The Friends of Lulu Blog reports that nominations for the 2008 Friends of Lulu Awards are open and ANYONE can nominate:

Lulu Awards: Nominations are open!

You don’t have to be a member to nominate!
You don’t have to be female to nominate!
Heck, you don’t even have to like us to nominate!
But you do need to know of a female comic creator that you want
to see recognized for her hard work in this industry.

You’ll find the form here. Go and ANyone got suggestions for the various categories? I would nominate Rutu Modan and Marjane Satrapi for Lulu of the Year, for instance.

Cartoonist and art teacher Phoebe Gloeckner has won a Guggenheim Fwllowship. The Fllowships are prosented to advanced professionals in a variety of creative and scientific fields to enable them to work on projects with creative freedom. Gloeckner will use hers to work on a graphic novel..

Gloeckner will use her fellowship to create a graphic narrative about a Mexican girl murdered at the turn of this century in Ciudad Juarez, a major U.S.-Mexico border crossing adjacent to El Paso, Texas. The project represents a radical change in her work, she says. Rather than draw images, Gloeckner developed a three-dimensional technique, teaching herself to use tools and to construct nearly everything she would normally draw.

“The fellowship will allow me to immerse myself in the final stages of this process, which will require several more trips to Juarez and long periods of focused work,” she says. “I’m so very happy and grateful to have received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and acknowledge that it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of family, friends and colleagues.”

Congrats, Phoebe!

They’re out! Labelled “the most diverse yet” we’re just looking at the list andthey are definiely very indie friendly while not entirely ignoring the superheroes here and there with nominations for everything from Urasawa to Comic Foundry.
Here’s awards administrator Jackie Estrada’s press release:

The nomination list for the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards represents the most diverse slate of titles and creators in the 20-year history of the awards (considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry). The nominees range from literary Japanese graphic novels to comics based on popular TV series, from massive hardcover collections of classic comic strips and comic books to cutting-edge anthologies, from goofy humor titles to works about the Soviet space program, a Chinese vaudeville magician, and the Negro Leagues. In fact, the nominations are so varied that it is difficult to summarize any trends.

No one publisher or creator dominates this year’s nominations, which were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges. DC Comics, which has traditionally been at the top of the list, has 11 nods (+ 6 shared) for such titles as Brian K. Vaughan’s Y the Last Man (Continuing Series, Penciller/Inker, Writer) and Darwyn Cooke’s The Spirit (Continuing Series, Coloring, Lettering). Dark Horse has 12 nominations (+ 4), spearheaded by Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (Continuing Series, New Series, Writer, Coloring) and Umbrella Academy (Limited Series, Cover Artist, Coloring). Also right up there is Marvel Comics, with 11 nominations (+ 2), with Stephen King’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born garnering 4 of those (Limited Series, Penciller/Inker, Cover Artist, Coloring). Close behind is alt-comics publisher Fantagraphics, with 11 nominations, including 4 for the quarterly anthology Mome (two in Short Story, Anthology, Lettering) and 2 for the retro Fletcher Hanks collection I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

Image Comics has 8 nominations (+ 1) for a wide variety of titles, while AdHouse Books has 6 (+ 1), including 4 for newcomer Fred Chao’s Johnny Hiro (Single Issue, New Series, Humor Publication, Writer/Artist-Humor). Oni Press clocks in with 5 (+ 1) nominations, while Drawn & Quarterly has 5 (including 2 for Rutu Modan’s critically acclaimed Exit Wounds). Companies with 4 nominations each are Renaissance Press (all for Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia Rules!) , Sunday Press, Viz, and Scholastic (3 for Shaun Tan’s wordless graphic novel The Arrival). Companies with 3 nominations each are Archaia, First Second, Hyperion, and Top Shelf.

Five creators have 4 nominations each: writer/artists Fred Chao and Jimmy Gownley, and writers James Sturm (3 of them for Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow), Brian K. Vaughan (for both Buffy and Y the Last Man), and Joss Whedon (for Buffy, Astonishing X-Men, and the online Sugarshock!). Only three other creators have more than 2 nominations: artist Jae Lee (Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born), writer/artist Shaun Tan (The Arrival), and writer/artist/editor Chris Ware (Acme Novelty Library #18; Best American Comics 2007).

The judges added one new category this year, splitting the previous Best Title for a Younger Audience category into two: Best Publication for Kids and Best Publication for Teens, to reflect all the great material that is being produced for these audiences. All in all, this year’s nominations are the most ever: 148 nominations in 29 categories (not including Hall of Fame).

