Two UPM Books Nominated For Eisner Awards

Nominations for the 2014 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been announced and two UPM titles are being considered in the category of Best Educational/Academic Work. The nominated titles from UPM are Drawing from Life: Memory andSubjectivity in Comic Art, edited by Jane Tolmie and The Superhero Reader, edited by Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester.

The nominees, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges, reflect the wide range of material being published in comics and graphic novel form today, from crime noir to autobiographical works to cartoon adventures.

Drawing from Life: Memory and Subjectivity in Comic Art is collection of essays about autobiography, semi-autobiography, fictionalized autobiography, memory, and self-narration in sequential art, or comics. The book engages with well-known figures such as Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, and Alison Bechdel; with cult-status figures such as Martin Vaughn James; and with lesser-known works by artists such as Frédéric Boilet.

The Superhero Reader is a groundbreaking collection that brings together essays and book excerpts by major writers on comics and popular culture that explore the history, politics, and aesthetics of the superhero genre. The volume offers readers a rather large sampling of the most sophisticated commentary on superheroes.

Also nominated in the educational/academic category is John A. Lent for editing the International Journal of Comic Art. UPM is pleased to be publishing a forthcoming volume from Lent -- Asian Comics. Available in January 2015, this book will be a comprehensive overview of Asian comic books and magazines, graphic novels, newspaper comic strips and gag panels, plus cartoon/humor magazines. 

This is the third straight year UPM has seen multiple nominees in the Educational/Academic category. Last year, Susan Kirtley’s Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass (now available in paperbackreceived the award. And in 2012, Hand of Fire: The Comic Art of Jack Kirby by Charles Hatfield shared the award with Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice, by Ivan Brunetti (Yale University Press).

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are considered the “Oscars” of the comics world. Named for acclaimed comics creator the Will Eisner, the awards are celebrating their 25th year of highlighting the best publications and creators in comics and graphic novels. 

The results of the voting will be announced in a gala ceremony on Friday, July 25 during Comic-Con International: San Diego. A full list of nominees can be seen here

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