Since the founding of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (and their previous incarnation, the Kirby Awards), the following individuals have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The prolific Alex Schomburg turned out hundreds of comics and pulp magazine covers in the 1930s and 1940s. His covers for World War II–era titles are noted for their large casts of characters in dynamic action, and his airbrush science fiction covers are prized for their brilliant colors and attractive females. Inducted 1999
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy—the late Charles Schulz gave us these characters and more with the most popular comic strip of all time, Peanuts. The strip was adapted into a series of animated specials for television that are still being shown decades after they were first aired. For many, Peanuts is a cultural milestone. Inducted 1997
Julie Schwartz served as editor at DC Comics for 49 years, starting in the 1940s. In the early 1950s, he edited DC’s premier science fiction titles, Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space, then went on to usher in the Silver Age with revivals of revised versions of such Golden Age characters as the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom, while the Justice League of America became the Silver Age equivalent of the Justice Society. Inducted 1997
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.
E. C. Segar originated Popeye, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, and other now-classic cartoon characters in his comic strip Thimble Theater, which debuted in 1919. The strip ran for 10 years before Popeye first appeared; the rest is history. Inducted 2001
John Severin was an artist equally at home drawing humorous and serious comics. At EC Comics he drew wacky stories for MAD (“Melvin of the Apes”), and western and war stories for Two-Fisted Tales. After EC he continued both trends, producing humor features for Cracked along with western and war stories for Marvel, Warren, and other companies. Inducted 2003
Marie Severin was the colorist for all the EC Comics titles in the early 1950s. In the 1960s, she joined Marvel Comics, where over the next two decades she not only anchored the famous “bullpen” but drew such comics as The Incredible Hulk, Kull, and Not Brand Echh! She went back to coloring in the 1990s, primarily for DC titles. Inducted 2001
Cartoonist Gilbert Shelton began his first notable comic strip in the early 1960s, writing and drawing Wonder Warthog for the University of Texas’ satirical magazines Bacchanal and Texas Ranger. He moved to San Francisco in 1968 and became part of the burgeoning underground comix scene. After producing the comic Feds 'n' Heads (published by Print Mint), Shelton created his most famous strip, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in 1968, and a spinoff strip, Fat Freddy's Cat, in 1969, when he also co-founded Rip Off Press. Inducted 2012
While teenagers in Cleveland, science fiction fans Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. And a whole industry was born. The duo co-created Funnyman in the mid 1940s. Inducted 1992
While teenagers in Cleveland, science fiction fans Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. And a whole industry was born. Siegel continued to write comics into the 1960s, including Superman, and the duo co-created Funnyman in the mid 1940s. Inducted 1992
With Jack Kirby, Joe Simon co-created Captain America, invented boy gang comics, and produced the first romance comics. Among the titles they created were Young Allies, Boy Commandos, Young Romance, and Black Magic. On his own, Simon created Prez and Brother Power the Geek for DC. Inducted 1999
Walter Simonson began drawing for DC Comics in 1972 and was soon tapped by writer/editor Archie Goodwin to draw a new backup feature called Manhunter, which went on to win three best story of the year awards. Since then, Simonson has written and drawn nearly every major character for both Marvel and DC Comics. Highlights include Star Wars, Fantastic Four, Elric, and Thor, the latter of which would go on to become his most famous work. His run on the series lasted nearly four years and is considered by many to be the defining version of the Thunder God. Most recently he has been writing and drawing the series Ragnarök for IDW.
During his 60 years as a Marvel freelancer and then salaried artist working from home, Joe Sinnott inked virtually every major Marvel title, with notable runs on Fantastic Four,The Avengers, The Defenders, and Thor. He is considered by many to have been Jack Kirby’s definitive inker. Today he continues to ink The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip. Inducted 2013
The cartoonist is best known for his Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel, Maus. As the co-publisher of the groundbreaking periodical RAW,Art Spiegelman published the works of a wide range of alternative cartoonists. His most recent works have included the book MetaMouse and the Little Lit anthologies of comics for kids (edited with wife Francoise Mouly). Inducted 1999
Many comics aficionados consider Dick Sprang to have been the Batman artist. He gave a distinctive square-jawed look to the character from the mid-1940s through the early 1960s. In the 1970s, he joined the list of artists creating re-creations of his original work and was a frequent guest at comic conventions. Inducted 1999
