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August 17, 2014


Your 2014 Ignatz Award Nominees

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They were named this morning. Congratulations to all the newly minted nominees. The Ignatz ceremony will be held on the Saturday of SPX -- September 13. Good luck to all participating.

It's an interesting group of nominees. It strikes me as a list where there's not a whole lot here that's daring or out of left field -- this is the first year in a while I've heard of all the nominees, and am familiar with all of the work, and I've had a terribly inattentive work year. I've received e-mail of a questioning nature already in terms of a couple of nominees, which is typical, but nothing "Oh My God" yet, which is not. My love for Kim Deitch is second to no one's, and I adore that Whaley book, but I didn't put it on my own year-end list because that seemed to me an illustrated prose story. That doesn't matter in the wider scheme of things, but it's an intriguing choice for a crowded field and opens up future awards slates. I also love The End, but that's essentially a reprint with an added signature. I'm always confused by "Promising Newcomer" categories. My hunch is that at least one of those cartoonists has been at it as long as Michael DeForge has been, although I could be wrong.

On a personal note, I think this means my choice for book of the year in 2013, Jim Woodring's Fran, received no North American awards nominations. I could be wrong about that.

I think this will be a well-received slate, though, perhaps strongly so. A couple that strike me as particularly welcome on a first glance is the Jesse Reklaw artist nod for that Couch Tag book so few people read, and the Sam Sharpe nomination for that ruthless "Mom" story. I'm also happy on first plunge-through for the Powdered Milk series nod.

Outstanding Artist
* Sam Bosma, Fantasy Basketball
* Kim Deitch, The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley
* Sophie Goldstein, Darwin Carmichael is Going To Hell; Edna II; House of Women
* Ed Piskor, Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1
* Jesse Reklaw, Couch Tag

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
* Amazing Facts and Beyond, Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch
* The End, Anders Nilsen
* Eye of the Majestic Creature Vol. 2, Leslie Stein
* Sock Monkey Treasury, Tony Millionaire
* QU33R, Various (Edited By Robert Kirby)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
* The Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley, Kim Deitch
* The Boxer, Reinhard Kleist
* Boxers and Saints, Gene Luen Yang
* This One Summer, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
* War of Streets and Houses, Sophie Yanow

Outstanding
* Brownout Biscuit from Octoups Pie: Dead Forever, Meredith Gran
* Destination X, John Martz
* The Grassy Knoll, Nick Drnaso
* Jobs from Life Zone, Simon Hanselmann
* Mom from Viewotron #2, Sam Sharpe

Promising New Talent
* Luke Howard, Trevor
* Cathy G. Johnson, Jeremiah; Boy Genius; Until It Runs Clear
* Nick Offerman, Orange; Onions
* Keiler Roberts, Powdered Milk
* Daryl Seitchik, Missy

Outstanding Series
* The Black Feather Falls, Ellen Lindner
* Demon, Jason Shiga
* Powdered Milk, Keiler Roberts
* Sky in Stereo, Sacha Mardou
* Towerkind, Kat Verhoeven

Outstanding Comic
* Blammo #8, Noah Van Sciver
* Cosplayers, Dash Shaw
* It Will All Hurt #2, Farel Dalrymple
* Misliving Amended, Adam Buttrick
* Wicked Chicken Queen, Sam Alden

Outstanding Minicomic
* The Grassy Knoll, Nick Drnaso
* House of Women, Sophie Goldstein
* Never Forgets, Yumi Sakugawa
* Test Tube #1, Carlos Gonzalez
* Up to the Top, Ian Sampson

Outstanding Online Comic
* Band for Life, Anya Davidson
* Big Dogs at Nite, Dane Martin
* Demon, Jason Shiga
* On Hiatus, Pete Toms
* Vattu, Evan Dahm

This year's jury was Darryl Ayo, Austin English, Melissa Mendes, Thien Pham and Whit Taylor.

Update: I've heard back from several people now and taken a second look myself. The gender breakdown is at 2-1 in favor of male cartoonists (I get 30-14 leaving out the group anthology, but I'm super-shitty at math). The previous year it was just about 50/50 -- I want to say 23/22, but that's from memory. That was astonishing to a couple of people that e-mailed in just for the reputation that the end of last year through the first half of this year enjoyed in terms of there being a number of strong works out from female cartoonists. I think if you have a juried award system you can't really predict where the votes will break down, it's just too small a sample for prediction. I do think it's worth noting.

Also, in terms of what I perceive of as Ignatz favorites over the last few years: no Michael DeForge, but yes on Sam Alden, Noah Van Sciver, Dash Shaw and Jillian Tamaki. I'm not sure I see a D+Q book on there, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
posted 5:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

 
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