Eisner Awards

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are considered the "Oscars" of the comic book industry. They were founded in 1987 and are handed out each year in a gala ceremony at Comic-Con International: San Diego, the largest and oldest comics convention in the United States, drawing more than 60,000 people in recent years. The Eisner Awards are named for renowned cartoonist Will Eisner (creator of "The Spirit" and several award-winning graphic novels). One of the unique features of this award is that Mr. Eisner always personally presented the trophies to the winners at the ceremony before he passed away in January 2005. For more information, please visit: www.comic-con.org

Here are the winners in the "Graphic Novel – Reprint" category:

2008 – Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen (Young Adult)
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers that fight off intruders, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden village to another. Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam, three such Guardsmice, are dispatched to find a missing merchant mouse that never arrived at his destination. Their search for the missing mouse reveals much more than they expect, as they stumble across a traitor in the Guard's own ranks.

2007 – Absolute DC: The New Frontier * by Darwyn Cooke
The dawning of the Silver Age DC Universe is told from the perspective of those who survived the antihero sentiment of the Cold War, including Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, as well as eager newcomers like Green Lantern and The Flash, poised to become the next generation of crime-fighters. This oversized hardcover includes the entire series plus annotations, new story pages, rare promotional art, a gallery of DC Direct DC: The New Frontier product and much more.

2006 – Black Hole by Charles Burns (Adult Graphic Novel)
Suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease manifests in any number of ways, from the hideously grotesque to the subtle, but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters, some kids who have it, some who don’t, what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it, or even to treat it. What we become witness to, instead, is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself – the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.

2005 – Bone: One Volume by Jeff Smith (Young Adult)
Three modern cartoon cousins get lost in a pre-technological valley, spending a year there making new friends and outrunning dangerous enemies. Their many adventures include crossing the local people in The Great Cow Race and meeting a giant mountain lion called RockJaw: Master of the Eastern Border. They learn about sacrifice and hardship in The Ghost Circles and finally discover their own true natures in the climactic journey to The Crown of Horns. (Source: Cartoon Books)

2004 – Batman Adventures: Dangerous Dames & Demons by Paul Dini (Young Adult)

2003 – Batman: Black and White V. 2 by Mark Chiarello (Adult Graphic Novel)

2002 – Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb (Young Adult)

2001 – Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware (Adult Graphic Novel)

2000 – From Hell by Alan Moore (Adult Graphic Novel)

1999 – Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb (Young Adult)

1998 – Sin City: That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller (Adult Graphic Novel)

1997 – Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism by David Lapham (Adult Graphic Novel)

1996 – The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot (Young Adult)

1995 – Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola (Adult Graphic Novel)

1994 – Cerebus: Flight * by Dave Sim and Gerhard

1993 – Sin City by Frank Miller (Adult Graphic Novel)

1992 – Maus II by Art Spiegelman (Adult Graphic Novel)

1991 – Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman (Adult Graphic Novel)

1990 – [No Award]

1989 – Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland (Adult Graphic Novel)

1988 – Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Adult Graphic Novel)

* = Wake County Public Libraries do not own this title at this time.