Japanese comics and creators are particularly well represented on the ballot. In addition to 6 titles (instead of 5) being nominated in the Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material–Japan category, they can be found in the Short Story (2 nominees), Continuing Series (Naoki Urasawa’s Monster), Publication for Kids, Archival Collection–Comic Books, Writer/Artist, and Penciller/Inker categories.

The 2008 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of John Davis (director of pop culture markets, Bookazine), Paul DiFilippo (SF and comics author), Atom! Freeman (owner of Brave New World Comics in Santa Clarita, CA), Jeff Jensen (senior writer, Entertainment Weekly), and Eva Volin (supervising children’s librarian for the Alameda Free Library in Alameda, CA).

Ballots will be going out in late April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable pdf of the ballot will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. Voting is already under way at www.eisnervote.com for one category, Hall of Fame, for which the judges chose the nominees in March. The deadline for voting in this category is April 18. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 25 at Comic-Con International.

The Eisner Awards are presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International, San Diego, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms. primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture. Jackie Estrada has been administrator of the Awards since 1990. She can be reached at jackiee@mindspring.com.

More information about the Eisner Awards can be found at http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml.

2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees

Best Short Story
“Book,” by Yuichi Yokoyama, in New Engineering (PictureBox)
“At Loose Ends,” by Lewis Trondheim, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)
“Mr. Wonderful,” by Dan Clowes, in New York Times Sunday Magazine (accessible online at www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/magazine/funnypagesClowes.html)
“Town of Evening Calm,” by Fumiyo Kouno, in Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Last Gasp)
“Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?” by Paul Karasik, in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (Fantagraphics)
“Young Americans,” by Emile Bravo, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Amelia Rules! #18: “Things I Cannot Change,” by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople, by Tony Cliff (self-published)
Johnny Hiro #1, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Justice League of America #11: “Walls,” by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)
Sensational Spider-Man Annual: “To Have or to Hold,” by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel)

Best Continuing Series
The Boys, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Dynamite)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
The Spirit, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

Best Limited Series
Atomic Robo, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegender (Red 5 Comics)
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, by Peter David, Robin Furth, and Jae Lee (Marvel)
Nightly News, by Jonathan Hickman (Image)
Parade (with Fireworks), by Michael Cavallaro (Shadowline/Image)
The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

Best New Series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Immortal Iron Fist, by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and others (Marvel)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
The Infinite Horizon, by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto (Image)
Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra (Vertigo/DC)

Best Publication for Kids
Amelia Rules! and Amelia Rules! Funny Stories, by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, edited by Jeremy Barlow (Dark Horse)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis (Frank Foster Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Yotsuba&!, by Kiyohiko Azuma (ADV)

Best Publication for Teens
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Mighty Skullboy Army, by Jacob Chabot (Dark Horse)
The Annotated Northwest Passage, by Scott Chantler (Oni)
PX! Book One: A Girl and Her Panda, by Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson (Shadowline/Image)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)

Best Humor Publication
Dwight T. Albatross’s The Goon Noir, edited by Matt Dryer (Dark Horse)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Lucha Libre, by Jerry Frissen, Bill, Gobi, Fabien M., Nikola Witko, Hervé Tanquelle et al. (Image)
Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch (Dark Horse)
Wonton Soup, by James Stokoe (Oni)

Best Anthology
Best American Comics 2007, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Chris Ware (Houghton Mifflin)
5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)
Mome, edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened, edited by Jason Rodriguez (Villard)
24Seven, vol. 2, edited by Ivan Brandon (Image)

Best Digital Comic
The Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl, www.abominable.transmission-x.com
Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel, www.deanhaspiel.com/immortal.html
The Process, by Joe Infurnari, www.theprocesscomic.com
PX! By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson, www.pandaxpress.com
Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon, http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents?issuenum=1&storynum=2

Best Reality-Based Work
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, by Ann Marie Fleming (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, by Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly (Vertigo/DC)
White Rapids, by Pascal Blanchet (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album—New
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Bookhunter, by Jason Shiga (Sparkplug Books)
Essex County, vols. 1-2: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)
Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Agents of Atlas Hardcover, by Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk, and Kris Justice (Marvel)
Gødland Celestial Edition, by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)
James Sturm’s America: God, Gold, and Golems, by James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
Super Spy, by Matt Kindt (Top Shelf)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, by Winsor McCay (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)
Little Sammy Sneeze, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press)
Popeye, vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down, by E. C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, by Frank King (Sunday Press)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel)
Apollo’s Song, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
The Completely MAD Don Martin, by Don Martin (Running Press)
Daredevil Omnibus, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (Marvel)
I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Aya, by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Obrerie (Drawn & Quarterly)
Garage Band, by Gipi (First Second)
I Killed Adolf Hitler, by Jason (Fantagraphics)
The Killer, by Matz and Luc Jacamon (Archaia)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan
The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories, by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
MW, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama (PictureBox)
Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, by Fumiyo Kouno (Last Gasp)

