegelman’s
Maus and Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde to such lighter fare as
Jeff Smith’s Bone and Sergio Aragonés’s Groo. The point is that
reading comics can be a rewarding experience for people with a variety of tastes
and of any age."
The Eisner Awards: A Brief History
by Jackie Estrada, Eisner Awards Administrator
The Eisner Awards were not always the Eisner Awards. At one point they were the
Kirby Awards-sort of.
Back in 1984, Fantagraphics Books instituted the Jack Kirby Awards to honor the
best works and creators in comics. The administrator of the awards was Dave
Olbrich, a Fantagraphics employee. The awards were given out beginning in 1985
in programs at the San Diego Comic Convention, with beloved comics artist Jack
Kirby on hand to congratulate the winners.
When Olbrich left Fantagraphics for other pursuits in 1987, the Kirby Awards
ended and two new awards programs were born: Fantagraphics started the Harvey
Awards (named after Harvey Kurtzman), and Olbrich started the Will Eisner Comic
Industry Awards (named, of course, after the venerated creator of The Spirit and
numerous graphic novels).
Initially, Olbrich set up the Eisners as a nonprofit organization, with funding
from sponsors such as comics distributors, retailer associations, and printers.
The awards were still given out at the San Diego Comic-Con, with Olbrich serving
as the MC and with Eisner himself on stage to hand out the awards.
The first Eisners were conferred in 1988, for works published in 1987. Olbrich
administered the awards for two years with a one year gap in 1990.
It was obvious that if the awards were to continue, they would need an
administrator who could devote specific amounts of time per month (by this point
Olbrich had become publisher of Malibu Comics, certainly more than a full time
job), as well as secure funding that could underwrite the basics of the show
from year to year.
At the 1990 San Diego Comic-Con, a meeting was held (which I was asked to
attend) with Olbrich, Will Eisner, Denis Kitchen, and Fae Desmond (executive
director of Comic-Con). The idea proposed was that the Comic-Con, a nonprofit
organization, take over the Eisners and that I be appointed the administrator.
The meeting was quite congenial, and we all felt the proposal was the best way
to assure the continuation of these awards. Subsequently Fae took it to Comic-
Con's Board of Directors, which approved it enthusiastically.
So in 1990 I took on the administrating chores, with much help from Olbrich in
turning over the reins.
The first year continued with the same format that had been used previously with
the Kirbys and Harveys: Send out blank nominating ballots to a mailing list of
publishers, editors, and distributors and then send final ballots to a mailing
list of creators and retailers. But in 1992 (for works published in 1991), a
judging panel was instituted to handle the nominating process.
This was done for two main reasons. First, it was obvious that many good works
and creators were falling through the cracks in the nominations process simply
because they had not been widely seen. It was suggested that this problem be
addressed by accompanying nominating ballots with a list of all works published
the previous year.
Compiling such a list turned out not to be feasible. A better method was the
nominating panel which was commonly used at awards programs in literature and
the arts.
The panel couldn't be so large as to be unwieldy, so it would be limited to five
people who (a) were highly-knowledgeable and well read in comics, (b) would be
unbiased in their approach, and (c) represented various facets of the comics
industry, from creators to retailers to journalists.
Now each year a new judging panel gathers in San Diego for a weekend to
determine what will go on the Eisner Awards ballot. To make the judging as fair
as possible, a Call for Entries is sent to all comics publishers at the
beginning of the year. Publishers (and creators) have an opportunity to submit
works in more than 25 categories. Follow up is conducted with publishers to make
sure they get their submissions in, and both the judges and I bring in worthy
books that for whatever reasons haven't been submitted by their publishers. At
this point the judges have an opportunity to see all the submitted items well
before the actual judging weekend.
After the judges have made their selections, ballots go out to creators,
publishers, editors, retailers, and distributors. The results are tallied (as
they have been since the awards started) by Mel Thompson and Associates, and
they are announced in a gala ceremony in San Diego.
In addition to Comic-Con's underwriting, this program could not have continued
without the generosity of its sponsors over the years, especially longtime
supporters Diamond Comic Distributors, Quebecor Printing, Joe Field's Flying
Colors, Joe Ferrara's Atlantis Fantasyworld, Ralph Mathieu's Alternate Reality,
Rory Root's Comic Relief, and Nancy McCann's Comics Unlimited, and major sponsor
mycomicshop.com.
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