The 2010 EISNER AWARDS: Voting Has Begun...and Abbracadabbling Casts Its First-Ever Ballot!

The San Diego Comic Convention Inc issued a media release late yesterday that voting for the 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards has begun and is available online for comics industry professionals until 15 June 2010. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, 23 July at Comic-Con International.

Established in 1987 and named for acclaimed comics creator and creator of 'The Spirit,' Will Eisner,  The Eisner Awards will be celebrating  their 22nd-year of honoring the very best of the comic book industry in 2010.  Because they do just that every summer, the Eisner Awards are largely considered to be the "Oscars" of the comic book industry - a mark of excellence,  of artistic achievement, and of invaluable contribution.  

It was with that understanding that abbracadabbling proudly cast its first Eisner votes this afternoon. And voting was no easy task; given the quality of the nominees in literally every category, the race for this year's Eisner's will undoubtedly be full of close-calls and tough choices in each of the 29 categories on the 2010 ballot.

A brief survey of this year's candidates is more than enough to prove our point:

David Mazzucchelli's graphic novel Asterios Polyp received 4 total  nominations, the most for any single work; several French graphic novels and Japanese Manga-titles  such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life received multiple nominations as well.  Robert Crumb's illustrated version of The Book of Genesis earned 3 nominations.  Toward the more 'mainstream' side of things, Mike Carey and Peter Gross's comic book series The Unwritten (published by Vertigo/DC Comics) and with Mark Waid and Peter Kraus's Irredeemable (published by Boom Studios) also each received three nominations.  

Blackest Night, the biggest company cross-over event of 2009 by Geoff Johns, received two full nominations for DC Comics. Those nominations, along with those of The Unwritten and nominations received in other categories, gave DC Comics the most nominations of any  publisher, with its various imprints (DCU, Vertigo, WildStorm, Zuda) garnering 20 nominations (plus 2 shared), eleven of those falling within the DC Universe proper.  'Mainstream' comics other top publisher, Marvel, received a total of 8 plus two shared nominations.

San Diego Comic Con has directed new voters who need to REGISTER go [here] to do so, while returning voters can go [here] to SIGN-IN. Voters who participated last year should find that last year's login still works; for lost or forgotten passwords,  returning voters should Sign In, then Recover Lost Password.

With 29 categories in all, voters should expect to see five ballot pages. Voting does not need to be made in every category, and Write-In votes can be made in each category.  Once completed, a summary of your votes can be seen by clicking on Your Votes in the Voting menu after you sign in. Only one ballot per voter will be recorded. 

For a List of all the Nominees for this year's 22nd Annual Eisner Awards, visit the Comic-Con website [here.]