When I read about Mike’s sudden death, I was seriously shocked and actually upset about it. Although I’ve never met the man, I genuinely enjoyed his work emmensely and always looked forward to seeing his stuff. For those in the dark Mike was a great character designer and instilled a great deal of fun in is artwork. Notably his creator owned book Tellos and his work on Flash, Spider-man and Fantastic Four always jump out as his career highlights. Mike passed away on Sunday evening from a sudden heart attack at the age of 44.

Here’s a few links in helping you remember Mike Wieringo:

Mike Wieringo
An interview with John Siuntres
Cully Hamner’s Eulogy
Remembering Mike

‘Ringo, you will be missed.

Best Short Story
“A Frog’s Eye View,” by Bill Willingham and James Jean, in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC)
This is a pretty cool story but I dunno if it’s worthy of the best short story. The artwork is brilliant but it was over before it started. Maybe I’m being hypercritical about this but as I’ve not really read the other stories in this category.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Batman/The Spirit #1: “Crime Convention,” by Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke (DC)
I actually read and heard a lot of great things about this here little story. Definitely going to pick it up when it’s in a nice little collection, which hopefully should be pretty soon. Once again I’ve not actually read any of the other entries in this category. A couple of Adhouse stories in there, which makes me wonder why I’ve not been buying much from them.

Best Continuing Series
All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC)
I’ve read and reviewed the first issue of this series, which I thought was great. The first collection has been released as a hardcover, but I’m waiting for it as a trade as I don’t feel it warrents me getting it in the DC hardcover format. Maybe if they employed the Marvel oversized hardcover format I’d be there. Still it beat some pretty solid competition. The only series on that list I’m not familiar with, that I’m going to definitely check out is Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. Viz has always done well with the quality of books the generally publish.

Best Limited Series
Batman: Year 100, by Paul Pope (DC)
I read an article about this in both the Comics Journal and Wired. Both sung it’s praises greatly, so I’m definitely going to be buying this book. I actually flicked through it in the airport a month ago but for some strange reason didn’t buy it. I think it’s time to remedy that mistake. I’ve heard great things about “The Looking Glass Wars: Hatter M” and I’m currently reading “The Other Side”, which is seriously excellent, so it’s obviously a good one to have beaten both of those books.

Best New Series
Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)
Finally Ed and Sean get some proper recognition. After 4 volumes on Sleeper, the duo that could have won their first Eisner. Mad props to the boys as they’ve deserved one of these for many years, so it’s nice to see them winning for something that’s creator owned. Expect a review for this excellent series soon on Splash Panel. I’ve got to say that I’ve not really enjoyed Jack of Fables as much as others seem to have. It’s no where near as good as Fables, which is partly due to the weaker character that is Jack. I’ve recently picked up Lone Ranger as well, which seems to be an exceptional package. I’m sure to talk about this series in the not so distant future, as it’s gone the Alex Ross route, and provided John Cassaday with the title of ‘art director’, so he’s responisble for the character designs and the covers and the general direction (I guess it also includes the colouring etc). Still Criminal is a more than worthy winner.

Best Title for a Younger Audience
Gumby, by Bob Burden and Rick Geary (Wildcard)

Best Humor Publication
Flaming Carrot Comics, by Bob Burden (Desperado/Image)

Best Anthology
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham and various (Vertigo/DC)

Best Digital Comic
Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell

Best Reality-Based Work
Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin)

Best Graphic Album - New
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)
Well, I’ve already talked about this brilliant graphic novel, it’s on my top 10 of this year so I’m extremely happy that the panel has also acknowledged that this story is worthy of everyone’s attention that need to read a great story. Well done Gene, much deserved.

Best Graphic Album - Reprint
Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips
The Complete Peanuts, 1959-1960, 1961-1962, by Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books
Absolute Sandman, vol. 1, by Neil Gaiman and various (Vertigo/DC)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Left Bank Gang, by Jason (Fantagraphics)
It’s really strange that I’ve never bought anything from Jason. He’s been on my radar for a good long while now, as there’s something odd by special about his brid character with the jacket and his other qirky characters. Definitely will have to look into getting something, ANYTHING by this creator.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan
Old Boy, by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi (Dark Horse Manga)

Best Writer
Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil (Marvel); Criminal (Marvel Icon)
FINALLY. Seriously, I rate Brubaker a great deal, so for the man to win this is excellent. It’s a bit sad that it only came now after he’s left DC, but alas he’s hitting (and has consistently hit) everything he’s touching out of the park.

