The nominees for the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been announced. This year, the judges modified the ballot, resulting in a reduction of categories from last year’s 29 to a more manageable 26. They eliminated the Single Issue category and the Special Recognition category, and combined the Writer/Artist and Writer/Artist—Humor categories. The judges also changed the Best Publication for Teens category into Best Publication for Teens/Tweens.
This year’s judging panel consists of Amanda Emmert (owner of Muse Comics & Games in Missoula, Montana), Mike Pawuk (teen services librarian for the Cuyahoga Ohio County Public Library), John Shableski (sales manager for Diamond Book Distributors), Ben Towle (graphic novelist and comic arts educator), and Andrew Wheeler (comics and manga reviewer at ComicMix.com).
Ballots will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. In addition, a downloadable pdf of the ballot will be available online.
Voting for the Hall of Fame has already concluded. This year’s nominees were: Matt Baker; Bill Blackbeard; Alberto Breccia; Reed Crandall; Rudolph Dirks; Russ Heath; Jerry Iger; Jack Jackson; Paul S. Newman; Bob Oksner; and Antonio Prohias.
All the winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the San Diego Comic-Con on Friday 24 July.
The full list of nominees is available on this page. For more information about the Eisner Awards, see this page.
[Edited 28 July 2009: The winners have been posted in this article.]