It was bound to happen with 32 years of comics in the making. On Friday at the Eisner Awards Ceremony, the two cartoonists Fantagraphics has grown up with received their due. In the category of Best Writer/Artist, Jaime Hernandeznbsp;received an Eisner for his work on Love and Rockets to be followed quickly by Gilbert Hernandez for his standalone story "Untitled" in Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 (page 59 for those of you at home).
Gilbert gave a touching speech and we even snapped a photo of his notes. Jaime juggled his Eisner a bit, speechless yet very endearing.
AND Félicitations are due to Jacques Tardi and Jean-Pierre Verney!
The Eisner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material has been awarded to Goddamn This WarCreated 15 years after the completion of his Eisner Award-winning World War I masterwork It Was the War of the Trenches, Tardi's Goddamn This War! is a brand new, wholly individual graphic novel that serves as a companion piece to Trenches, but can be read entirely on its own. Told with gritty insight, wit, and despair-sharing Trenches sustained sense of outrage, pitch-black gallows humor, and impeccably scrupulous historical exactitude-this book is not to be missed.
Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds accepted the awards on behalf of Tardi, Verney and the late great translater and our publisher Kim Thompson. This was one of the last books Kim worked on from start to finish and Reynolds put it best when he said that Kim wanted to show the world the best European comics/bande dessinee possible.
If you don't have this masterpiece yet, aim your binoculars at the Fantagraphics website, where you can pre-order a copy of Tardi's WWI: It Was the War of the Trenches/Goddamn This War Box Set! Shipping this November!
Thank you again to all who came out and congratulated Gilbert and Jaime the rest of the convention. More pictures soon!