Best Writer
Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC),
Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)
Brian Wood, DMZ, Northlanders (Vertigo/DC); Local (Oni)

Best Writer/Artist
Jeff Lemire, Essex County: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories (Top Shelf)
Rutu Modan, Exit Wounds (Drawn & Quarterly)
Shaun Tan, The Arrival (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)
Fumi Yoshinaga, Flower of Life; The Moon and Sandals (Digital Manga)

Best Writer/Artist—Humor
Kyle Baker, The Bakers: Babies and Kittens (Image)
Fred Chao, Johnny Hiro (AdHouse)
Brandon Graham, King City (Tokyopop); Multiple Warheads (Oni)
Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)
James Stokoe, Wonton Soup (Oni)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Steve Epting/Butch Guice/Mike Perkins, Captain America (Marvel)
Pia Guerra/Jose Marzan, Jr., Y: The Last Man (Vertical/DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Takeshi Obata, Death Note, Hikaru No Go (Viz)
Ethan Van Sciver, Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps (DC)

Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art)
Ann-Marie Fleming, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown (Dark Horse)
Bryan Talbot, Alice in Sunderland (Dark Horse)
Ben Templesmith, Fell (Image); 30 Days of Night: Red Snow; Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (IDW)

Best Cover Artist
John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)
James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Process Recess 2; Superior Showcase 2 (AdHouse)
J. G. Jones, 52 (DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Jim Lee, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (DC); World of Warcraft (WildStorm/DC)

Best Coloring
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Steve Hamaker, Bone, vols. 5 and 6 (Scholastic); Shazam: Monster Society of Evil (DC)
Richard Isanove, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Ronda Pattison, Atomic Robo (Red 5 Comics)
Dave Stewart, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC)
Alex Wald, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)

Best Lettering
Jared K. Fletcher, Catwoman, The Spirit (DC); Sentences: Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo/DC)
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Todd Klein, Justice, Simon Dark (DC); Fables, Jack of Fables, Crossing Midnight (Vertigo/DC); League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (WildStorm/DC); Nexus (Rude Dude)
Lewis Trondheim, “At Loose Ends,” Mome 7 & 8 (Fantagraphics)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)

Special Recognition
Chuck BB, Black Metal (artist, Oni)
Matt Silady, The Homeless Channel (writer/artist, AiT/PlanetLar)
Jamie Tanner, The Aviary (writer/artist, AdHouse)
James Vining, First in Space (writer/artist, Oni)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Comic Art #9, edited by Todd Hignite (Buenaventura Press)
Comic Foundry, edited by Tim Leong (Comic Foundry)
The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael (www.comicsreporter.com)
Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran (www.newsarama.com)

Best Comics-Related Book
The Art of P. Craig Russell, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado)
The Artist Within, by Greg Preston (Dark Horse)
Manga: The Complete Guide, by Jason Thompson (Del Rey Manga)
Meanwhile . . . A Biography of Milton Caniff, by R. C. Harvey (Fantagraphics)
Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)
Understanding Manga and Anime, by Robin Brenner (Libraries Unlimited/Greenwood Publishing)

Best Publication Design
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, designed by Ulrich Merkl (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, designed by Dean Mullaney (IDW)
Heroes, vol. 1, designed by John Roshell/Comicraft (WildStorm/DC)
Little Sammy Sneeze, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, designed by Chris Ware (Sunday Press)

Hall of Fame
Judges’ Choices: R. F. Outcault, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson

Nominees (4 will be selected by voters):
Matt Baker
John Broome
Reed Crandall
Rudolph Dirks
Arnold Drake
George Evans
Creig Flessel
Graham Ingels
Mort Meskin
Tarpe Mills
Gilbert Shelton
George Tuska
Mort Weisinger
Len Wein
Barry Windsor-Smith

The nominees for the 2008 Joe Shuster Awards have just been announced.

