Newspaper Cartoonists Among Eisner Award Finalists

By: E&P Staff The Eisner Award nominees have been announced, and several have newspaper and/or syndication connections.

For instance, finalists for best archival comic-strip collections include books featuring "Peanuts," "Gasoline Alley," "Popeye," and "Mary Perkins On Stage."

One nominee for best digital comic is Brad Guigar, who does the "Phables" feature for the Philadelphia Daily News.

A finalist in three other categories is the "Fun Home" graphic novel and its author, Alison Bechdel -- who also does the self-syndicated "Dykes to Watch Out For" comic.

Nominees for the Hall of Fame include Irwin Hasen ("Dondi") and the late Harold Gray ("Little Orphan Annie"), among others.

Winners will be named July 27 in San Diego.

The complete list of nominees can be seen on Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter blog -- a Web site that's also an Eisner Award finalist.

Eisner (1917-2005) created the character of "The Spirit," who starred in a popular 16-page comic insert distributed in newspapers from 1940 to 1952. He was also a legend in the world of comic books and graphic novels.