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.
As one of the newest Eisner Award categories, the Best Webcomic category began in 2005 (in conjunction with the Best Digital Comic category) and honors excellence in creators whose works are being released online only. Now, it exists as its own separate and unique category. Here are the 2018 Eisner Award nominees for the Best Webcomic category:
Awaiting a Wave, by Dale Carpenter and Nate Powell (The Weather Channel Digital)
Awaiting a Wave is a webcoming reported on and written by Dale Carpenter and with art by Nate Powell and published through The Weather Channel Digital. The project, which focuses on the impact of climate change, does not endeavor to debate the merits or existence of the phenomenon, but instead tells stories of the ramifications caused by the phenomenon. According to the project’s website, “Americans are already feeling the impacts of climate change. We’re feeling it in raised temperatures and unusual weather patterns, true, but also in things like a shifting economic landscape and coastal regions that seem to be altering by the moment. We’re going to tell a story for every state in the nation. We’re going to talk to people. We’re going to take pictures and shoot video and report. We’re going to investigate. We’re going to see how individuals, communities and businesses are responding to the changes that are already happening in America, and how they’re preparing for the changes that have yet to occur.”
According to PBS, “The Internet is so awash in webcomics that all navigators toward discovering the most inspired examples are much welcome. And the Eisners thankfully help shine a spotlight on this exquisite digital work… “Awaiting a Wave” beautifully weaves the historic connections between the Marshall Islands and a small Arkansas town.”
Click here to read.
Brothers Bond, by Kevin Grevioux and Ryan Benjamin (LINE Webtoon)
Brothers Bond is a webcomic created by Kevin Grevioux and Ryan Benjamin and published (on Wednedays) through LINE Webtoon. According to the project’s website, the story focuses on “an exiled prince and his two blind samurai protectors [as they] set on a dangerous journey to reclaim their kingdom from demonic forces.” As noted by BookRiot, “When you read it, make sure to have your headphones on to hear appropriately-timed music as you scroll down each page.”
Click here to read.
Dispatch from a Sanctuary City, by Mike Dawson (The Nib)
Dispatch from a Sanctuary City is a webcomic written and illustrated by Mike Dawson and published through The Nib. As noted by App.com, “Dawson casts the scene on that street against the backdrop of President Trump’s America, but also pulls back the camera lens to place racism and jingoism in a larger, historical context. The panels occasionally switch to black and white to evoke grainy documentary footage and weathered newspaper headlines, and transport the reader to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the internment camps of the 1940s. Even the discrimination Irish immigrants met here in the late-19th century is framed, to great effect, against a panel featuring a white man in a baseball cap shouting, “Pay your taxes!”
As Dawson puts it, racism isn’t something that was solved in 1968.
‘I think we basically live in it today,’ said Dawson. ‘And I wanted to use comics because the juxtaposition of image and text can serve to make that point quite quickly and directly. It’s not a judgment on people. The point of the comic is to say we’re still in it.'”
Click here to read.
The Tea Dragon Society, by Katie O’Neill
The Tea Dragon Society is a webcomic written and illustrated by Katie O’Neill and published through the website of the same name. The collected webcomic was also printed through Oni Press. According to the official website, “It follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons.”
Observer.com noted of the webcomic, “In a fantasy genre rife with death and destruction, The Tea Dragon Society, much like the tea dragons within, seems designed to calm.”
Click here to read.
Welcome to the New World, by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan (New York Times Sunday Review)
Welcome to the New World is a webcomic created by Jake Halpern (writer) and Michael Sloan (illustrator) and published through The New York Times Sunday Review. The comic strip, which also received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize, “documents the lives of a Syrian refugee family who have recently arrived in the U.S.” As noted by ComicsBeat.com, “In a time where refugees and immigrants are often denied their humanity and agency, this piece from the Times seeks to give some of it back. It demonstrates the unique art form that is comics and the power it has to communicate and transcend personal and political boundaries. The story of Jamil and Ammar is a deeply human one. It’s the story of what we will do to survive and provide for our loved ones and how simple acts of love and kindness can see us through even the most difficult times.”
Click here to read.
Stay tuned to the Fanbase Press website tomorrow as we continue our “Countdown to the Eisners” coverage with the Best Continuing Series! 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!
