Fanbase Press’ coverage of the 2018 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards continues with the “Countdown to the Eisners” series. From Monday, June 4, through Friday, July 13, 2018, Fanbase Press will highlight each of the Eisner Awards’ 31 nomination categories, providing comic book industry members and readers alike the opportunity to learn more about the nominees and their work. Stay tuned for Fanbase Press’ continued coverage of the Eisner Awards, including live coverage of the ceremony at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 20.
Reprints and new editions of previously released books and graphic novels serve the dual purpose of reintroducing important and iconic stories to new readers, as well as potentially offering fans a more immersive experience of one of their favorite classics. Sometimes, there is even access to previously unreleased content, behind-the-scenes revelations, or both. The Best Graphic Album—Reprint Eisner Award has been honoring titles in this particular category since 1991.
Here are the 2018 Eisner Award nominees for the Best Graphic Album—Reprint category:
Boundless by Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
“A profoundly honest, bittersweet picture of human nature, made all the more haunting by her enchanting artwork.” – Booklist
Publisher Drawn & Quarterly states on their website that Boundless is an exploration of “the virtual and IRL world of contemporary women via a lens both surreal and wry,” and that the collection of short stories by award-winning cartoonist Tamaki is “at once fantastical and realist, playfully hinting at possible transcendence: from one’s culture, one’s relationship, oneself.” It features tales focused on subjects like a “mirror Facebook” that presents a superior reality to its user,” or a mysterious internet music file that may be the key to utopian society or an insidious method of cult-like control.
Click here to purchase.
Fantagraphics Studio Edition: Black Hole by Charles Burns edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Charles Burns’ story is set in the ’70s about a group of Seattle-based teenagers infected by a mysterious sexually transmitted disease that cause disturbing and grotesque mutations. Often read as a metaphor or the struggles of adolescence and anxiety of puberty and sexual awakening, the graphic novel has been considered a classic for over a decade.
This new edition of Black Hole features “exact reproductions of over 150 of his original pages, at their actual size,” and each page has been scanned at “full color to retain the integrity and fidelity of the actual original art, warts and all.”
Click here to purchase.
Small Favors: The Definitive Girly Porno Collection by Colleen Coover (Oni/Limerence)
A deluxe hardcover edition of the critically acclaimed girly porno comic by Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Colleen Coover, Small Favors is described by Oni Press as the “erotic adventures” that are “sure to make you blush.”
This omnibus edition of Small Favors also includes a never-before-collected color special, bonus behind-the-scenes materials, and a brand-new introduction.
Click here to purchase.
Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Michael DeForge improvises his own brand of classic comic strip, as though we were reading a mutant Mark Trail … a self-conscious lark on the Canadian theme of survival”
– The Globe and Mail
When Sticks Angelica suffers a high-profile family scandal, she retreats to the woods, seeking solace and isolation. She may have found peace, were it not for the many animals that surround and inevitably annoy her, including a love sick rabbit, a cross-dressing moose, and more. Drawn & Quarterly states that “DeForge’s witty dialogue and deadpan narration create a bizarre, yet eerily familiar, world.”
Click here to purchase.
Unreal City by D. J. Bryant (Fantagraphics)
“Drawn over nearly a decade, the five stories in Bryant’s first collection show a keen eye for sharp angles, crisply lined backgrounds, creeping eroticism, and an attention to noirish detail.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
A collection of five stories about relationships, Fantagraphics describes Unreal City as addressing “gender, narcissism, marriage, subjectivity, objectification, and the thin line that divides love from hate.”
Click here to purchase.
Stay tuned to the Fanbase Press website tomorrow as we continue our “Countdown to the Eisners” coverage! Plus, follow Fanbase Press’ Facebook, Twitter (@Fanbase_Press), and Instagram (@fanbasepress) with the hashtag #FPSDCC to stay up to date on our SDCC and Eisner Awards updates, including a live-tweet of the 2018 Eisner Award Ceremony from the Hilton Bayfront Hotel at San Diego Comic-Con on the evening of Friday, July 20th!