Nominees were selected by a two round voting process. Now that the list of nominees has been finalized, the nominated creators will have their work reviewed by a jury, who will ultimately decide which of the nominated creators will receive a Joe Shuster Award. In previous years winners were selected by a public vote.

Between now and the end of May, fans can vote for the following categories online at www.joeshusterawards.com:
- FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR – ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR - FRENCH LANGUAGE
- FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL (NON-CANADIAN) COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Winners will be announced at a public ceremony on June 14th in Toronto. The awards will be the final event at the Sequential Art Symposium to be held in the auditorium of the Toronto Public Library’s Lillian Smith branch on College Street on Saturday, June 14. The Symposium will feature talks related to comics and the 70th anniversary of the Superman character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as well as a Superman-themed art exhibit entitled “Visions of an Icon” featuring work by Canadian comic book artists. Guests for the symposium include Darwyn Cooke, Tom Grummett, J. Torres, Ty Templeton and more creators to be announced. All nominees are invited to attend and participate.

And the honorees are:
OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK WRITER
- Ian Boothby for Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #13, Futurama #29, 31-33, Simpsons Comics #126, 128, 130, 134, 136 (Bongo)
- Cecil Castellucci for The P.L.A.I.N. Janes (DC/Minx)
- Maryse Dubuc for Les Nombrils 2: Sale Temps pour les Moches (Editions Dupuis)
- Jim Munroe for Therefore Repent (No Media Kings) Comics Festival! 2007 (Legion of Evil Press)
- phlppgrrd aka Philippe Girard for Danger public (La pastèque)
- Ty Templeton for Howard the Duck #1-3, Marvel Adventures The Avengers #17-19, She-Hulk #20-21 (Marvel Comics)
- J. Torres for The Black Canary Wedding Planner #1, Blue Beetle #15, Wonder Girl #1-4, Wonder Woman #11-13 (DC Comics), Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #1,2,5,6, Teen Titans GO! #39-50, The Batman Strikes #29, 34 (DC/Johnny DC), Ninja Scroll 5-7, 10, 12 (DC/Wildstorm), Degrassi TNG: Extra Credit Vols. 3-4 (H.P, Fenn Publishing Co.)
- Howard Wong for After the Cape #1-3, After the Cape II #1-2 (Image Comics)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST
- Dale Eaglesham for Justice Society of America #2-4, 6-7, 9-11 (DC Comics)
- David Finch for Moon Knight #7-8, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #4: Spider-Man, Legion of Monsters: Morbius #1 (Marvel Comics)
- Tom Grummett for Exiles #100, Thunderbolts Presents Zemo: Born Better #1-4, Mystic Arcana: Black Knight #1 (Marvel Comics)
- Pia Guerra for Y the Last Man #55-59 (DC/Vertigo), Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #13 (Bongo)
- Stuart Immonen for Ultimate Spider-Man #111-117, Marvel Comics Presents #1-4, Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #12 (Marvel Comics)
- Karl Kerschl for All-Flash #1, 52 #47 (DC Comics)
- Thierry Labrosse for Moréa 5: La Brûlure des Ténèbres (Soleil Production)
- Jacques Lamontagne for Les Druides 3: La Lance de Lug, Les Contes de l’Ankou 3: Au Royaume des Morts (Soleil Production)

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With the San Diego con news cycle increasingly taken over by mega movie marketing events it was perhaps inevitable that a few events would migrate to other venues — one such is now the Annual Friends of Lulu Awards, which are moving to MoCCA, as the following PR shows. Should be a fun party!

Nominations for the four award categories are open to all, not just members, and will be taken at the NYCC next week.

Friends of Lulu is moving the organization’s Lulu Awards event from the San Diego Comic-Con to the popular MoCCA Art Festival (aka Artfest) this year!

The annual Lulu Awards, which recognize the efforts women make in comics, will be held at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Manhattan on Saturday, June 7 at 8:30 p.m.. Light refreshments will be served, and there will be a suggested donation of $7.00 at the door.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, along with IDW, DC Comics and Archie Comics, is sponsoring this major event.

“We are excited to bring an award event to MoCCA Artfest, and just as excited not to be competing with the multitude of great events at San Diego Comic-Con this July. We are able to reach a larger group of people eager to see wonderful creators recognized for their hard work in this field,” Treasurer Marion Vitus notes.

On the schedule to present awards are the previous years’ award winners, including Rachel Nabors and Abby Denson, and on the roster to emcee the event is Lulu Eightball creator Emily Flake.

