May 13, 2019

The short lists for the Eisners are here! And CCS is well represented. From humor to reality, adult to children, we’ve got it covered. The Eisners are comic industry awards presented at San Diego Comi-Con International every year. You can view the complete list of nominees and all comic professionals, including students, can vote.

Noah Van Sciver, 2015/16 CCS Fellow, is up for two Eisners. Fante Bukowski 3: A Perfect Failure (Fantagraphics) is up for Best Humor Publication. In this third volume of the triology, we see Fante Bukowski in the final show-down between his father and his dreams. Working as the ghost writer on a teen’s memoir, hidden forces push him toward success despite his lack of talent. And on the other end of the spectrum, 133: One Dirty Tree (Uncivilized Books) is up for Best Reality-Based Work. Noah uses his dry, witty humor to explore his childhood growing up in a large, poor Mormon family.

James Kochaolka, Vermont Cartoonist Laureate 2011-13, is up for Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8) with Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer (Top Shelf/IDW). Johnny Boo invents a computer that turns anything into ice cream. The trouble starts when his friend Squiggle turns himself into ice cream!

Jason Lutes, CCS faculty, is up for Best Graphic Album—Reprint with his reprint compiling his Berlin trilogy (Drawn & Quarterly). Twenty years in the making, Berlin is an intricate look at the fall of the Weimar Republic through the eyes of a wide variety of people, from rich to poor, artists to blue-collar workers.

Sophie Yanow ′16 is up for Best Webcomic with The Contradictions. This autobiographical fiction is set during Sophie’s time in Paris as a student. You can support her ongoing webcomic, and read the pages early, on her Patreon.

Alec Longstreth, current Outreach Director at CCS, is the colorist for Be Prepared (First Second), by Vera Brosgol, which is up for Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12). Wanting to fit in is hard for a Russian girl in the suburbs, but Vera was unprepared to spend the summer at a Russian girls’ summer camp.

And on a more distanced note, Angela Boyle ′16 did the interior layout and lettering for The Divided Earth (First Second) by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second), which is up for Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12). The Divided Earth is the third in The Nameless City trilogy. The Nameless City, as it is called, is under siege and Rat and Kai must infiltrate the palace for a deadly secret.

There are a total of eight books from First Second up for an Eisner. Between them, CCS graduates Andrew Arnold, as a art director at the time, and Robyn Chapman, as an associate editor, worked on nearly all these books.

• Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12)
  • Be Prepared, by Vera Brosgol
  • The Divided Earth, by Faith Erin Hicks
• Best Publication for Teens (ages 13–17): The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang—Andrew also worked on the book design with Taylor Esposito
• Best Reality-Based Work
  • Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman, by Box Brown—Andrew also worked on the book design with Dezi Sienty
  • Monk! by Youssef Daoudi
• Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, by Pénélope Bagieu, translated by Montana Kane