IDW Takes Home Four Eisner Awards
The 33rd Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony was held a few days ago, and publisher IDW was honored with four Eisners: two for the most recent Usagi Yojimbo collection, one for Invisible Men: The Trailblazing Black Artists Of Comic Books, and one for The Crow: Lethe, which won Best Cover.
The Usagi Yojimbo awards were given to creator Stan Sakai, for “Best Continuing Series” and “Best Letterer.” The Usagi series has been ongoing in some form for the last 37 years, and this is far from the first award Sakai has received for it. The main character has appeared in multiple Ninja Turtles TV shows, and an animated Usagi miniseries is in production at Netflix now.
“Invisible Men” won the award for “Best Comics-Related Book” and was given to comics historian Ken Quattro, who compiled and edited the volume. “While I am honored that Invisible Men won the Eisner Award, I am more delighted to know that the stories of the artists I profiled in the book are finally getting their due recognition,” says Quattro.
The Crow: Lethe Award went to Peach Momoko, who has illustrated several covers for IDW recently as well as other companies. “IDW was actually one of my first publishers to provide me with cover work for an entire series, and The Crow: Lethe was the first series for which I handled the main covers for all three issues,” Momoko revealed. “That was a big honor for me, and also a good challenge: to illustrate the character consistently but also make each cover unique.”
“IDW is incredibly fortunate to work with amazing comics professionals across every aspect of the industry — legendary cartoonists, amazing newcomers, and passionate comics historians alike. Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees. We’re fully aware of how fortunate we are to be able to publish their work,” says Joe Hughes, IDW’s Director of Talent Relations. “It’s a pleasure and privilege to see the variety of titles recognized by the Eisners,” adds Nachie Marsham, IDW’s publisher. “On behalf of everyone at IDW, I’d like to congratulate Stan, Peach, and Ken on their much-deserved Eisner achievements!”