The 2026 Hugo Awards, honoring the past year’s best sci-fi and fantasy works, were held at LAcon V, the 84th Worldcon, on Sunday, August 30. Best Graphic Story or Comic went to A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, Fred Fordham‘s adaptation of the classic fantasy novel by the late Ursula K. Le Guin. Fordham accepted the award over video, thanking his family, and several others, including Le Guin’s son Theo Downes-Le Guin, for trusting him with the project.
The award marks Fordham’s first Hugo nomination and win, as well as Le Guin’s third posthumous Hugo, following No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters‘s win for Best Related Work in 2018, and The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (by Charles Vess) being named Best Art Book in 2019. Le Guin, who died in 2018, previously won six Hugo Awards from 1970 to 2017. The original book itself, published in 1968, was not nominated for a Hugo.
Also nominated in the Graphic Story or Comic category this year were Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, A Girl and Her Fed, The Invisible Parade (which to be clear, is a picture book, not a comic), The Power Fantasy Vol. 1: The Superpowers, and The Space Cat. The Invisible Parade illustrator John Picacio won Best Professional Artist, while Best Fan Artist went to webcomic creator and artist Yuumei.
Further winners this year included Ryan Coogler, who won Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, for Sinners, and Murderbot writers Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, and director Roseanne Liang, who won Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, for the episode “All Systems Red.” The Everlasting, by Alix E. Harrow, won Best Novel, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was named Best Game or Interactive Work.
Congratulations to all the winners! For the full list of this year’s recipients and nominees, head to LAcon V’s website. You can also watch the livestream of the ceremony (where Stan Sakai presents Best Graphic Story or Comic at about 2:27 hrs in) on their YouTube channel. Fordham’s next graphic novel, based on Matt Haig‘s The Midnight Library, will be released on October 6.
