The list of nominees for the 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards has just been announced and we are pleased to report that our artists and publications received 11 nominations in 7 categories for 9 titles:

It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi:

• Best Reality-Based Work
• Best U.S. Edition of International Material

Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir by Joyce Farmer:

• Best Reality-Based Work

You’ll Never Know Book 2: Collateral Damage by Carol Tyler:

• Best Reality-Based Work
• Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art) — Carol Tyler

Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 1 (1933-1935) by Roy Crane:

• Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips

King of the Flies, Book One: Hallorave by Mezzo and Pirus:

• Best U.S. Edition of International Material

The Littlest Pirate King by David B. and Pierre Mac Orlan:

• Best U.S. Edition of International Material

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio:

• Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

Stephen DeStefano, Lucky in Love Book One: A Poor Man’s History:

• Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

Fire and Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics by Blake Bell:

• Best Comics-Related Book

As previously noted, Ernie Bushmiller and Jack Jackson have been inducted via judges' choice into the Eisner Hall of Fame. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday, July 22, 2011 at Comic-Con International in San Diego. 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 announced yesterday that his debut graphic novel Set to Sea was named runner-up for the inaugural Lynd Ward Prize, a new award sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, presented to the "best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, published in the previous calendar year by a living U.S. citizen or resident." We'd been waiting for the official PR to make our announcement, but since Heidi MacDonald has broken the news over at The Beat, anchors aweigh (as it were). Congratulations Drew!

UPDATED: The official announcement has now been posted online:

The prize jury also awarded an honor book prize to Drew Weing for Set to Sea, published by Fantagraphics. In this book, small in size but large in vision, the art of storytelling through pure visual image is at its height. Described by jurors as "a small wonder of visual narrative, the book's superbly executed single-panel pages combine iconic cartooning and realistic detail to deliver a quietly moving story that unfolds primarily through image. It epitomizes the whole notion of the graphic novel set forth by Lynd Ward — the illustrations are brilliant and the balance between word and image is spot on. The book encapsulates the power of comics to combine an aesthetic experience with a lovely story with strength and beauty that lies with its simplicity and subtlety." Weing will accept his honor prize at an event co-sponsored by Penn State and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council at 6 pm on May 23 in Foster Auditorium on the Penn State University Park Campus.

We are pleased to share the news that Joyce Farmer's graphic memoir Special Exits has been nominated for the 2010 NCS Division Award for Graphic Novels! The winner will be announced at the 65th Annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet on May 28, 2011 in Boston, MA. Congratulations Joyce!

(We're also rooting for Stan Sakai, nominated in the Comic Books division for his ongoing (formerly-Fantagraphics) Usagi Yojimbo series!)

Johnny Ryan is up for two 2011 Stumptown Comic Art Awards for his Prison Pit work: Best Cartoonist and Best Letterer! The online ballot/complete list of nominees is here — you know what to do! Congrats Johnny! Winners will be announced at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland OR next month. (We'll see you there!)

In a close race, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio has won Best New One-Shot Manga in the 2011 About.com Manga Readers' Choice Awards! Thanks to all our readers who cast their vote. About.com Manga editor Deb Aoki writes:

"For their first new manga release in years, Fantagraphics pulled out the stops with their deluxe hardcover edition of this collection of short stories by shojo manga pioneer Moto Hagio. Elegant, thought-provoking and sensitive, the stories in A Drunken Dream offer a tantalizing retrospective of the forty-plus years of Hagio's career."

From Shadow to Light: The Life and Art of Mort Meskin by Steven Brower is a finalist for ForeWord Reviews magazine's 2010 "Book of the Year Awards" in the Art category. Actually, Steven is a two-time nominee as his book Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants is also a finalist in the same category. Congratulations Steven!

Comic-Con International announced today the 2011 inductees into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, including Ernie Bushmiller (Nancy) and Jack "Jaxon" Jackson! We, as you probably know, are collecting Nancy beginning late this year; we've published several Jaxon books in the past and (announcement!) we will be publishing Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause in early 2012.

In addition to the inductees selected by the judges, the nominees to be selected by voters and announced at Comic-Con this summer include comics scholar Bill Blackbeard, who edits our Krazy & Ignatz series, and Kim Deitch. You can also find the work of nominee Harvey Pekar in our Complete Crumb Comics series. Eligible voters can cast their ballot right here.

We're pleased to report that You'll Never Know Book 2: Collateral Damage by C. Tyler and Weathercraft by Jim Woodring are finalists in a diverse field of nominees for the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Graphic Novels category. Congratulations to Carol and Jim! (Also to Dash Shaw, nominated for his Pantheon book Bodyworld.) Winners will be announced on April 29; see here for the complete list of finalists in all categories.

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio has been nominated for Best New One-Shot Manga in the 2011 About.com Manga Readers' Choice Awards! Voting continues through midnight ET, Tuesday, March 8, 2011. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Congratulations to Steve Brodner, who reveals on his blog that he's been awarded a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for his above editorial illo for The New Yorker. Our pal Peter Kuper also picked up a Silver Medal in the Books category. The award ceremony takes place on Friday evening, and Steve and Peter appear on a panel discussion titled "Artists Against the War" on Feb. 10. More info at the preceding links.