SPX ’17: The Winners Of This Year’s Ignatz Awards!

Small Press Expo, held this weekend in Bethesda, Maryland, hosts the Ignatz Awards, whose nominees range from self-published mini-comics to those released by smaller publishing houses.
This year, there was a particularly strong and encouraging show of support for African American creators and people of color making comics, as well as a common theme emerging in stories of struggle for representation and achievement.
Here are the results of this year’s Ignatz Awards, voted by over 1,200 ballots, with the winners bolded:
Outstanding Artist

• Pablo Auldadell – Paradise Lost (Pegasus Books)
• Emil Ferris – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Fantagraphics)
• Manuele Fior – The Interview (Fantagraphics)
• Karen Katz – The Academic Hour (Secret Acres)
• Barbara Yelin – Irmina (Self Made Hero)

Outstanding Anthology

• ALPHABET: The LGBTQAIU Creators from Prism Comics – edited by Jon Macy and Tara Madison Avery (Stacked Deck Press)
• Comic Book Slumber Party’s Deep Space Canine – edited by Hanhah K. Chapman (Avery Hill)
• ELEMENTS: Fire – An Anthology by Creators of Color – edited by Taneka Stotts (Beyond Press)
• POWER & MAGIC: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology – edited by Joamette Gil (P&M Press)
• Spanish Fever: Stories by the New Spanish Cartoonists – edited by Javier Olivares & Santiago Garcia (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Collection

• Boundless – Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Complete Neat Stuff – Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)
• Hip Hop Family Tree, Vol. 2 – Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)
• Johnny Wander: Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us – Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota (Oni Press)
• Time Clock – Leslie Stein (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Graphic Novel

• Band for Life – Anya Davidson (Fantagraphics)
• Eartha – Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)
• March: Book 3 – John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin (Top Shelf)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters – Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Tetris – Box Brown (First Second)

Outstanding Story

• Diana’s Electric Tongue – Carolyn Nowak (self published)
• March: Book 3 – John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin (Top Shelf)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters – Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• “Small Enough” from Diary Comics– Dustin Harbin (Koyama Press)
• “Too Hot to Be Cool” from Elements– Maddie Gonzales – (Beyond Press)

Promising New Talent

• Kelly Bastow – Year Long Summer (self published)
• Margot Ferrick – Yours (2D Cloud)
• Aud Koch – “Run” from the Oath Anthology (Mary’s Monster)
• Isabella Rotman – Long Black Veil (self-published)
• Bianca Xunise – Say Her Name (self-published)

Outstanding Series

• Chester 5000 – Jess Fink (self-published)
• Crickets – Sammy Harkham (self-published)
• Frontier – edited by Ryan Sands (Youth in Decline)
• Maleficium – Sabin Couldron (self-published)
• The Old Woman – Rebecca Mock (self-published)

Outstanding Comic

• Canopy – Karine Bernadou (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Libby’s Dad – Eleanor Davis (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Public Relations #10 – Matthew Sturges, Dave Justus, Steve Rolston, Annie Wu (1First Comics)
• Sunburning – Keiler Roberts (Koyama Press)
• Your Black Friend – Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket)

Outstanding Minicomic

• The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs – Celine Loup
• Our Tale of Woe – Keren Katz & Geffen Refaeli
• Reverse Flaneur – M. Sabine Rear
• Same Place Same Time – Ann Xu
• Tender Hearted – Hazel Newlevant

Outstanding Online Comic

• Disability in the Age of Trump – Amanda Scurti: https://thenib.com/disability-in-the-age-of-trump
• The Meek – Der-Shing Helmer: http://www.meekcomic.com
• Normal Person/Maine Vacation – Lauren Weinstein: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/01/25/cartoon-normel-person-16/and http://muthamagazine.com/2016/08/lauren-weinsteins-perfect-maine-vacation-a-comic-about-what-we-remember/
• That’s Not Who We Are – Mike Dawson: https://thenib.com/that-s-not-who-we-are
• Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal: https://womanworld.tumblr.com