Hey, Brendan Wright here. You may know me as the Dark Horse editor who has figured out how to turn reading Archie comics into something you can get paid for, but you probably don’t know that I’m also responsible for getting DH books submitted to the annual Eisner Awards. Last Friday night the 2012 awards were presented as part of San Diego Comic-Con, and once again, Dark Horse cleaned up, tying for the most awards of the evening, with five. However, may it please the court, I would like to submit that, in fact, we’re number one.
Exhibit A: Dark Horse’s winners
Best Lettering: Stan Sakai. Stan is old school, hand-lettering every issue of Usagi Yojimbo, plus Sergio Aragonés’s Groo and the Spider-Man newspaper comic. He’s also now the only person not named Todd Klein (who they should probably just go ahead and name the award after) to win Best Lettering more than once.
Best U.S. Edition of International Material: The Manara Library, vol. 1: Indian Summer and Other Stories, by Milo Manara with Hugo Pratt. This book is outstanding for several reasons, from the gorgeous artwork and heartbreaking stories to the excellent translation and wonderful publication design, but it’s also only the premier volume of the first-ever complete Manara oeuvre in English, so get ready for it to rack up some more awards in the coming years.
Best Humor Publication: Milk & Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad, by Evan Dorkin. I’m not going to be able to describe Milk and Cheese any better than the back cover does: “A comic book of idiotic genius.” I don’t think a comic has ever made me laugh like these violent, hateful gems did when I first discovered them years ago. It was one of my first nonsuperhero comics and is probably partly responsible for where I am today (for which Evan owes me an apology). And now all the Milk and Cheese comics are in the same place!
Best Reality-Based Work: Green River Killer: A True Detective Story, by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case. Steven King loves this book; it says so right on the front cover. Why? Because GRK is an incredible, true story of the decades-long hunt for a serial killer and how it affects the detective heading up the investigation and his family, brilliantly written by his son, Jeff Jensen, with realistic but sensitive art by Jonathan Case. This book will stick with you.
Best Anthology: Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson. This here is the big one. Dark Horse’s flagship book is back, eighty pages a month, and taking no prisoners. In just the first few issues, DHP has already been filled with comics legends and rising stars, mainstream action and indie strangeness, old friends and new favorites. You can’t keep the future of comics down!
Exhibit B: Best Digital Comic
We may not have gotten to publish Mike Norton’s Battlepug the first time around, but showing our usual excellent taste, we worked with Mike to create the stunning Battlepug hardcover edition, which came out earlier this month.
Exhibit C: Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award
It’s hard to imagine a tougher job in comics than following Guy Davis on B.P.R.D., but Tyler Crook rose to the challenge, instantly making his name as the new series artist. Tyler’s got an amazing future in comics, and we can’t wait to be a part of it!
Exhibit D: Hall of Fame
Reacting to some Richard Corben pages I had just sent him, a licensor recently wrote to me, “No one in the history of comics except Kirby has been this good, for this long.” We couldn’t agree more, which is why Dark Horse is so proud to be Corben’s primary publisher these days, with new work like Murky World (from the aforementioned DHP), Ragemoor (with Jan Strnad), and a story in Creepy #10 (with John Arcudi), as well as classics like the comprehensive Creepy Presents: Richard Corben hardcover, which is out tomorrow. Long may he reign.
The 2012 Eisners are a great reminder of the incredible quality and exciting diversity of Dark Horse’s lineup, covering humor, memoir, international material, anthologies, and more. We’ve got the legendary represented by Corben and the up-and-comers by Crook, plus the right now in all of our wins. The cherry on our Eisner sundae is Best Cover Artist Francesco Francavilla, who did some 2012 covers for Dark Horse, but we’ll let the other publishers have that one so it’s not too embarrassing for everyone who’s not us (we love Francesco, though; look for him in current issues of DHP). After all, someone’s got to be number two, right?
I rest my case.