Lou Ferrigno, Ernie Hudson, Raina Telgemeier Among Presenters at the 31st Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
The 31st annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony will be held Friday night, July 19 in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront, just a short walk south from the Convention Center.
The doors of the Indigo Ballroom will open at 7:45, and the ceremonies will get under way at 8:00. Attendance at the event is free to all Comic-Con members. Be sure to bring your convention badge to be admitted—and your I.D. if you wish to purchase alcoholic beverages. Advance seating for VIPs (nominees, sponsors, presenters) will begin at 7:00. No-host bars will be set up both in the ballroom and the ballroom lobby. The ceremony is expected to run until about 10:45. It will be followed by a reception in the Indigo Ballroom foyer, with a live jazz duo for entertainment.
Named for the pioneering comics creator and graphic novelist Will Eisner, The Eisner Awards will be given out in 32 categories for works published in 2018. All attendees will get a souvenir program listing the nominees.
Among presenters at this year’s ceremony are
- Actor Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk)
- Actor Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters)
- Worldwide bestselling graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama, Sisters)
- Actor/writer/directors Tom Lennon and Ben Garant (Reno 911, Balls of Fury, Night at the Museum series)
- Comics creator/entrepreneur Todd McFarlane (Spawn, McFarlane Toys)
- Voice actor/comedian Phil LaMarr (MadTV, Samurai Jack, Futurama, Justice League)
- Voice actor Grey DeLisle-Griffin (DC Super Hero Girls, Scooby-Do and Guess Who, The Loud House, Young Justice)
- Comics creator Eddie Campbell (Bizarre Romance, From Hell, Bacchus)
- Bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Bizarre Romance)
- Eisner nominees David Walker and Sanford Greene (Bitter Root)
- Comics artist and past Eisner winner Alitha Martinez (Black Panther: World of Wakanda, Batgirl, Iron Man)
- Beloved cartoonist Sergio Aragonés (Groo, MAD)
- Writer Anina Bennett (Boilerplate, Heartbreakers)
- Writer/artist and past Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award recipient Bill Morrison
- Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award recipient and voice actor Kayre Morrison
Sponsors
The principal sponsors for the awards this year are mycomicshop.com and Gentle Giant Studios. Supporting sponsors are Alternate Reality Comics (Las Vegas), Atlantis Fantasyworld (Santa Cruz, CA), Diamond Comics/Geppi Entertainment Museum, Flying Colors & Other Cool Stuff (Concord, CA), and Marquis Book.
Other Awards
The Eisner Awards evening includes the presentation of several other special awards. Since 1984, Comic-Con has been bestowing the annual Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award (to be presented by Bob’s daughter Ruth). This year’s recipients are Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (publisher of the benefit anthology Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuilding Puerto Rico) and Lisa Wood (a.k.a. Tula Lotay, founder of Thought Bubble in Leeds, England). Past winner William Stout will be announcing the nominees and winner of the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, which has been handed out since 1982. Also being presented is the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award, presided over by Joe Ferrara.
This is the 15th year for presentation of the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The 2019 recipients are Mike Friedrich (scripter of numerous titles for DC and Marvel in the early 1970s, including The Spectre, Justice League of America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Warlock, Ka-Zar, and many more) and E. Nelson Bridwell (writer/editor at DC in the 1960s–1980s, with credits including The Inferior Five, The Secret Six, and The Angel and the Ape, Shazam! and Super-Friends); the awards will be presented by Mark Evanier. The major sponsor for the Finger Award is DC Comics. Supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.
The Eisner Awards are part of, and underwritten by, San Diego Comic-Con (Comic-Con International), a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular artforms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture.
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