SDCC 2014: Eisner Award Winners Announced

The 2014 Eisner Awards were given out last night at Comic-Con International, recognizing excellence in American comics in 30 different categories. Named for legendary cartoonist Will Eisner, the awards are similar to the The Oscars in the sense that the comic book equivalents of big budget blockbusters and art house films all have chances to win.

As proof, this year’s recipients did their work at publishers as large as Marvel and as niche as Drawn & Quarterly. On the high profile end, Matt Fraction and David Aja won Best Single Issue for Hawkeye #11: “Pizza Is My Business” (a.k.a. the Pizza Dog issue). Aja also took home the award for Best Cover Artist for his work on Hawkeye. Now if only that series wasn’t ending soon … Batman writer Scott Snyder also captured an Eisner for Best Limited Series for The Wake.

Here’s the full list of Eisner Award winners for 2014:

Best Short Story – “Untitled,” Love and Rockets: New Stories #6, by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot) – “Pizza Is My Business,” Hawkeye #11, by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)

Best Continuing Series – Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)

Best Limited Series – The Wake, by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy (Vertigo/DC)

Best New Series – Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7) – Itty Bitty Hellboy, by Art Baltazar and Franco (Dark Horse)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12) – The Adventures of Superhero Girl, by Faith Erin Hicks (Dark Horse)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17) – Battling Boy, by Paul Pope (First Second)

Best Humor Publication – Vader’s Little Princess, by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle)

Best Anthology – Dark Horse Presents (Dark Horse)

Best Digital/Webcomic – The Oatmeal, by Matthew Inman

Best Reality-Based Work – The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek J. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker (M Press/Dark Horse)

Best Graphic Album — New – The Property, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium – Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground, by Donald Westlake, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

Best Graphic Album — Reprint – RASL, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)

Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips – Tarzan: The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1 (LOAC/IDW)

Best Archival Collection/Project — Comic Books – Will Eisner’s The Spirit Artist’s Edition (IDW)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Goddam This War! by Jacques Tardi and Jean-Pierre Verney (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material — Asia – The Mysterious Underground Men, by Osamu Tezuka (PictureBox)

Best Writer – Brian K. Vaughan

Best Writer/Artist – Jaime Hernandez

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team – Sean Murphy

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art) – Fiona Staples

Best Cover Artist – David Aja

Best Coloring – Jordie Bellaire

Best Lettering – Darwyn Cooke

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism – Comic Book Resources, www.comicbookresources.com

Best Comics-Related Book – Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell (LOAC/IDW)

Best Scholarly/Academic Work – Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation (Bloomsbury)

Best Publication Design – Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, designed by Dean Mullaney (LOAC/IDW)