SPX 2010 Ignatz Award Winners

Ignatz Award

As presented last night at the 2010 Small Press Expo, in order of presentation, these are the results of the 14th Annual Ignatz Awards. Winners are in bold with commentary in italics.

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Presented by Vanessa Davis
The Hipless Boy, Sully (Conundrum Press)
Lemon Styles, David King (Sparkplug Comic Books)
Masterpiece Comics, R. Sikoryak (Drawn & Quarterly)
Red Snow, Susumu Katsumata (Drawn & Quarterly)
Ten Thousand Things to Do, Jesse Reklaw (self-published)

I’ve never heard of The Hipless Boy, but clearly someone really liked it, since it was nominated for several awards. Masterpiece Comics is a strong choice, although it seems to be playing in a different environment than the others.

Outstanding Comic
Presented by Johanna Draper Carlson
Blammo #6, Noah Van Sciver (Kilgore Books)
Eschew #2, Robert Sergel (Sparkplug Comic Books)
Flesh and Bone, Julia Gfrörer (Sparkplug Comic Books)
I Want You, Lisa Hanawalt (Buenaventura Press)
Sublife #2, John Pham (Fantagraphics Books)

I presented this award, which I was very honored to do. It recognizes “the best marriage of both art and story in a single issue of a comic,” which is what makes the comic medium so amazing and attractive to me. (Although I did obsess about trying to figure out the correct name pronunciations.)

The previous winners were mostly the usual suspects — Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Kevin Huizenga, plus that horrible year where Frank Cho nominated himself and won — so I was also excited that this was the first time a woman won. 

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Presented by Dean Haspiel
The Complete Jack Survives, Jerry Moriarty (Buentaventura Press)
Market Day, James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days, Al Columbia (Fantagraphics Books)
Summit of the Gods Vol. 1, Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Years of the Elephant, Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Dean took his shirt off, in response to calls from the audience. At this point, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, although I loved his comment, “It’s not what it used to be.” Very little is. Neat to see manga included in this and other categories.

Outstanding Story
Presented by Keith Knight
“John Wesley Harding”, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, Joe Daly (Fantagraphics Books)
Market Day, James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Monsters, Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)
“Turd Place”, The Hipless Boy, Sully (Conundrum Press)
“Untitled”, Mome Vol. 16, Laura Park (Fantagraphics Books)

Outstanding Series
Presented by Roger Langridge
Ganges, Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics Books)
King-Cat Comics & Stories, John Porcellino (self-published)
Sublife, John Pham (Fantagraphics Books)
Summit of the Gods, Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Troop 142, Mike Dawson (self-published)

Roger got up, said he’d been drinking, and read the nominees. Short and sweet.

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Presented by Drew Weing
Don’t Drink from the Sea, Lilli Carre
Rambo 3.5, Jim Rugg
Stories by… Vol. 1, Martin Cendreda
Troop 142, Mike Dawson
Water Column #3, Josh Frankel

You can read the winner online at Jim Rugg’s website.

Outstanding Online Comic
Presented by C. Spike Trotman
Callahan Online, John Callahan (www.callahanonline.com/calarc.html)
I Think You’re Sauceome, Sarah Becan (www.sauceome.com)
The Lesttrygonians, Stephen Gilpin (www.sgilpin.com/2010_site/Weekly_Comic_Strip/Weekly_Comic_Strip.html)
Reliable Comics, David King (www.reliablecomics.com)
Troop 142, Mike Dawson (troop142.mikedawsoncomics.com)

Spike gave an impassioned introduction about how giving things away online for free, even though “oldies” might think it’s dumb, will find you fans who will be happy to pay for your work. I was a bit surprised, not because I disagreed with anything she said, but because I thought that discussion was over and done with — clearly, webcomics are an established presence and business model.

Cool as Troop 142 looks, it seems a little weird to me that it would be nominated for both Minicomic and Online Comic. But if it’s available in both forms, why not?

I’m sad that Sarah Becan didn’t win, just because I adore that comic, and I can’t imagine reading it anywhere else but online. And some people need better URLs.

Promising New Talent
Presented by Sarah Glidden
Rina Ayuyang, Whirlwind Wonderland (Sparkplug Comic Books & Tugboat Press)
Rami Efal, Never Forget, Never Forgive (Studio Namu)
Blaise Larmee, Young Lions (self-published)
Sully, The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)
Matt Wiegle, “The Orphan Baiter”, Papercutter #13 (Tugboat Press)

Outstanding Artist
Presented by Jaime Hernandez
Eddie Campbell, Alec: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Sized Omnibus) (Top Shelf Productions)
Al Columbia, Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days (Fantagraphics Books)
Mike Dawson, Troop 142 (self-published & http://troop142.mikedawsoncomics.com)
John Pham, Sublife #2 (Fantagraphics Books)
Sully, The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)

The only award where the winner wasn’t there to accept in person. That’s one of the many things that makes the Ignatzs fun and unique. Another is that the award categories are limited, which helps keep the ceremony short and enjoyable. Although I do wonder why there isn’t an Outstanding Writer award? These things don’t write themselves!

Overall, an entertaining time, one I was proud to be part of.

Also presented was the First Annual Animation Showcase Audience Choice Award. This went to “Deadline” by Bang-Yao Liu, available on YouTube.



One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *