Bill Finger Award
Jenny Blake Isabella,
Martin Pasko to Receive
2026 Bill Finger Award
Jenny Blake Isabella and Martin Pasko have been selected to receive the 2026 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was once again unanimous.
“As is always the case, the judges considered many nominations that were submitted to us and we picked two that stood out as the right choices,” Evanier remarked. “Both writers met our criteria of having generated a large and significant body of work that hasn’t received proper recognition and probably not proper compensation.”
Jenny Blake Isabella broke into comics under the birthname of Tony Isabella on Halloween 1972, being hired as an editorial assistant at Marvel Comics. The name Tony Isabella soon appeared as editor on Marvel’s British line as well as their line of black-and-white magazines in America. Soon, it also appeared in the writing credits of various Marvel comics, including Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, The Champions, the Tigra feature in Marvel Chillers, and It!, The Living Colossus. For DC Comics, he wrote Hawkman and co-created Black Lightning with artist Trevor VonEeden. In 2025, she came out as transgender as Jenny Blake Isabella, as depicted in her autobiographical story for the anthology comic, DC Pride 2025.
Martin Pasko (1954–2020) began writing comics in 1972 for Warren Publishing and in 1973 began a long association with DC Comics and especially with editor Julius Schwartz, who gave him the nickname of “Pesky Pasko.” It was based on Pasko’s long presence on the letter pages in Schwartz’s comics, but soon Pasko was writing the exploits of, among other characters, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, Metal Men, Swamp Thing, and the whole Justice League of America. He also wrote Star Trek titles for both DC and Marvel. Later in his career, he wrote for animated TV shows including Thundarr the Barbarian, Batman: The Animated Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many more. He left us in 2020 from natural causes.
The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the “unsung hero” of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics. Evanier explains, “When Jerry first suggested this award, it was the worst-kept secret in comics that Finger had co-created Batman and much of the mythos and supporting cast of that character. Nowhere on the comics or movies or TV shows was Bill Finger credited. That has changed, but there are still plenty of important, undercredited writers for us to put into the spotlight. Which is what this award is all about.”
In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.
The major sponsor for the 2026 awards is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International on Friday, July 24.
Bill Finger Award Recipients
- 2025, Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer
- 2024: Jo Duffy, Ralph Newman
- 2023: Barbara Friedlander, Sam Glanzman
- 2022: Bob Bolling, Donato “Don” Rico
- 2021: Robert Bernstein, Audrey “Toni” Blum, Vic Lochman, Robert Morales, Paul S. Newman, Robert “Bob” White
- 2020: Virginia Hubbell Bloch, Nicola Cuti, Leo Dorfman, Gaylord DuBois, Joe Gill, France Edward Herron
- 2019: Mike Friedrich, E. Nelson Bridwell
- 2018: Joye Murchison Kelly, Dorothy Roubicek Woolfolk
- 2017: William Messner-Loebs, Jack Kirby
- 2016: Elliot S! Maggin, Richard E. Hughes
- 2015: Don McGregor, John Stanley
- 2014: Robert Kanigher, Bill Mantlo, Jack Mendelsohn
- 2013: Steve Gerber, Don Rosa
- 2012: Frank Doyle, Steve Skeates
- 2011: Bob Haney, Del Connell
- 2010: Otto Binder, Gary Friedrich
- 2009: John Broome, Frank Jacobs
- 2008: Archie Goodwin, Larry Lieber
- 2007: Gardner Fox, George Gladir
- 2006: Harvey Kurtzman, Alvin Schwartz
- 2005: Jerry Siegel, Arnold Drake