This One Summer (First Second), cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s beautifully rendered tale of a pre-adolescent summer, received the Eisner Award for the Best New Graphic Novel of the year at the 27th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, in a ceremony last night at the San Diego Comic-Con International.
Drawn by Jillian and written Mariko, This One Summer was a PW Best Book in addition to winning the ALA’s Caldecott Honor and a Printz Honor earlier this year.
Indeed it was ladies night at this year’s Eisner Awards with women creators taking home quite a few prizes. This year’s event again featured a brisk ceremony (about 2 hours and 35 minutes), as well as hilarious segments by the presenting duo of actor Orlando Jones and Milestone Media cofounder Michael Davis as well as British comedian Jonathan Ross.
Fast rising cartoonist Emily Carroll won in two categories: Best Reprint (the Eisner jury considers serialization to book edition a reprint) for Through The Woods (S&S), a richly illustrated collection of moody horror stories, and for Best Short Story. Tearful and overjoyed, cartoonist Noelle Stevenson and editor Shannon Watters, accepted Eisners for Best New Series and for Best Book for Teens for Lumberjanes, the hit series from Boom! Studios about a group of teen girls who take on supernatural foes at Summer Camp.
Cece Bell’s El Deafo (Abrams ComicArts), a graphic memoir that chronicles overcoming her loss of hearing, won for Best Kids Book. And Scholastic’s bestselling cartoonist Raina Telegemier picked up her third Eisner (she won awards in 2005 and 2011) for Best Writer/Artist for Sisters, a graphic memoir about her childhood and family.
The guys won a few awards as well. Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphics), a lovingly rendered three-volume history of the culture of Hip Hop, won the Eisner for the best work of nonfiction. And in an impressive showing, two-time National Book Award nominee, Gene Luen Yang won an Eisner for Best Writer (for his work on both Dark Horse’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and First Second’s The Shadow Hero), over a star-studded field that included such acclaimed comics writers as G. Willow Wilson, Brian K. Vaughan, Grant Morrison and Kelly Sue DeConnick.
In other book-related Eisner awards, acclaimed manga artist Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa 1939-1944 and Showa 1944-1953 (D&Q), two volumes in his magisterial autobiographical history of Japan during WWII, won for Best International Material-Asia; editor Sarah Lightman and contributors, received Eisners for Best Academic Work for Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essay and Interviews (McFarland). And Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, a gorgeous oversized Kickstarter-funded tribute-volume to cartoonist Winsor McCay’s color Sunday comics strip masterpiece, won the Eisner for Best Designed Publication.