The new Lulu Awards date, in June instead of July, means the nominations are right around the corner; nominations will be open to non-members this year and begin at the joint MoCCA/Friends of Lulu table at the New York Comic-Con starting Friday, April 18.

Look for more details on the Friends of Lulu blog.

Michael Ramirez of Investors Business Daily has won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning:

Awarded to Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily for his provocative cartoons that rely on originality, humor and detailed artistry.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Tom Batiuk of King Features for a sequence in his cartoon strip “Funky Winkerbean” that portrays a woman’s poignant battle with breast cancer, and Clay Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor for his distinctive cartoons marked by sharp focus and pungent simplicity.

Tom has a full run down on pertinent links including this interview with Ramirez:

“My approach is to have a powerful image along with a significant statement,” said the Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) cartoonist, when reached by phone this afternoon. “It’s great to be funny, too, but the most important element is the message — to have an impact and make people think.”

Ramirez added: “Editorial cartooning is an extension of journalism, not just entertainment.”

Kevin Melrose has the rundown of this year’s Diamond Gem Awards:

Comic Book Publisher of the Year Over 5%
DC Comics

Comic Book Publisher of the Year Under 5%
IDW Publishing

New Publisher of the Year
Red 5 Comics

Dark Horse, Marvel, WizKids, Upper Deck, Viz and many other publishers and products are represented in the final list. Some might wonder at DC’s win in a year in which they experienced a less-than-smooth ride, but since we can’t find any official announcement other than this blog post, we’ll leave it at that for now.

The nominations for the 2008 Eagle Awards are up. We received no and can find no pr for the nominees, but at a glance a variety of American and European action-adventures genres and creators are represented. Here’s a few categories:

12: Award for Favourite Colour Comicbook - American
ALL STAR SUPERMAN
AWAKENING
CAPTAIN AMERICA
HELLBOY: DARKNESS CALLS
Y THE LAST MAN

13: Award for Favourite Colour Comicbook - British
2000 AD
HOPE FALLS
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN
STARSHIP TROOPERS

21: Award for Favourite Original Graphic Novel

ALICE IN SUNDERLAND
THE GOON: CHINATOWN
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN: BLACK DOSSIER
THE ORDER OF THE STICK: START OF DARKNESS
THE SURREAL ADVENTURES OF EDGAR ALLAN POO

Via the email:

The Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration rewards a self-publisher of small-press, hand-made comics (sometimes called “mini-comics”), on the basis of merit and financial need. The 2008 Kukoc will be awarded at Guapo Comics and Coffee on April 24th, 2008, to coincide with the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR, and includes a cash prize of $400. Voting for the Kukoc Awards begins today (April 7th) and ends April 24th. This year’s nominees are:

* Rina Ayuyang Doodle Daze
* Liz Baillie My Brain Hurts #7, Layover
* Jon Chadurjian LEO GEO Acquires Ancient Knowledge, Shortstack: The Journal Comic Card Game
* Sarah Glidden How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less
* Alex Holden Magic Hour Sketchbook
* David King Danny Dutch and The King of the Aliens

To vote, email Jesse Reklaw at reklaw@slowwave.com if they read mini-comics and want to be sent a ballot.

Legendary Stan Lee will be given the first New York Comics Legend award at this year’s New York Comic-Con. Lee will be presented with the award at a VIP reception at the Virgin Megastore. You can read all the PR in the jump, but it’s a nice touch that the award, the first of an annual tradition, will only be presented to individuals who have made a contribution to civic life in New York and lived in New York for a significant number of years. By that criterion, it will be only 150 years before The Beat gets one!

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PR with emphasis added. Of some interest is the fact that now what we’d call “modern” or contemporary Marvel and DC creators are beginning to show up on the ballot, like Len Wein and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Voting is now open for the Hall of Fame category of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. In a change from previous years, the judges have arrived at the nominations early in the year, and the voting in this category will be online only. According to Eisner Awards administrator Jackie Estrada, this change was instituted to test the new online voting process for the awards and to reduce the number of categories the judges will have to deal with when they meet in early April to determine the rest of the nominees.

The Hall of Fame nominees are Matt Baker, John Broome, Reed Crandall, Rudolph Dirks, Arnold Drake, George Evans, Creig Flessel, Graham Ingels, Mort Meskin, Tarpe Mills, Gilbert Shelton, George Tuska, Mort Weisinger, Len Wein, and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Eligible voters can visit www.eisnervote.com to register and then select up to four picks in the Hall of Fame category. The deadline for voting is April 18. To vote, you must be a professional working in the comics industry, whether as a creator (writer, artist, cartoonist, colorist, letterer), a publisher or editor, or a retailer (comics store owner or manager). Further eligibility information is provided at the site.

