Comic-Con's Eisner Awards honor the best in comics, from superheroes to scholarship

For almost four decades, Comic-Con has been handing out the Eisner Awards, commonly referred to as the "Oscars of the comics industry."

Courtesy of Jackie Estrada

Will Eisner is one of the giants of the comics industry. He began his career in the 1930s, gained acclaim for "The Spirit," and popularized the graphic novel format in 1978 with "A Contract With God." So it’s fitting that the "Oscars" of the comics industry are named after him.

"He lent his name to these awards back in the late 1980s," recalled Jackie Estrada. "And Comic-Con took them on in 1990, and I became the administrator at that point."

Courtesy of Jackie Estrada

Estrada has overseen the nominations and the selection of judges every year since then.

"The nominations are chosen by a jury of judges that are different every year," Estrada explained. "We have, for instance, one judge who's a librarian; then one who's a comics retailer; one who's an academic or scholar; one who's a creator and does comics; and then one who might be a journalist or reviewer — something like that. So they represent different aspects of looking at the industry."

Hosting the 2025 ceremony are voice actor Phil LaMarr ("Futurama," "Samurai Jack") and comics artist/editor Bill Morrison ("The Simpsons," "Futurama"). Presenters include Patton Oswalt, Janeshia Adams-Ginyard, David Dastmalchian and other creators, scholars and performers.

"I wish that I could have an invisibility cloak and sneak into the Eisner room every year, where all the books are just piled everywhere," noted Pamela Jackson.

But she didn’t need a cloak — she was a judge in 2021.

"What happens is, you get a secret phone call from Jackie Estrada telling you, 'Would you be a judge?' And you can't say anything for months," Jackson said. "And I don’t think people realize how many books — it’s a lot. It's about an eight-month process of deciding what's going to filter to the top, and then in a six-person showdown with your other judges of ranking the materials. I say it's agonizing in all the best ways.

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Jackson is also the comic arts librarian at San Diego State University, where the comics collection has grown from about 1,800 to more than 120,000.

"I use the Eisner Awards nomination list to help with my collection development," Jackson said. "And then look through the Eisner list and buy as much of it as I can on a limited budget, of course."

Courtesy of Image Comics

Steven Torres-Roman is a librarian in the humanities department at San Diego Central Library.

Courtesy of SDSU

"The librarians rely on awards lists like the Eisners," Roman said. "Both for an assurance of the quality of the material they're purchasing, but also because awards lists raise interest. Patrons are going to be coming to the library and asking about these titles once they get the nominees list. They're going to be, 'Do you have this? Do you have this?'"

San Diego Public Library has a full list of Eisner-nominated titles available in its collection.

Elizabeth Pollard, a history professor at SDSU, codirects the Center for Comic Studies with Jackson.

"The Eisners are a fantastic CliffsNotes version of what's new and noteworthy every single year in the field of comics," Pollard said. "It's great to know that here's this pre-vetted list of five comics in — or various productions in — each category that helps you know you didn't miss something."

Mike Damron

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KPBS

Didi co-owns Comickaze Comics and Pop Culture store with Lucky Bronson. Each year, the shop sets aside a shelf to feature all the Eisner nominees they have in stock. Some people still think comics are just about superheroes, Didi said.

"Well, it's not," he insisted. "The landscape has changed in the last decade and a half, two decades. It's good to have categories. It's good to have exposure about it. And it's good for the industry as a whole to come together and celebrate an achievement."

As proof, Roman noted that Marvel, DC and superheroes no longer dominate the awards.

Courtesy of Fantagraphics

"You also have titles like Joe Sacco's 'The War on Gaza,' or Mejías, who did 'The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History,' which is magnificent," Roman said.

Pollard appreciates how the Eisners reflect the diversity and complexity of the medium.

"The list of categories opens the eyes of those who don't know to just how complex the field of comics is," Pollard said. "You have penciling, colorist, story, the various genres within the medium — memoir, journalism, graphic medicine. There's even an award category for books about comics, best scholarship on comics. It shows that comics — the production of them, the scholarship about them — is no joke. It is an incredibly serious, moving, important field, and the Eisner shines a light on that."

And the categories evolve, too.

"In my year, we're the year that actually split for historical and autobiography," Jackson said. "So that there are two different categories for that right now."

Estrada is all about spreading the wealth so more people can take home an Eisner.

"I am gratified when I see how emotional people get when they go on that stage and get acknowledgement for what they've done," Estrada said. "Because for so many years, people in comics got zero acknowledgement for what they did."

J. Cortes

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SDCC

Even those who don’t win benefit, Jackson added.

"Part of the fun is when the final ballot is released and everyone starts arguing in the community about what should have been on there and how we got it wrong and all of that," Jackson said. "It helps raise even more awareness of the titles out there that people are passionate about."

So if you are looking for something to read this summer, the Eisner nominations are a great place to start.

Courtesy of Ten Speed Graphic