Two UPM Titles Nominated for Eisner Awards

Nominations for the 2015 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 The Origins of Comics: From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay, by Thierry Smolderen, tr. by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen and Wide Awake in Slumberland: Fantasy, Mass Culture, and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay, by Katherine Roeder

Richly illustrated with over 150 color and black and white images, The Origins of Comics remaps the history of this influential art form. In English for the first time, Smolderen engages with processes that led to the 20^th century comic strip—the highly recognizable species of picture stories that began crystallizing around 1900 in the US and that has stayed relatively stable to the present day.

Wide Awake in Slumberland: Fantasy, Mass Culture, and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay is the first study to explores McCay’s interest in dream imagery in relation to the larger societal preoccupation with fantasy that dominated the popular culture of early twentieth century urban America. Roeder gives close readings of individual artworks while situating him with regard to the larger visual culture and the rise of modernism

This is the fourth straight year that UPM has seen multiple nominees in the Educational/Academic category. Other nominees in the category Considering Watchmen: Poetics, Property, Politics, by Andrew Hoberek (Rutgers University Press) and Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books, by Michael Barrier (University of California Press). A full list of nominees can be seen here.

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 noire to autobiographical works to cartoon adventures. The 2015 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of comics retailer Carr DeAngelo (Earth-2 Comics, Los Angeles, CA), librarian/educator Richard Graham (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Eisner Award–winning author Sean Howe (Marvel Comics: The Untold Story), educator/author Susan Kirtley (Portland State University), Comic-Con International committee member Ron McFee, and writer/editor Maggie Thompson (Comic-Con’s Toucan blog, Diamond’s Scoop newsletter). Because of a health issue, Howe was actually a “virtual” participant in the onsite portion of the judging held in San Diego, communicating via Skype and email. - 

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 awards ceremony on the evening of Friday July 10 at Comic-Con International in San Diego. A full list of nominees can be seen: