The French are, not unreasonably, excited by the strong showing of French cartoonists and graphic novels in the Eisners this year -- nine nominations for eight titles, four of 'em for Fantagraphics:
http://www.actuabd.com/Neuf-nominations-pour-la-BD

We think it's sort of charming that the item was posted on Bastille Day. Hence our Marseillaise quote above, for those of you who missed it.

Congratulations to Shimura Takako and translator/editor Matt Thorn, whose English-language edition of Wandering Son Vol. 1 has been nominated to the American Library Association/Young Adult Library Services Association "2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list! The final list will be announced by the ALA in January.

The nominees for the 2011 Harvey Awards are announced and we are pleased to report that we picked up a handful of nominations for a couple of titles, and to celebrate we're offering them at 25% off for the rest of the week!

It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi

• Best American Edition of Foreign Material

Love and Rockets: New Stories #3 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez

• Best Continuing or Limited Series
• Best Cartoonist — Jaime Hernandez
• Best Single Issue or Story

We're happy to share the ballot with illustrious pals and colleagues such as Roger Langridge, Shannon Wheeler, Dan Nadel, Monte Beauchamp, Todd Hignite (for The Art of Jaime Hernandez), James Sturm, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns and others.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on August 20, 2011 at the Baltimore Comic-Con, as per tradition. Browse and order all of our 2011 nominated titles here, and see here for links to past years' award honorees. Congratulations to all the nominees!

Drew Weing gave an illuminating talk about his career and the creation of his debut graphic novel Set to Sea a short while ago at the behest of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book in Philadelphia after the book received the 2011 Lynd Ward Prize for Best Graphic Novel Honor Award (runner-up to the main prize) earlier this year. Watch the complete talk, with introduction and follow-up Q&A session, embedded above or on YouTube here; also, in this video, you can watch the jurors for the Lynd Ward Prize discuss their selection of the book.

Matt Thorn, editor/translator of our manga books, tweeted: "Me with Moto Hagio at tonight's Japan Cartoonist Association award ceremony, where Hagio was a recipient." Hooray! (And love the new hairstyle!)

But here is the pièce de résistance: "A photo I took earlier tonight of Moto Hagio in cat ears. No, seriously. Not Photoshopped." Excuse me while I go DIE FROM CUTENESS.

Congratulations to Joyce Farmer , whose graphic memoir Special Exits has received the prestigious 2010 NCS Division Award for Graphic Novels! The winners in all the divisions were announced at the 65th Annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet last night in Boston, MA.

Special Exits is also nominated for a 2011 Eisner Award in the category of Best Reality-Based Work.

Anime News Network reports that Moto Hagio (shown above at Comic-Con International last year) has received the 2011 Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award from the Japan Cartoonists Association of manga creators as part of their 40th annual Japan Cartoonist Awards. The honor is in recognition of her entire body of work, praised in the announcement as "revolutionary" and "of high quality." Congratulations!

As we recently posted, Stan Sakai was honored with the 2011 Cultural Ambassador Award by the Japanese American National Museum last Saturday. Stan sent along these additional photos of him receiving the award trophy at the ceremony and the fancy award certificate. Hip hip hooray!

Well here's some wonderful news, as reported by The Comics Reporter: the great Stan Sakai has received the 2011 Cultural Ambassador Award by the Japanese American National Museum. The news release is here, and on Facebook Stan says (with typical understatement) "Senator Dan Inouye was seated at the table next to ours. He is third in line for the presidency, so secret service was around. Food was excellent." Congratulations and well deserved, Stan!

(By the way, this year's Stumptown Comics Fest is barely over but Stan has already been lined up as a special guest for 2012!)

Shout it out! Johnny Ryan is winner of Best Letterer at the Stumptown Comics Awards for his mashup of techno, metal and horror letterforms in Prison Pit Book 2! If you're at the fest, swing by our table (#304) and pick up both volumes. Congrats Johnny!