The judges have also selected two individuals to automatically be inducted into the Hall of Fame: the pioneering cartoonist R. F. Outcault (who created “The Yellow Kid” and “Buster Brown”) and Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (who founded what is now DC Comics and published the first comic book to contain all-new material, New Fun #1, in February 1935).

The 2008 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of John Davis (director of pop culture markets, Bookazine), Paul DiFilippo (SF and comics author), Atom! Freeman (owner of Brave New World Comics in Santa Clarita, CA), Jeff Jensen (senior writer, Entertainment Weekly), and Eva Volin (supervising children’s librarian for the Alameda Free Library in Alameda, CA).

The judges were assisted by students at Vermont’s Center for Cartoon Studies, who made suggestions for Hall of Fame nominees and provided background information on the people they suggested. Eisner Awards administrator Jackie Estrada notes that the involvement of the students was very helpful and is looking forward to working with Steve Bissette and CCS students again next year.

The online voting process is being conducted by Mel Thompson and Associates, the official tabulators of the Eisner Awards. The rest of the categories will be available for online voting in mid-April. In addition, paper ballots will still be mailed out and will be tabulated along with the online votes for the other categories.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are conducted under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego, and the gala awards ceremony will be held on July 25 in San Diego. Further information about the awards can be found at http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml.

Penguin’s well-received line of classics with covers by comics-type illustrators (such as Chris Ware, above)has won the Design Museum’s Brit Insurance Design Awards :

The category winners of the Design Museum’s Brit Insurance Design Awards have been announced with Penguin’s US Classics Deluxe editions winning in the graphics category and Haque’s Burble London installation taking the interactive prize

The category winners were decided by a judging panel consisting of Vitra’s Rolf Fehlbaum, publisher Lars Müller and architect and designer Antonio Citterio.

[Via Blog@]
Designer Paul Buckley is interviewed here.

The Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards were announced yesterday and you should just go to the link becayse it has links to all he nominated comics, and they deserve a click-through if you’ve never checked them out. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio won many awards, including “Outstanding Comic.” Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler won several awards as well.

The winners in the 15th annual Spectrum Awards for the best uin Fantastic art have been announced, and James Jean was once again the big winner, with a Best in Show, and #1 in the Comic’s category. John Jude Palencar won the Grand Master Award, The complete list:

ADVERTISING
Gold Award: JOHNNY YANOK (”Resurrection of the Blood-Zombies From Beyond²/
client: Headless Spectre Records / art director: Doktor Viktor Von Kreep)
Silver Award: BROM (”Hellbent” / client: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. / art
director: Brom)

BOOK
Gold Award: SAM WEBER (cover to THIRTEEN ORPHANS by Jane Linskold / client:
Tor Books / art director: Irene Gallo)
Silver Award: STEPHAN MARTINIERE (cover to CITY WITHOUT END by Kay Kenyon /
client: Pyr/Prometheus Books / art director: Lou Anders)

COMICS
Gold Award: JAMES JEAN (cover to FABLES #66: The Good Prince/ client:
Vertigo/DC Comics / art director: Shelly Bond)
Silver Award: ADAM HUGHES (cover to CATWOMAN #75 / client: DC Comics / art
director: Mark Chiarello)

CONCEPT ART
Gold Award: DANIEL DOCIU (³Defeated Dragon² / client: ArenaNet/Guildwars /
art director: Daniel Dociu)
Silver Award: DANIEL DOCIU (³Carnival Season² / client: ArenaNet/Guildwars /
art director: Daniel Dociu)

DIMENSIONAL
Gold Award: A. BRENT ARMSTRONG (”The Mummy Revisited” / bronze)
Silver Award: AKIHITO IKEDA (”Heart of Art” / mixed media)

EDITORIAL
Gold Award: PHIL HALE (”Interpreter² / client: Playboy Magazine / art
director: Tom Staebler)
Silver Award: KURT HUGGINS & ZELDA DEVON (”Singer² / client: Polluto
Magazine / art director: Adam Lowe)

INSTITUTIONAL
Gold Award: ROBH RUPPEL (”Hot, Dry, & Deadly² / client: Broadview Graphics /
art director: Robh Ruppel)
Silver Award: LARRY MACDOUGALL (”Rainy River” / client: Underhill Studio /
art director: P.A. Lewis)

UNPUBLISHED
Gold Award: OMAR RAYYAN (”The Apple²)
Silver Award: BROM (”Black Coast² / art director: Arnie Fenner)

BEST IN SHOW
JAMES JEAN (cover to FABLES #67: The Good Prince / client: Vertigo/DC Comics
/ art director: Shelly Bond)

GRAND MASTER AWARD (presented by the Spectrum Advisory Board)
JOHN JUDE PALENCAR

This year’s jury consisted of Daren Bader [artist/art director for Rockstar Games/San Diego], Tim Bodendistel [art director/Hallmark Cards], Frank Cho [artist], Kelley Seda [artist], and Justin Sweet [artist].

