Francis Rothbart!: The Tale of a Fastidious Feral

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Kendra "Kenny" The Kid: I didn't expect this to get the traction it did, but it is wild how I haven't seen any former student have a single nice thing to say about this man, from people ten years older than me AND ten years younger.

Tiki: A Very Ruff Year, by David Azencot and Fred Leclerc, translation by Nanette McGuinness (Life Drawn/Humanoids) Thomas Woodruff's Francis Rothbart! is a baroque masterpiece in comic novel form and a voyage into a deep, rich, and patient imagination. Bernini would have been stunned." The Eisner Award trophies will be presented in a gala awards ceremony to be held at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront Hotel during Comic-Con on the evening of July 21. Delilah Dirk: Practical Defence Against Piracy, by Tony Cliff, https://www.delilahdirk.com/dd4/dd4-p46.html Down to the Bone: A Leukemia Story, by Catherine Pioli, translated by J. T. Mahany (Graphic Mundi/Penn State University Press)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work

The 2023 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of librarian Moni Barrette, educator/collector Peter Jones, retailer Jen King, journalist Sean Kleefeld, scholar/comics creator A. David Lewis, and comics instructor/curator TJ Shevlin. As a openly gay man in my late sixties, I have been called “f—-t” more times than I would choose to remember, and seen too many die too young during the AIDs epidemic. In my work as an artist and educator in my over 40 year career, I have attempted to help break and blur some cultural barriers that are still deeply enmeshed within our present day society. Artists must be brave, particularly telling the stories that they need to tell. Francis challenges the torches and pitchforks, he is stronger than the misunderstandings, the bullying, and the hate. I am too! Speaking as a former Eisner judge myself, the screening process is where various categories are assigned to individual judges, who serve as the 'first reader' and narrows down the hundreds (and thousands) of submissions into a more managable selection before deeper review by the judge panel as a whole. When I judged the Eisners in 2019, this screening process didn't preclude or prevent other judges from adding to the screened shortlist. While none of the Eisner judges have gone on record talking about Woodruff's book and this nomination specifically, our source familiar with the judging process tells us that they think mistakes were made - but that this situation could open a path towards broader improvements to the system.

Likely, I should not include this in my children's/YA goodreads account (because it does not belong even in a high school library), but it IS graphic (as in "graphic opera"). "images recall the fictive gardens of a paradise lost that lingers somewhere deep in all our souls, moist and dark like the caves of the pious saints" and operatic it is, indeed. The visual images are at once striking, stunning in fact, and of the "you can't look but you can't look away" variety. As the intro describes, it is the story of a feral child who is raised by a clever but loving mother fox and magpies and secondarily other animals, who makes his way in the vernal world, outside and unbeknownst to the village townspeople, until old enough and curious enough and circumstances provide access to the villagers. Each interaction with humans, i.e., the villagers, ends in disaster and he retreats to the less cruel and unpredictable nature of the forest. Pat Brosseau, Batman: The Knight, Wonder Woman: The Villainy of Our Fears (DC): Creepshow, Dark Ride, I Hate This Place, Skybound Presents: Afterschool (Image Skybound) Other projects with more than two nominations are The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Best Graphic Album–New, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist, Best Letterer; Abrams), and Joe Hill's Rain by David M. Booher and Zoe Thorogood (Best Adaptation from Another Medium, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist, Best Cover Artist; Syzygy/Image). Over 20 titles had 2 nominations. It is extremely rare for an Eisner nomination to be withdrawn, and the cases we recall were over technical issues. Judges are instructed to judge the work and not the creator, and have generally adhered to that policy. Wild to see my old college department chair who vocally and obviously despised comics, considered them "low art" and made comics student's lives complete hell for decades get Eisner nominated four times over for his first graphic novel. Oh, sorry, "graphic opera".Come Over Come Over, It’s So Magic, and My Perfect Life,by Lynda Barry,edited by Peggy Burns (Drawn & Quarterly) Parker: The Martini Edition—Last Call, by Richard Stark, Darwyn Cooke, Ed Brubaker, and Sean Phillips (IDW) The Eisner Award trophies will be presented in a gala awards ceremony to be held at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront Hotel during Comic-Con on the evening of 21st July 2023.