If the Eisner Awards are akin to the Academy Awards of the comics world, then the Ignatz Awards, presented at the annual Small Press Expo, is akin to the Sundance Film Festival. You’ll see some of the same professionals you see in mainstream comics (and many you haven’t…yet), but these projects are different. They’re innovative. Personal. They encompass a variety of formats, styles, and subject matter, exactly as you’d expect from a broad category like “indie comics.”
In that sense, these independent comics harken back to a different generation, and that spirit is referenced to even in the name: the Ignatz, named not after an industry professional, but for Ignatz the mouse from George Herriman’s comic strip Krazy Kat. The nominees are selected by a jury of industry professionals, and, unlike other awards, voted on by the attendees of SPX and then presented that weekend at a gala ceremony, open to the public, and sponsored for the last two years by ComiXology. It’s also probably the only award in comics where 50% of the nominees are women, with several women snagging multiple nominations.
Check out our past coverage of the Ignatz nominees below, and look for more reviews and interviews with in the coming weeks. Congratulations to all of this year’s Ignatz Award nominees!
- Review of Through The Woods
- Review of Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer
- Interview with Lilli Carre
- Review of Kerascoët’s Beautiful Darkness
- Review of SuperMutant Magic Academy
- Interview with Ariel Ries
Here is the full list of 2015 Ignatz nominees:
Outstanding Artist
- Emily Carroll, Through The Woods
- Ed Luce, Wuvable Oaf
- Roman Muradov, (In a Sense) Lost and Found
- Jillian Tamaki, SuperMutant Magic Academy
- Noah Van Sciver, Saint Cole
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
- Drawn and Quarterly, 25 Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, edited by Tom Devlin, Chris Oliveros, Peggy Burns, Tracy Hurren, and Julia Pohl-Miranda
- An Entity Observes All Things, by Box Brown
- How To Be Happy, by Eleanor Davis
- Pope Hats #4, by Ethan Rilly
- SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki
Outstanding Graphic Novel
- Beauty, by Kerascoët and Hubert
- The Oven, by Sophie Goldstein
- Rav, by Mickey Zacchilli
- Saint Cole, by Noah Van Sciver
- Wendy, by Walter Scott
Outstanding Story
- Doctors, by Dash Shaw
- “Me As a Baby,” by Michael DeForge (from Lose #6)
- “Nature Lessons,” by Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger (from The Late Child and Other Animals)
- “Sex Coven,” by Jillian Tamaki (from Frontier #7)
- Weeping Flower, Grows in Darkness, by Kris Mukai
Promising New Talent
- Dean, K.M. & R.P. & MCMLXXI (1971)
- Sophia Foster-Dimino, Sphincter, Sex Fantasy
- Dakota McFadzean, Don’t Get Eaten by Anything
- Jane Mai, Soft
- Gina Wynbrandt, Big Pussy
Outstanding Series
- Dumb, by Georgia Webber
- Frontier, edited by Ryan Sands
- March, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
- Pope Hats, by Ethan Rilly
- Sex Fantasy, by Sophia Foster-Dimino
Outstanding Comic
- Borb, by Jason Little
- The Nature of Nature, by Disa Wallander
- The Oven, by Sophie Goldstein
- Pope Hats 4, by Ethan Rilly
- Weeping Flower, Grows in Darkness, by Kris Mukai
Outstanding Minicomic
- Devil’s Slice of Life, by Patrick Crotty
- Epoxy 5,” by John Pham
- King Cat #75, by John Porcellino
- Sex Fantasy #4, by Sophia Foster-Dimino
- Whalen: A Reckoning, by Audry
Outstanding Online Comic
- The Bloody Footprint, by Lilli Carre
- Carriers, by Lauren Weinstein
- Mom Body, by Rebecca Roher
- O Human Star, by Blue Delliquanti
- Witchy, by Ariel Ries