San Diego Comic Convention (Comic-Con) has announced that the Eisner Awards judges have selected 15 individuals to automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2023. These inductees include 11 deceased comics pioneers and 4 living creators.
The deceased greats are: Jerry Bails, Tony DeZuniga, Justin Green, Jay Jackson, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Win Mortimer, Diane Noomin, Gaspar Saladino, Kim Thompson, and Mort Walker. The judges’ living choices are Bill Griffith, Jack Katz, Garry Trudeau, and Tatjana Wood.
Among the inductees with comic strip credentials are …
Justin Green, whose Sign Game strip ran for twenty years and Musical Legends page ran for ten.
Bill Griffith strips of Mr. Toad and Griffith Observatory are eclipsed by his long running Zippy the Pinhead.
Jay Jackson‘s more than a dozen comic strips include As Others See Us, Bungleton Green, and Speed Jaxon.
Jeffrey Catherine Jones‘s most famous magazine comic strip pages were Idyl and I’m Age.
Jack Katz was part of the King Features bullpen in the late 1940s, later he was artist for Galactic Prime.
Win Mortimer worked on Superman, David Crane, Larry Bannon, Best Seller Showcase, and Batman comic strips.
Gaspar Saladino lettered The World’s Greatest Superheroes and The Virtue of Vera Valiant among others.
Garry Trudeau is creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Doonesbury comic strip.
Mort Walker = Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Boner’s Ark, Sam’s Strip, Gamin and Patches, The Limejuicers, and more.
The judges have also chosen 16 nominees from whom voters will select 4 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer. These nominees are Gus Arriola, Brian Bolland, Gerry Conway, Edwina Dumm, Mark Evanier, Creig Flessel, Bob Fujitani, Warren Kremer, Todd McFarlane, Keiji Nakazawa, Ann Nocenti, Paul Norris, Bud Plant, Tim Sale, Diana Schutz, and Phil Seuling. More information on the inductees and nominees can be found below.
Among the nominees are comic strip creators and contributors.
Gus Arriola created the Gordo comic strip.
Gerry Conway scripted Star Trek and the World’s Greatest Superheroes comic strips.
Edwina Dumm created Cap Stubbs and Tippie, Alec the Great, Meanderings of Minnie, and more.
Creig Flessel contributed to David Crane, This Week in Astrology, Apartment 3-G, Li’l Abner, and others.
Bob Fujitani was the long-time artist of Flash Gordon; also art on Judge Wright, Mandrake the Magician, more.
Warren Kremer was the natural choice for the Richie Rich comic strip.
Paul Norris was most famously the writer/artist on Brick Bradford, Jungle Jim, and Geriatrix.
The Eisner Awards announcement for 2023 Hall of Fame inductees and nominees with brief profiles.
Mark Evanier continues to contribute gags for the Garfield comic strip (and likely did so for U.S. Acres as well).
I “know” Mark Evanier contributed gags to the Garfield comic strip but at the time I was working up this list I could not find confirmation, much less a specific strip.
Jack Katz was most well-known for his comic book series The First Kingdom.