Spring is the season for picking favorites, so let’s look at some choices.
The Phantom is a popular comic character around the world, and in Sweden the publishers of Fantomen choose their favorite stories that ran in the comic book in the year of 2019.
The Chronicle Chamber reports:
As we saw in the Frew best adventure for 2019 polling, a lot of Australian’s were patriotic with their voting and I think its fair that we have seen something similar here with them voting for stories created by their local publisher for their local audience.
But the American comic strip did pick up some votes:
In 2018 the highest placed newspaper Daily or Sunday story was voted at 15th. In 2019, Tony DePaul‘s and Jeff Weigel “The Rat Must Die!” Sunday story came in equal second. Tony DePauls and Terry Beatty‘s “The Ghost Story” Sunday story also came in fourth.
There was also two more Tony DePaul and Mike Manley Daily adventures in the top 10.
It goes to show that the current Newspaper teams are doing a great job. Well done all.
above: page from Frew’s The Phantom #1856 via Comixology
The long The Rat Must Die story needed a double issue to run “done in one.”
The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards is an annual celebration of the creativity, skill and fun of comics. The nomination ballot is determined by fans and pros.
As seen by the logo above The Ringo Awards are comic book awards … mainly. But they do have a couple comic strip categories: Best Comic Strip or Panel and Best Webcomic. Here are the nominees and winner from last year’s voting to give you an idea:
Best Comic Strip or Panel
- Amazing Spider-Man, Stan Lee/Larry Lieber, King Features Syndicate
- Bloom County, Berkeley Breathed, Andrews McMeel Universal
- Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, Andrews McMeel Universal
- Garfield, Jim Davis, King Features Syndicate
- Luann, Greg Evans, Andrews McMeel Universal
- Nancy, Olivia Jaimes, Andrews McMeel Universal – Winner
- Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis, Andrews McMeel Universal
Best Webcomic
- Age Matters, Enjelicious
- Anina Bennett, David Hahn
- The Contradictions, Sophie Yanow
- Existential Comics, Corey Mohler
- Lavender Jack, Dan Schkade
- Luff, Arechan
- The Nib, various (https://thenib.com/) – Winner
- Nothing Special, Katie Cook
Voting for The Ringos are open until June 25, 2020.
The Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953 and presented annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”), which is also responsible for administering them.
Earlier this mont,
The finalists for the 2020 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer and for the 1945 Retrospective Hugo Awards were announced.
To be honest I recognize very few of the nominees for the current Hugo Awards. On the other hand the Retro Hugo nominees contain very familiar names – Burroughs, Brackett, van Vogt, Kuttner, Sturgeon, Simak, Asimov, and so on. Of course nominees in the Retro Hugo Best Graphic Story or Comic are all recognizable.
- Buck Rogers: “Hollow Planetoid”, by Dick Calkins (National Newspaper Service)
- Donald Duck: “The Mad Chemist”, by Carl Barks (Dell Comics)
- Flash Gordon: “Battle for Tropica”, by Alex Raymond (King Features Syndicate)
- Flash Gordon: “Triumph in Tropica”, by Alex Raymond [and Austin Briggs] (King Features Syndicate)
- The Spirit: “For the Love of Clara Defoe”, by Manly Wade Wellman, Lou Fine and Don Komisarow (Register and Tribune Syndicate)
- Superman: “The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk”, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (Detective Comics, Inc.)
The full list of finalists are listed on the individual pages for
the 2020 Hugo Awards and 1945 Retrospective Hugo Awards.
