The perhaps lesser-known cousin to the Eisner Awards, the Ignatz Awards (named after the mouse foil of George Harriman's titular character in the Krazy Kat comic strip) are the festival prize of the Small Press Expo (SPX), recognizing "exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression." Ignatz the mouse would scheme ways to throw bricks at Krazy Kat's head, thus the Ignatz Award is a humble, but meaningful, brick. No seriously, it's just a brick.
As this year's SPX drew to a close, every winner in every single category, was female. Every. Single. One.
There were a slew of outstanding nominees, so the competition was decidedly fierce. But there's really no denying that these are gorgeous, compelling books.
This decidedly marks a moment. So let's bask in the progress this might signal before the backlash begins, shall we? This doesn't mean that female creators have "made it," or that "the system is no longer standing in [our] way to make it to the top in comics," as the author of the linked article suggests, but this is a moment that deserves celebration.
THE WINNERS (to be added to your reading/pull list):
Outstanding Artist: Emily Carroll Through the Woods
Outstanding Anthology or Collection: Eleanor Davis How To Be Happy
Outstanding Graphic Novel: Sophie Goldstein The Oven
Promising New Talent: Sophia Foster-Dimino Sphincter, Sex Fantasy
Outstanding Series: Sophia Foster-Dimino Sex Fantasy
Outstanding Minicomic: Sophia Foster-Dimino Sex Fantasy #4
Outstanding Online Comic: Lilli Carré The Bloody Footprint
