ComicsDC: PR: Small Press Expo Announces 2019 Ignatz Award Nominees

For Immediate Release

Contact: Dan Stafford

Email: dan@smallpressexpo.com

Small Press Expo Announces 2019 Ignatz Award Nominees

Bethesda, Maryland - August 22, 2019

Media Release - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce the 2019 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman's brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. .

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today's comics professionals, MK Czerwiec, Kelly Froh, Chris Kindred, Nola Pfau and Rob McMonigal.

Congratulations to all our nominees!, with the votes cast for the awards by the attendees during SPX. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 9:30 P.M.

This years Ignatz logo is by 2018 Promising New Talent winner, Iasmin Omar Ata.

SPX is proud to have Kickstarter as the sponsor for the 2019 Ignatz Awards. Their generous sponsorship will go towards ballot printing, manufacture of the awards, room & A/V costs for the ceremony and the Ignatz After Party.

More information on Kickstarter's exciting support of SPX's 25th Birthday will be announced in the next few weeks.

Outstanding Artist

Rosemary Valero-O'Connell - Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (First Second)
Koren Shadmi - Highwayman (Top Shelf Productions)
Lucy Knisley - Kid Gloves (First Second)
Sloane Leong - Prism Stalker (Image Comics)
Ezra Claytan Daniels - Upgrade Soul (Lion Forge)

Outstanding Collection

Love Letters to Jane's World - Paige Braddock (Lion Forge)
Girl Town - Carolyn Nowak (Top Shelf Productions)
Dirty Plotte - Julie Doucet (Drawn & Quarterly)
Leaving Richard's Valley - Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)
This Woman's Work - Julie Delporte (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Anthology

Electrum - Edited by Der-shing Helmer (Alloy)
Wayward Sisters - Edited by Allison O'Toole (TO Comix Press)
Family - The Nib Magazine - Edited by Matt Bors, Matt Lubchanksy and Eleri Harris (The Nib)
Death - The Nib Magazine - Edited by Matt Bors, Matt Lubchanksy and Eleri Harris (The Nib)
We're Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology - Edited by Tara Avery and Jeanne Thornton (Stacked Deck Press)

Outstanding Graphic Novel

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (First Second)
Upgrade Soul - Ezra Clayton Daniels (Lion Forge)
Woman World - Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)
Highwayman - Koren Shadmi (Top Shelf Productions)
Gender Queer - Maia Kobabe (Lion Forge)

Outstanding Series

The Nib Magazine - Matt Bors (The Nib)
Daygloayhole Quarterly - Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket Press)
Heavenly Blues - Ben Kahn/Bruno Hidalgo (Scout Comics)
Frontier - Youth in Decline
Endgames - Ru Xu (NewsPrints)

Outstanding Minicomic

Trans Girls Hit the Town - Emma Jayne (Diskette Press)
Gonzalo - Jed McGowan (Shortbox)
Silver Wire - Kriota Willberg (Birdcage Bottom Books)
Cherry - Inés Estrada (Kilgore Books & Comics)
YLLW YLLW YLLW - Mar Julia (Diskette Press)

Outstanding Comic

Lorna - Benji Nate (Self-Published)
Infinite Wheat Paste #7 - Pidge (Pidge Comics)
The Saga of Metalbeard - Joshua Paddon & Matthew Hoddy (Self-Published)
Egg Cream - Liz Suburbia (Silver Sprocket & Czap Books)
Check Please! - Ngozi Ukazu (First Second)

Outstanding Online Comic

Isle of Elsi - Alec Longstreth
That's Not My Name! - Hannako Lambert
What Doctors Know About CPR - Nathan Gray
About Face - Nate Powell
Full Court Crush - Hannah Blumenreich

Promising New Talent

Haleigh Buck
Ebony Flowers
Emma Jayne
Mar Julia
Kelsey Wroten

Outstanding Story

Sacred Heart Vol 2 Part 1: Livin' in the Future - Liz Suburbia (from Egg Cream #1) (Czap Books)
Sincerely, Harriet - Sarah Winifred Searle (Graphic Universe)
Woman World - Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)
The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea - Vannak Anan Prum (Seven Stories Press)
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (First Second)

Visit the SPX 2019 Website for the Complete List of Nominees

Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 650 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year's guests.

The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.

For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.smallpressexpo.com.