In an increasingly crowded field of comics industry award shows, the Ignatz Awards, which held its 29th annual ceremony at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center on September 12 as part of this year’s Small Press Expo, is distinctive in at least two ways.
For one, the award, which is named after the brick-hurling mouse of George Harriman’s Krazy Kat, has a unique trophy, which takes the form of an actual brick. At the opening of this year’s ceremony, award coordinator Francesca Lyn warned recipients to be careful when hoisting their prize, since previous winners have been known to let it drop on their feet.
The honor is also distinctive in its focus since, unlike its counterparts at the Eisner and Harvey Awards, the Ignatz is aimed squarely at independent cartoonists. Anthologies notwithstanding, all save one of this year’s Ignatz-nominated books were the work of multi-disciplinary writer-artists, and a majority were the output of small presses or self-published creators.
Championing and preserving that sort of work was the subject of the ceremony’s introduction by SPX executive director Warren Bernard. Bernard highlighted the Expo’s partnership with the Library of Congress, through which more than 13,000 comics in Bernard’s and SPX’s collection (including early minicomics from the likes of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang) have been cataloged and preserved since 2010.
Bernard emphasized that the collection was a lasting boon to the comics profession as a whole. “They’re preserving this stuff until the sun goes supernova, but they’re also preserving the diversity within the community,” he told PW after the awards ceremony.
Bernard’s speech was followed by an introduction from cartoonist and BoJack Horseman designer Lisa Hanawalt, who drew laughs with a slideshow of cartoon panels juxtaposed against a deadpan quote. (Sample slide: a dog sits drawing cartoons in its notebook, while a demon hovering over its shoulder declares, “You’re a smelly bitch.”) Hanawalt ended her speech with the encouraging message that having fellow cartoonist friends is the saving grace of every troubled artist, telling the crowd: “As I was working on this talk, I was like, wait—is my theme ‘The Power of Friendship’?”
Indeed, friendship and community were the bywords of the evening, which made it a bit ironic that the majority of the night’s winners weren’t physically present at the ceremony. Of the 10 winning books in this year’s ceremony, seven had creators or publishers who didn’t make it to the show, leaving colleagues to accept on their behalf.
Some winners gave messages to pass along. Accepting for Michael DeForge, whose book All the Cameras in My Room won Outstanding Collection, editor Tom Devlin of Drawn & Quarterly drew cheers from the crowd for the night’s most trenchantly political statement: “Michael would like to say thanks to Jillian Tamaki, Free Palestine, and solidarity with UNITE-HERE Local 25”—the last referencing the boycott of the event’s venue by union workers, which caused some controversy for this year’s SPX.
But the two biggest moments of the night belonged, appropriately enough, to winners who were on hand to accept their honors. For the second year in a row, Sanika Phawde won the Outstanding Series award for their self-published comic Wedding Juice and Other Melodramas.
Born and raised in India before moving to the United States in 2016, Phawde was visibly moved with emotion when they went onstage to receive their brick. Speaking with PW, Phawde described the experience as “the highest honor that I’ve ever come across.”
“For the longest time, I didn’t know how people make friends,” Phawde told PW. “And being accepted into comics is the way I’ve found friends, and the way I found community. I’ve always just wanted to be part of the inside, so it feels very validating.”
The evening’s most emphatic speech belonged to the winner of the final award: Carol Tyler, who won Best Artist for her memoir The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief. Tyler, whose book recounts her experience losing multiple friends and loved ones over a short span of time, opened her speech by bringing a small potted houseplant on stage, and plunking it on top of her podium in imitation of The Ephemerata’s cover illustration. “I saw this in the lobby,” she explained.
Tyler, whose winning graphic memoir took her 10 years to complete, said that her next—and likely last—book, Verdante: The Ephemerata Goes Home would explore the death of her husband, the cartoonist Justin Green, who passed away in 2022. She closed her speech with a rousing call to arms for her fellow cartoonists, hoisting her brick in the air while channeling George S. Patton.
“I’m going to bust my ass,” Tyler declared. “I’m taking the lid off. I’m trying new shit. I’ve been watching my kids; I’m inspired. I’m ready to go. Let’s get out there! Follow me! Lead me! Let’s make comics!”
This year’s full list of Ignatz Awards winners can be found here.
