2010 Eisner Award Winners

I'm taking fifteen minutes out of my phenomenally busy schedule at the moment (that's not sarcasm, by the way, finding fifteen minutes has been really hard this week and will probably be really hard next week) because the 2010 Eisner winners have been announced!

Best Short Story - "Urgent Request" by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim in The Eternal Smile
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot) - Captain America #601: "Red, White, and Blue-Blood" by Ed Brubaker and Gene Colan
Best Continuing Series - The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard
Best Limited Series - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young
Best New Series - Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory
Best Publication for Kids - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young
Best Publication for Teens - Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson
Best Humor Publication - Scott Pilgrm vs. the Universe by Brian Lee O'Malley
Best Anthology - Popgun Volume 3; edited by Mark Andrew Smith, D. J. Kirkbride, and Joe Keatinge
Best Digital Comic - Sin Titulo; by Cameron Stewart
Best Adaptation from Another Work - Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke
Best Reality-Based Work - A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Best Graphic Album: New - Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Best Graphic Album: Reprint - Absolute Justice by Alex Ross
Best Archival Collection/Project: Comic Strips - Bloom County: The Complete Library by Berkeley Breathed
Best Archival Collection/Project: Comic Books - The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens
Best U.S. Edition of International Material - The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier
Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia - A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Best Writer - Ed Brubaker; Captain America, Daredevil, Marvels Project, Criminal, Incognito
Best Writer/Artist - David Mazzucchelli; Asterios Polyp
Best Writer/Artist: Non-Fiction - Joe Sacco; Footnotes in Gaza
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team - J. H. Williams III; Detective Comics
Best Painter or Multimedia Artist - Jill Thompson; Beasts of Burden, Magic Trixie and the Dragon
Best Cover Artist - J. H. Williams III; Detective Comics
Best Coloring - Dave Stewart; Abe Sapien, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane, Umbrella Academy, Zero Killer, Detective Comics, Luna Park
Best Lettering - David Mazzucchelli; Asterios Polyp
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism - The Comics Reporter; produced by Tom Spurgeon
Best Comics-Related Book - The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics; by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle
Best Publication Design - Absolute Justice; designed by Curtis King and Josh Beatman

It's an interesting mix. There's stuff I have and love, stuff that I have wanted to read (I keep hearing that A Drifting Life is terrific), a couple of books that ordered this morning before the awards were announced (Asterois Polyp has been on my list to get for a long time), and a book that I hated so much that I gave it away (Scott Pilgrim).

James Jean's Eisner Winning Covers in 2007

I'm catching up to the present just in time for James Jean to miss out on his seventh consecutive Eisner for best cover artist. He isn't even nominated this year. But back to three years ago when Jean was still on his winning streak and provided cover art for two issues of Runaways along with the Fables spin-offs Jack of Fables and 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

This was also the toughest time to pick just five covers. While the Runaways covers aren't the best examples of Jean's work I wanted to include one of them. 1001 Nights of Snowfall had to be included so that was two down. And then everything else is terrific. What do I slight by picking out something else? I chose the two Fables covers because they're a matched set and consequently have an extra punch to them but I could have gone with anything from that year's worth of Fables or Jack of Fables covers.