VIA PR:

The third annual Glyph Comics Awards (GCAs), honoring the best in black comics and creators, will once again take place at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia. The Awards Committee is pleased to announce this year’s nominees, as judged by the following:

· Rich Watson, GCA Committee Chair and writer for PopCultureShock.com
· Cheryl Lynn Eaton, comics journalist and founder of the Ormes Society
· Prof. William Foster, comics historian and lecturer
· Tony Isabella, comics writer and columnist
· Katherine Keller, editor-in-chief, Sequential Tart

The nominees for the 2008 Glyph Comics Awards are:

Story of the Year
Hunter’s Moon, James L. White, writer, Dalibor Talajic and Sebastian Cardoso, artists
Nat Turner: Revolution, Kyle Baker, writer and artist
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, James Sturm, writer, Rich Tommaso, artist
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, Percy Carey, writer, Ronald Wimberly, artist
Welcome to Tranquility, Gail Simone, writer, Neil Googe, artist

Best Writer
Percy Carey, Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm
Dwayne McDuffie, Fantastic Four
Gail Simone, Welcome to Tranquility
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
James L. White, Hunter’s Moon

Best Artist
Kyle Baker, Nat Turner: Revolution
Olivier Coipel, Thor
Georges Jeanty, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Jeremy Love, Bayou
Ronald Wimberly, Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm

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* RATATOUILLE won a much deserved Oscar® for Best Animated Film. Suzie Templeton won Best Animated Short won for PETER & THE WOLF, which we didn’t pick in our handicapping, but which we enjoyed the most of all the shorts we watched, so hey we’re happy. Seriously check it out online…it has some amazing stop-motion animation.

* This is kind of hard to admit after all these years but…Jon Stewart isn’t that great an ad-libber. He has a few zingers. Best Line: “Even Norbit was nominated which was nice, because many times Oscar doesn’t recognize movies that aren’t very good.”

* The binoculars tribute was very touching.

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As usual, it takes no skill to figure out the big winners at the Oscars, the occasional Crash aside. Picking the Coen Brothers, Javier Bardem and Diablo Cody is about as safe as predicting the appearance of another Skrull poster from Marvel next week. No, where Oscar pools are won and lost is in the Live Action Short and Animated Short categories. These obscure nominees crawl from the primordial ooze of doing it for art, get a brief touching moment and then go back to their careers of dedication to craft. We can’t really pick the live action shorts, but figure we should have a shot at the animated shorts. And good news! You can play along as they are almost all available on YouTube!

I Met the Walrus
Directed by Josh Raskin

Imaginative animated interpretation of a John Lennon interview.

Madame Tutli-Putli
Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

Part Two
Canadian film about a woman who takes a train journey and encounters weirdness.

Même les Pigeons vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven)
Directed by Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse.

Humorous French CGI entry

My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Directed by Alexander Petrov

Part Two
The Russian entry. Petrov, a previous Oscar® winner, presents a love story told in a stunning oil painting style.

Peter & the Wolf
Directed by Suzie Templeton

Part Two
Part Three

From England, a stop-motion retelling of the familiar legend.

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300 the movie may have spawned a dozen catch phrases and its own little pop culture cult, but it’s been shut out of the awards season frenzy — until the Saturn noms came out today, honoring the best in SF, fantasy and horror films:

Leading the nominations this year is the groundbreaking film, “300” with 10 nominations. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” follows close behind with 9 nominations and Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is represented with 8 nominations.
A trio of fantastic adventures: “The Golden Compass”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, and “Spider-Man 3” received 4 nominations each, while “The Bourne Ultimatum”, “Eastern Promises”, “Enchanted”, “Grindhouse”, “The Mist”, “No Country For Old Men”, “Stardust”, and “There Will Be Blood” each received 3 nominations.

