The Eisner Awards, the "Oscars of Comics" have announced their nominations for the current season (they follow more of a Tony Awards timetable) and the results are heavy on Image comics with Marvel scoring in the top "continuing series" category with the current run of Hawkeye. Maybe there's hope for Jeremy Renner's unloved movie hero after all? Or maybe not. It's up against last year's winner Saga.
I want to share two categories that have particular appeal to us here at TFE. They have an adapted category (which sometimes pulls from movies) and a digital comics category and you know I keep trying to start one though admittedly I never fully commit.
Best Adaptation from Another Medium
- The Castle, by Franz Kafka, adapted by David Zane Mairowitz and Jaromír 99 (SelfMadeHero)
- The Complete Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, adapted by by Rob Davis (SelfMadeHero)
- Django Unchained, adapted by Quentin Tarantino, Reginald Hudlin, R. M. Guéra et al. (DC/Vertigo)
- Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground, by Donald Westlake, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
- The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, by Edogawa Rampo, adapted by Suehiro Maruo (Last Gasp)
Django Unchained, huh? I was hoping everyone was over that post 12 Years a Slave. Please tell me they drew Jamie Foxx's upside down penis in that torture sequence and did justice to the only brilliant part of that movie: Samuel L Jackson as Stephen
Best Digital/Webcomic
- As the Crow Flies, by Melanie Gillman
- Failing Sky, by Dax Tran-Caffee
- High Crimes by Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa
- The Last Mechanical Monster, by Brian Fies
- The Oatmeal by Matthew Inman
The only one of those I'm familiar with (and love) is The Oatmeal. It received another nomination for its wondrously funny and sad short story "when your house is burning down you should brush your teeth" which I've read like five times. But I'll be sure to check these others out. i09 has other days pointing out 51 webcomics that weren't mentioned. I wasn't aware of this but apparently webcomic creators don't think highly of the Eisner committees understanding of webcomics. Like most new media of any medium it takes a while to be understood by old media and the Eisner's have a long long history with print comics.