Just announced the 2025 Eisner Award: Industry Veterans Robert Condelibrarian Kacy Helwicklong-term editor and current publisher weekly graphic novel review editor and Lemkeretailer Eitan Manhoff Cape Town and Caul Comics and Comics Scholars Rocco Verseci.
The judge is elected by the Comic-Con Award Subcommittee and consists of the board of directors, staff and members of various departments. Select judges to represent all aspects of the comics industry, including creators, retailers, graphic novel librarians, academic/historians, and journalists/critics. This year’s awards include 30 categories. After the nomination, professionals in the comics industry will vote on them, and the results will be presented at the awards ceremony held at Comic-Con in July.
Qunitet will be called in San Diego this spring to discuss hundreds of comics – a separate committee will select the Eisner Award nominee for the Hall of Fame. The nomination will be announced in the spring, with the winners announced at San Diego Comic Con in July.
You can read more about the judge below, but Big Beat Congratulations to our colleague and podcast partner Meg Lemke! We can’t think of a better judge than Meg!
Robert Conde Participated in his first San Diego Comic Exhibition in 1990 – promoting the first few comic books he wrote as a teenager. In the 35 years since his life-changing experience, he wore almost every hat imaginable in the comics industry: editors, journalists, packers, printing agents, publishers and pop culture historians. “Being one of the judges at the 2025 Eisner Awards is a lifelong opportunity,” Robert said. “I am honored to have read more than 100,000 comics and graphic novels since childhood. I am lucky to be grateful for my appreciation to SDCC, bringing my experience and love of the medium into this iconic event. ”
Kacy Helwick He is a young collection development librarian at the New Orleans Public Library. She has been responsible for purchasing all genre graphic novels for children and teenagers, as well as comics and superhero champions for adults, providing more than a decade of history to the 15 branches of her library system. She has reviewed it School Library Magazine, Read Yalsa’s great graphic novel The Teen List and serves as a committee member of the Stonewall Book Awards. She currently serves as a content editor on Noflyingnotights.com, a comic review website run by librarians, and is the treasurer of the American Library Association’s graphic novel and comics roundtable.
and Lemke It is a Comic and Graphic Novel Review Editor Publisher weekly She writes and edits comics regularly and she co-hosts PWThere will be more comics and pop culture podcasts. She served as series editor for the Pen America series and curated comics at the Pen World Voices Festival, the French Comics Society and the Brooklyn Book Festival. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and has served on the judging board for the Excellence Graphics Literature Award and the NBCC Leonard Award. Previously, she was a book editor at Columbia University Teachers College Press, editing their language and literacy series. Seven Story Press; and Houghton Mifflin, where she launched the Best American Comics series.
Eitan Manhoff Eitan is the owner of Cape and Cowl Comics, which opened in Oakland, California in 2015. Eitan opened or closed in comic shops for 20 years before opening his own store and worked in Captain Nemo’s comics for San Luis Obispo, CA, Scott’s Youth Treasures in Hayward, California, and in California Crush Comics in Castro Valley. EITAN is currently a ComicsPro board member and is the organization’s promotional director. Cape and Cowl won the Will Eisner Comics Retail Award in 2023 after being shortlisted in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Rocco Versaci He is a British professor at Palomar College in North San Diego County, and he often teaches comic-themed literature courses in 2001. He is This book contains graphic language: comics as literatureHis comic-related writing appears in English journals,,,,, International Comic Magazineand books Teaching visual literacy,,,,, More critical approaches to comics: Theory and methodand EC Archives: Two Stories, Volume 2. In addition, he introduced his work at the National Congress Teachers Council at the Comic Art Conference held by Cartoonists as part of the University of Alabama Hudson’s Large Speaker Series. He is also the co-founder of Beixian cartoonists and the editor of the group’s comics. joy.
