The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards will turn 36 in 2024. Each year, a panel of judges select the nominees in 30+ categories, and then professionals in the comics industry vote to choose the winners. The trophies are then handed out in an awards ceremony on Friday night of Comic-Con.
For the Hall of Fame portion of the awards, the judging has evolved to include not only nominees to be voted on via an online ballot but also automatic inductees selected by the judges. These are people that the judges feel have made major contributions to the comic book/graphic storytelling medium but are unlikely to be chosen by voters. These choices have included persons from the pioneering years of comics as well as creators who have been nominated multiple times but not yet been inducted.
As more and more creators have become eligible for the Hall of Fame (the person’s first significant professional work must have appeared at least 35 years before the year of the awards), the judging panels in recent years have felt the need to expand the number of inductees. In 2022 there were 6 judges’ choices and 6 elected inductees. In 2023 there were 15 judges’ choices and 4 elected inductees.
To accommodate the increase in recipients in 2023, a separate Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday morning of Comic-Con was established. Doing so allowed for each inductee to get greater attention, and it led to a shorter Friday night ceremony for the other 32 categories (45 minutes less than in 2022).
Holding the separate ceremony was well received, and a similar ceremony is planned for Comic-Con 2024. In addition, to lighten the load on the Eisner judges so they can concentrate on the other categories, a separate Hall of Fame judging panel has been enlisted. This panel is made up of past Eisner Awards judges whose expertise is in the history of comics. Their task is to arrive at the judges’ choice inductees and the nominees to be voted on, with the goal of reaching these decisions by early February. (The 2024 Eisner Awards Call for Entries will be issued in early January, and the judges for 2024 will be announced at that time.)
The Hall of Fame judges are Dr. William Foster, Michael T. Gilbert, Karen Green, Alonso Nuñez, Jim Thompson, and (no relation) Maggie Thompson. The co-chairs of the judging panel are Jim and Alonso. The Eisner Awards Administrator is Jackie Estrada.
The Eisner Awards, part of the San Diego Comic Convention organization, are held each summer during Comic-Con.
About Author
