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.

Initiated as an Eisner Awards category in 1992, the Best Coloring category has come to recognize some of the best and brightest talent in the comic book industry.  This year’s nominees have truly set the standard for their craft, taking the art form in exciting, new directions.  Here are the 2018 Eisner Award nominees for the Best Coloring category:  

Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (Fantagraphics)

Emil Ferris is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer who, amazingly, overcame West Nile in order to create what has often been described as the debut graphic novel of the year. While recovering from the paralysis, Ferris crafted her tale of a 10-year-old fan of monster movies and her mission to solve a neighbor’s murder in 1960s Chicago.

Terry Gross of NPR: Fresh Air has described My Favorite Thing Is Monsters as an “extraordinary book” that has “instantly rocketed Ferris into the graphic novel elite alongside Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, and Chris Ware. You see, she’s produced something rare, a page-turning story whose pages are so brilliantly drawn you don’t want to turn them.”

Click here to purchase. 

Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (DC)

Mitch Gerads is an American comic book artist and colorist. He has a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and spent some of his earlier years in the packaging industry, illustrating for brands like Teddy Grahams and Lucky Charms.

Mister Miralce offers a unique new take on one of Jack Kirby’s most beloved works, New Gods. Having escaped his dangerous home world of Apokolips, Scott Free and his wife, Big Barda, make their way to Earth where Scott uses the stage name of “Mister Miracle” to make a career out of his acrobatic escape techniques. As the official description lays out, “Mister Miracle has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt, pulled off every trick – except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible? Our hero is going to have to kill himself if he wants to find out.”

Click here to purchase. 

Ed Piskor, X-Men: Grand Design (Marvel)

Ed Piskor is an American cartoonist and illustrator who is well known for his work on the Eisner Award-winning book, Hip Hop Family Tree, from Fantagraphics, as well as his underground comics collaborations with the likes of Harvey Pekar and Jay Lynch.  This year, he is nominated for his coloring work on X-Men: Grand Design, which he also wrote and illustrated.

NPR’s Etelka Lehoczky noted of Piskor’s work, “With X-Men: Grand Design, Ed Piskor pulls off a feat very few cartoonists ever manage: He takes his unique aesthetic from the scruffy fringe of alternative comics to the world of mass-market superhero publishing.” 

Click here to purchase. 

David Rubín, Ether, Black Hammer, Sherlock Frankenstein (Dark Horse); Beowulf (Image)

A comic author and illustrator, David Rubin was born in Ourense, Spain. Having studied graphic design, Rubin also has a background working in the animation field.  Rubin’s work on the titles he’s been nominated for this year has been described as “addictive,” “unlike anything else in this earthly realm,” and “just flat-out amazing.’’

“David Rubín’s singular style is unlike anything else in this earthly realm. Rubín, whose two-volume anachronistic (and incredibly graphic) Hercules adaptation, The Hero, is also published by Dark Horse, merges aspects of Paul Pope and Jack Kirby into a madcap cosmic mind-trip all his own. With such promising creators at the helm, Ether seems destined to join Black Hammer and Kindt’s own Dept. H among the ranks of new Dark Horse classics in the making.”
– Paste Magazine

Click here to purchase. (Black Hammer) 
Click here to purchase. (Ether) 
Click here to purchase. (Sherlock Frankenstein) 
Click here to purchase. (Beowulf) 

Dave Stewart, Black Hammer, BPRD: Devil You Know, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea, Sherlock Frankenstein, Shaolin Cowboy (Dark Horse); Maestros (Image)

Dave Stewart is an American colorist who has won multiple Eisner Awards for his work with DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image Comics.  He is known for his work on such series as Star Wars, Human Target, Daredevil, and The Goon, and his is nominated this year for his coloring work on Black Hammer, BPRD: Devil You Know, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea, Sherlock Frankenstein, Shaolin Cowboy, and Maestros.

Fanbase Press’ Phillip Kelly noted of Dave Stewart’s coloring work, “[He] is a talent to behold. Everything he touches takes on an otherworldly palette, a dreamlike temperature; there’s something hidden underneath the surface of everything he colors. A cursory look-up shows that he’s won nine Eisner Awards. He’s a rock star. His coloring tells a story; it draws back the curtain of a fake reality that comic books typically embrace and shows you something that is sometimes too real.” 

Click here to purchase. (Black Hammer) 
Click here to purchase.  (BPRD: Devil You Know) 
Click here to purchase.  (Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea) 
Click here to purchase.  (Sherlock Frankenstein) 
Click here to purchase.  (Shaolin Cowboy) 
Click here to purchase.  (Maestros)

Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, What Is Left (ShortBox)

Rosemary Valero-O’Connell is a Spanish cartoonist and illustrator whose comic book, What Is Left, has been nominated for two Eisner Awards this year for the Best Coloring and Best Single Issue categories.  She has also been a frequent contributor to various comic book anthologies as well as to the design of many posters for MONDO.

Sequential State noted of Valero-O’Connell’s work on What Is Left, “The art of What is Left is gorgeous, a combination of Valero-O’Connell’s powerful detailed linework and lovely colors (a mix of navy, purple, and pink, in various intensities).”

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!