In advance of the 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, we here on Suvudu will be running down all the nominees in all the categories. Except this year, we’re going to let you tell us who you think will win. So check out a few synopsis, some artwork, and debate the merits of each if you see fit, then cast your vote at the bottom of the post. Be sure to keep an eye out for a few free samples along the way!
Okay then, let’s get started. And the nominees are…
Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzuccheilli (Pantheon)
The return of David Mazzucchelli is introduced by Pantheon as:
The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait.
Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about?As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.
In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception.
Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.
A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Publisher Ponent Mon summarizes A Distant Neighborhood as:
Who hasn’t thought about reliving their past, correcting perceived mistakes or changing crucial decisions? Would this better your life or the lives of those closest to you? Or would your altered actions prove even more harmful? One man gets the chance to find out…
Middle-aged Hiroshi Nakahara is on his way home from a business trip when he finds himself on the wrong train heading for his childhood hometown. His footsteps take him to his mother’s grave and it’s there that he is catapulted back into his life as an 8th grader – but with all his adult memories and knowledge intact. As he struggles to make sense of his predicament his adult memories of his childhood return but are somehow subtly changed. The questions start to form … would his father still disappear without explanation? would he still marry his wife?
The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)
From the book’s page on W. W. Norton:
As Crumb writes in his introduction, “the stories of these people, the Hebrews, were something more than just stories. They were the foundation, the source, in writing of religious and political power, handed down by God himself.” Crumb’s Book of Genesis, the culmination of 5 years of painstaking work, is a tapestry of masterly detail and storytelling which celebrates the astonishing diversity of the one of our greatest artistic geniuses.
My Mommy: is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
The story of My Mommy is summarized by the publisher, Ponent Mon, as such:
Jean, an adorable 5 year old boy, relates his daily life and little adventures with his sour-tempered teacher Madame Moinot, his busy dad, his nanny Yvette (the Queen of iced chocolate), his little brother Paul (with whom he keeps fighting) and his neighbor Michèle (whose parents own a kennel) …all the small and funny things that seem to make him an ordinary boy. But Jean feels a great emptiness inside. With sensitivity and emotion, but never lapsing into melodrama, Bravo and Regnaud tell their story and remind us that children are not the only ones who would rather invent than deal with reality.
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefévre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)
From Macmillan’s The Photographer info page:
In 1986, Afghanistan was torn apart by a war with the Soviet Union. This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter’s arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan, accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefevre’s photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war.
Want to read a sample? Check out the free sample on First Second’s site here: The Photographer | First Second
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
From IDW’s quick overview:
Darwyn Cooke, the Eisner-Award-winning writer/artist of such classics as DC: The New Frontier, Selina’s Big Score, and The Spirit, now sets his artistic sights on bringing to life one of the true classics of crime fiction: Richard Stark’s Parker. Stark was a pseudonym used by the revered and multi-award-winning author, Donald Westlake.
Check out a free sample of The Hunter here: IDW Publishing: The Hunter Preview
And if you’re looking for a good review, head on over to iFanboy.com, where Conor Kilpatrick has you covered.
Love love loved Asterios Polyp. Anyone who hasn’t read it needs to check it out now!