Winners of the 2016 Ignatz Awards

The winners of the 2016 Ignatz Awards were announced tonight at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland. The Ignatz is a festival prize, with winners determined by voting by those who actually attended the show today. I previously posted the nominee list; here are the winners, as introduced by host Nate Powell.

Outstanding Minicomic

Radishes by Carolyn Nowak

Outstanding Story

My Hot Date by Noah Van Sciver

Outstanding Series

Powdered Milk by Keiler Roberts

Outstanding Anthology or Collection

Step Aside Pops by Kate Beaton

Outstanding Online Comic

Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran

Promising New Talent

Tillie Walden for I Love This Part

Outstanding Comic

Fantasy Sports No. 1 by Sam Bosma

Outstanding Graphic Novel

Hot Dog Taste Test by Lisa Hanawalt

Outstanding Artist

Tillie Walden for The End of Summer

In many categories, long-time, well-known, award-winning creators (such as Dan Clowes or Kim Deitch or Adrian Tomine) were defeated by younger artists, which could be considered an upset, or a possible reflection of a younger audience.

Out of the nine categories, Tillie Walden was the only repeat winner, and only two of the awards were won by men, continuing the recent SPX tradition of strongly recognizing women’s comic work. (One of those categories, “Outstanding Story”, had no female nominees.) Another area where SPX paves the way is the ceremony itself — by having only nine categories, they seem more meaningful, which resulted in standing room only, as people were eager to see the results, and it was all over in an hour.