The Eisner Awards are now accepting submissions for 2025, to be presented at San Diego Comic-Con. Deadline for entries is the 15th of March.
Submissions for the 2025 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, or the Eisners, are now open, to be presented on the Friday night at this summer's San Diego Comic-Con. The tentative categories include
Naturally, the comics journalists will point out that there are no specific comics journalism awards again. But not me. And the judges may, of course, add, delete, or combine categories at their discretion. Here are the rules:
"Publishers may submit a maximum of five nominees for any one category, and the same item or person can be submitted in more than one category. Each imprint, line, or subsidiary of a publisher may submit its own set of entries. Creators can submit materials for consideration if their publisher is either no longer in business or is unlikely to participate in the nomination process. Only ONE copy of each book need be submitted, even if it is being nominated in multiple categories. In addition, pdfs of the works are welcome. The cover letter should list the items being submitted and in what category, and it should include both a mailing address and an email address for the person or company submitting the material. (Guidelines for preparing submissions letters are provided with the downloadable pdf of the Call for Entries.) There are no entry fees."
By the way, I am just going to interrupt this and say "no entry fees". Something very unusual in the wider awards world. There is no barrier to entry on this one.
"All physical submissions should be sent to Eisner Awards, Comic-Con International, 4375 Jutland Drive, San Diego, CA 92117, before the deadline of March 15. No submissions should be sent directly to judges. The best digital comic and best webcomic categories are open to any new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2024. "Digital comics" are complete issues of comics or graphic novels that are available for online viewing or for download. "Webcomics" are comics stories that are serialized online (such as a daily or weekly) and/or that use formats other than the traditional comic book page and take advantage of being online (horizontal, scrolled, etc.). The URLs and any necessary access information should be emailed to Eisner Awards administrator Jackie Estrada: [email protected]."
That e-mail address is going to be busy. The Eisner Award nominees will be announced in May, and online voting will be available to professionals in the comics industry, including creators, editors, publishers, distributors, and retailers. The results will be announced at the awards ceremony at Comic-Con on Friday, the 25th of July. Further information on the Eisner Awards and a downloadable pdf of the Call for Entries can be found at https://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards/