Best Ongoing Comic Series
Serialized stories are the lifeblood of the American direct market and many of the most popular comics shared and adapted today. These ongoing adventures told across across years present readers with new sagas and continuations for classic concepts, alike. This year’s nominees present new and familiar characters in ongoing series that will have readers returning for more each and every month.
- Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
- Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters (Oni Press)
- Moon Knight (Moon Comics)
- Nightwing (DC Comics)
- Wonder Girl (DC Comics)
Best Limited Comic Series
Specific concepts require a specific space to present their narrative with a definitive arc and conclusion. Limited series offer readers invitations to wondrous new settings and concepts never previously imagined. These concentrated comics are consistent in their presentation and planning making for some of the most exciting new arrivals on comic book store shelves throughout 2021.
- Far Sector (DC Comics)
- The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (Boom Studios)
- The Other History of the DC Universe (DC Comics)
- Soul Plumber (DC Comics)
- Stray Dogs (Image Comics)
Best Graphic Novel
Graphic novel is more a term of commerce than art, but the arrival of a complete comic book beautifully bound in a single volume provides some of the most engaging and inviting new stories from the past year. These publications include story collections from iconic cartoonists, pulp serials presented like airport paperbacks, and novelistic volumes with contemplative depths. They define the medium of comics in all its possibilities.
- Friend of the Devil: A Reckless Book (Image Comics)
- Heaven No Hell (Drawn & Quarterly)
- Monsters (Fantagraphics)
- Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven (DC Comics)
- Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons (DC Comics)
Best Writer
Writers are tasked with imagining the thrilling twists, dramatic moments, and larger-than-life characters that comics readers seek out, as well as all of the dialogue and captions detailing those events. They act as playwrights and engineers, envisioning how creative teams with skillful collaborators might best deliver their collective narrative. While any person can write, but very few can bring a comic book to life.
- Christopher Cantwell (The United States of Captain America)
- Al Ewing (The Immortal Hulk)
- N.K. Jemisin (Far Sector)
- Mariko Tamaki (Detective Comics)
- Tom Taylor (Nightwing)
Best Artist
Without an artist there can be no comic. They are the essential element of any collaborative endeavor in the field – bringing a writer’s plot to vivid life, creating grand mindscapes to be filled with color, and presenting characters awaiting the breath of lettering. Artists as the indispensable comics creator offer readers their style, perspective, design, and storytelling skills to craft impossible and impossibly human stories unlike any other.
- Dani (Arkham City: Order of the World)
- Daniel Warren Johnson (Beta Ray Bill)
- Joelle Jones (Wonder Girl)
- Bruno Redondo (Nightwing)
- Chris Samnee (Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters)
Best Colorist
Colorists bring the imagined settings, characters, and action of a story to vivid life. Not only do they select the palette for a comic book, they carefully integrate their own style into the aesthetics of the artist and story to ensure the varied pieces become a single, cohesive vision. Whether they are evoking a potent mood in the midst of light and shadows or designing thematic cues within costumes and backgrounds, colorists provide an essential perspective in comics.
- Jordie Bellaire (Black Widow)
- Tamra Bonvillain (Crush & Lobo)
- Marte Gracia (X-Men)
- Mat Lopes (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow)
- Matt Wilson (Eternals)
Best Letterer
Letterers are given to the most subtle work in all of comics. Oftentimes their presentation of word balloons and narrative captions is intended to go unnoticed altogether as it seeks to deliver words without distracting from the artwork. This subtlety is essential and also serves to highlight the moments when lettering takes on a special power in capturing a character’s voice or explosive piece of onomatopoeia as all of these letterers have.
- Aditya Bidikar (Home Sick Pilots)
- Joe Caramagna (The Amazing Spider-Man)
- Clayton Cowles (Batman)
- Ariana Maher (Crush & Lobo)
- Cory Petit (Moon Knight)
Best Cartoonist
While the strict definition of a cartoonist may be debated, comics readers know these creators as visionaries capable of bringing every aspect of their work to life. They imagine stories, script the words, and summon wondrous visions from their heads and onto the page. Cartoonists are the complete comics package and each of this year’s nominees presents a unique voice reverberating within the world of comics today.
- Cliff Chiang (Catwoman: Lonely City)
- James Harren (Ultramega)
- Daniel Warren Johnson (Beta Ray Bill)
- Joelle Jones (Wonder Girl)
- Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo)
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