Some of those films kind of make us scratch our heads. We’re always for honoring Vigg, but was EASTERN PROMISES really a “horror” film? Oh well.

HT: ComicMix.

Ratatouille, the Pixar feature about a gourmet food loving rat won 10 Annie Awards over the weekend, including best feature, best writing and directing for Brad Bird, best voice acting for Ian Holm, best character animation, music, storyboarding, production design and best animated video game. Creature Comforts America won for best television program, and Seth Green won for best television directing for Robot Chicken Star Wars.

See the winning list in its entirety at the ASIFA-Hollywood site .

While EXIT WOUNDS has been getting much well-deserved acclaim, it seems that THE ARRIVAL is the graphic novel that is picking up, as they say, awards seasons mo. This story from a local Aussie paper profiles creator Shaun Tan and lists some of the book’s kudos:

Tan said yesterday he had begun talks with a Los Angeles producer about turning The Arrival into a film, vindicating his decision to knock back a job on an American animated film six years ago to spend four years hunched over his drawing board to create the book.

The book has been a publishing hit around the world. It reached No. 7 on the New York Times children’s book bestseller list and the Mexican Government bought 30,000 copies for distribution to schools around the country.

The book was published in Australia originally, and won the WA Premier’s Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, beating out Robert Hughes and celebrated novelist Peter Carey. and now, of course, book of the year at Angoulême.

Shaun Tan’s wordless meditation on immigration The Arrival won Book of the Year at the Angoulême fest. Matthias Wivel has the other winners:

Essentials
Rutu Modan — Exit wounds
Pascal Rabaté & David Prudhomme — Marie en plastique
Cyril Pedrosa — Trois ombres
Jean Regnaud & Emile Bravo — Ma Maman est en Amerique, elle a rencontre Buffalo Bill
Pierre Dragon & Frederik Peeters — RG

Discovery of the Year
Isabelle Pralong — L’Elephant

Fanzine Prize
Turkey #16

Heritage Prize
Tove Jansson: Moomin

Youth Prize
Philippe Buchet & Jean-David Morvan — Sillage vol. 10: Retour de flammes

Prize of the Public
Catel & José-Louis Bocquet — Kiki de montparnasse

Here is the link. Go forth and nominate, people, and none of that “voting bloc” shit this time. According to the PR 2000 people voted in last year’s Harvey Awards.

The Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con are proud to present the official Nomination Ballot for this year’s Harvey Awards . Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. Ballots are due for submission by March 21st.

The Harvey Awards will be presented on September 27th, 2008 in Baltimore as part of the Baltimore Comic-Con. The Master of Ceremonies for the awards dinner and presentation will once again be the wonderful and hilarious Kyle Baker.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. The Harvey Awards are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

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The 19th Annual GLAAD Awards, highlighting thew strongest portrayals of GLBT characters in all media were just announced and the comics nominees are:

Comic Book
American Virgin by Steven T. Seagle (Vertigo/DC Comics)
The Boys by Garth Ennis (Dynamite Entertainment)
Midnighter by Garth Ennis, Brian K. Vaughan, Christos Gage, Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, and Keith Giffin (Wildstorm/DC Comics)
The Outsiders by Judd Winick, Greg Rucka, and Tony Bedard (DC Comics)
Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)

Some may be surprised to see the THE BOYS on the list — it’s most notorious scene this year was a hamster crawling from a dead man’s ass — but you know sometimes shock and insight go hand in hand.

We’d been looking around for a list of this year’s Angoulëme Prize nominees, but no such list seems to exist in English save this as-always excellent article by Bart Beatty commenting at the list of nominees. Beatty explains that this year’s winner be be drawn from a list of 50 notable books. You can see that list here at a truly excellent site with sample pages covers and so on. A whole afternoon of browsing fun there, but for easier reference we’ve made a list with a few notes and the English titles of books published here.

Angoulême 2008 notable books:

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This year’s nominees for Best Animated Feature are:

* “Persepolis”
* “Ratatouille”
* “Surf’s Up”

This year’s nominees for Best Animated Short Film are:

* Même les pigeons vont au paradis
* I Met the Walrus
* Madame Tutli-Putli
* Moya lyubov
* Peter & the Wolf

Other tidbits:

* Five nominations in all for “Ratatouille,” including Best Screenplay and Score.
* Two nominations for BEAT favorite “Pirates 3.”
* Three nominations for “Sweeney Todd,” including Best Actor for Johnny Depp.
* Three nominations for nerd favorite “Transformers.”

Who ya got?

Posted by Mark Coale