Handicapping the 2010 Eisner Awards

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Best Reality-Based Work

A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan/Holt)
The Impostor’s Daughter, by Laurie Sandell (Little, Brown)
Monsters, by Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
Stitches, by David Small (Norton)

This is why the Eisner categories might need a little pruning: this category and “Best Writer/Artist–Nonfiction” do overlap considerably. Footnotes in Gaza and The Photographer are both brilliant and devastating in their own ways; still, A Drifting Life might have an edge among voters, since it’s all about Tatsumi’s life as a cartoonist.

Best Short Story

“Because I Love You So Much,” by Nikoline Werdelin, in From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the 3rd Millennium (Fantagraphics/Aben Maler)
“Gentleman John,” by Nathan Greno, in What Is Torch Tiger? (Torch Tiger)
“How and Why to Bale Hay,” by Nick Bertozzi, in Syncopated (Villard)
“Hurricane,” interpreted by Gradimir Smudja, in Bob Dylan Revisited (Norton)
“Urgent Request,” by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, in The Eternal Smile (First Second)

Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang have both won Eisners before, which I’m guessing gives them something of an advantage here.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

Brave & the Bold #28: “Blackhawk and the Flash: Firing Line,” by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz (DC)
Captain America #601: “Red, White, and Blue-Blood,” by Ed Brubaker and Gene Colan (Marvel)
Ganges #3, by Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics)
The Unwritten #5: “How the Whale Became,” by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)
Usagi Yojimbo #123: “The Death of Lord Hikiji” by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)

The sentimental vote here goes to Captain America #601, which the great Gene Colan has suggested will be his final comic book. My dark-horse pick, though, is Ganges #3, an absolutely brilliant, uncategorizable thing; who knows if there are enough Huizenga buffs to push it over the top?

(More on Techland: Is Comic-Con Headed to Anaheim?)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)
West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics)
Years of the Elephant, by Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Regnaud and Bravo’s book has three nominations; so does The Photographer. I bet one of them takes it–and, if it were up to me, that would be the enormously inventive The Photographer.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia

The Color Trilogy, by Kim Dong Haw (First Second)
A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
Oishinbo a la Carte, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki (VIZ Media)
Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)
Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)

Both this and the other international category would be a lot stronger if they were telescoped into one. The only way somebody other than Urasawa takes this one, though, is if the fans of Pluto and 20th Century Boys split the vote.

Best Writer

Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil, Marvels Project (Marvel) Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon)
Geoff Johns, Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, The Flash: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origin (DC)
James Robinson, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)
Mark Waid, Irredeemable, The Incredibles (BOOM!)
Bill Willingham, Fables (Vertigo/DC)

Brubaker won this in 2007 and 2008, Willingham in 2009; Geoff Johns has never won an Eisner before, but this has been his year as a commercial juggernaut. I would also love to hear the arguments for Cry for Justice, because I have not yet seen anyone articulate why they liked it in an unironic way.

Best Writer/Artist

Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated (Norton)
David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)
Terry Moore, Echo (Abstract Books)
Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka (VIZ Media)

A very tough match between Cooke’s beautifully executed lowbrow pulp and Mazzucchelli’s beautifully executed highbrown aesthetic philosophy, perhaps with Urasawa sneaking in as the spoiler.

Best Writer/Artist-Nonfiction

Reinhard Kleist, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (Abrams ComicArts)
Willy Linthout, Years of the Elephant (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan/Holt)
David Small, Stitches (Norton)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Tyler’s You’ll Never Know and Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza are both among the most magisterial, emotionally powerful graphic novels I’ve ever seen; they both deserve to win this one.

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