Best Writer/Artist
Paul Pope, Batman: Year 100 (DC)

Best Writer/Artist - Humor
Tony Millionaire, Billy Hazelnuts (Fantagraphics); Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident (Dark Horse)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Mark Buckingham/Steve Leialoha, Fables (Vertigo/DC)
This is another well deserved Eisner (what the hell is going on, I’m actually in tune with the panel this year). Mark Buckingham is one of the nicest guys around. I’ve met him a couple of times and every time he was extremely gracious to me and those I dragged along with me. He’s definitely taken Fables by the neck and put his stamp on it. He shines when he goes mental with the border details, which is a sign of someone having a great deal of fun with what they’re doing. After years on Spiderman, he’s finally drawing something that he was born to draw, and it’s nice that he’s got this acknowledgement as well.

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
Jill Thompson, “A Dog and His Boy” in The Dark Horse Book of Monsters; “Love Triangle” in Sexy Chix (Dark Horse); “Fair Division,” in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC)

Best Cover Artist
James Jean, Fables, Jack of Fables, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC)

Best Coloring
Dave Stewart, BPRD, Conan, The Escapists, Hellboy (Dark Horse); Action Comics, Batman/The Spirit, Superman (DC)

Best Lettering
Todd Klein, Fables, Jack of Fables, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall; Pride of Baghdad, Testament (Vertigo/DC); Fantastic Four: 1602, Eternals (Marvel); Lost Girls (Top Shelf)
Not that I disagree with this, but Todd Klein has won this category consistently since forever. I can’t remember anyone else who won this award in recent memory? Where’s the Richard Starklings of the comic book work? The Chris Eliopoulos? C’mon peeps. This was far too safe a decision.

Special Recognition
Hope Larson, Gray Horses (Oni)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows)

Best Comics-Related Book
The Art of Brian Bolland, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado/Image)

Best Publication Design
Absolute DC: The New Frontier, designed by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

Hall of Fame
Judges’ Choices (2): Robert Kanigher and Ogden Whitney
- Ross Andru & Mike Esposito
- Dick Ayers
- Wayne Boring
- Joe Orlando

Dark Horse Presents Returns
Seems that the little anthology that could is coming back, but not in the way that we thought. They’re putting it up on MySpace, which means I’m going to actually have to go over to MySpace, something I thought I’d never do, as I hate MySpace. The most interesting part of this is Joss Whedon is creating something called Sugarshock, so that will be worth having a look at.

Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos - Runaways

See I’m a HUGE fan of Brian K Vaughan. For those in the dark, he writes Ex Machina, Y:The Last Man, he wrote Pride of Baghdad and is currently a staff righter for Lost. However I’ve never picked up his Runaways series. I keep eyeing up the hardcovers whenever I’m in the store but that’s about it. It’s not that the artwork doesn’t appeal, it’s just that the concept hasn’t grabbed me. The thing is, obviously it’s something that has grabbed a lot of people over at Marvel. So much so that they’ll get Joss Whedon to write an arc and now it was announced that Terry Moore will continue to write it and they’ve put Humberto Ramos on art duties. The great thing is that Humberto is finally drawing a book that suits his artistic sensibilities. The thing I’ve found with regards to Ramos, is that his art is really suited to one kind of story. Sure he’s tried to do other more serious things, but I find that that’s not his strength. His exaggerated feet, eyes and body frames doesn’t really translate well to that kind of story. However when it comes to teen-centric stories however, he’s a complete shoe-in. This is what I call, good editorial art-casting.

Bill Sienkiewicz - 30 Days of Night
I’m a huge David Mack fan, but before David there was Bill. This is the first thing I’ve seen that Bill has painted all of his own. He was involved in the excellent Black Widow miniseries a few years ago which was great, but this stuff is pure Bill Sienkiewicz. So I’ll definitely be picking up this book when it’s released. Yeah I know this isn’t really new, but I just loved that image.

I’ll be back later on to talk about more random news.