Preliminary voting is in on this year’s Eisner Award Hall of Fame and the judges have selected Mort Meskin and Spain Rodriguez for automatic inclusion.

The ballot for this year’s voting includes 13 additional nominees from whom four will be chosen:

Marjorie Henderson Buell (“Marge”)
Howard Cruse
Lee Falk
Bud Fisher
Bill Griffith
Al Jaffee
Jesse Marsh
Tarpé Mills
Thomas Nast
Gary Panter
Trina Robbins
Joe Sinnott and
Jacques Tardi

It’s good to see so many worthy living nominees on this list.

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Mort Meskin (1916–1995) was a 40s workhorse known for his work on such DC titles as Vigilante, Wildcat, Starman, and Johnny Quick, and the Black Terror for Standard. He collaborated with Jerry Robinson to create Atoman and Golden Lad, and worked with Simon and Kirby on Boys Ranch. His art was the kind of clean, stylish, versatile storytelling that didn’t call attention to itself even as it couldn’t be bettered. Fantagraphics has published two recent collections of his old comics, From Shadow to Light: The Life & Art of Mort Meskin and Out of the Shadows

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Spain Rodriguez (1940–2012) is still being mourned since his death late last year. A founding giant of both the emerging NY and SF underground scenes, he was both a personality and a creator to be reckoned with, from his early work on Zap to his more recent graphic novels Nightmare Alley and Che: A Graphic Biography.

Voting on the awards is now open to industry professionals. The voting deadline is March 4; the awards will be presented July 19th at CCI-SD.

The 2013 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of reviewer Michael Cavna (“Comic Riffs” Washington Post) academic/author Charles Hatfield (Cal State Northridge) retailer Adam Healy (Cosmic Monkey Portland OR) author/educator Katie Monnin (Teaching Graphic Novels) cartoonist/critic Frank Santoro (Storeyville; TCJ) and Comic-Con International registrar John Smith.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Spain and Meskin are two worth additions to the Eisner Hall of Fame. And deserve the automatic entry into it. I look forward to smart publishers reprinting their work, and giving these two fine artists even greater recognition.

  2. @Allen Smith, speaking of smart publishers Fantagraphics HAS and IS reprinting their works. We had Cruisin’ with the Hound: The Life and Times of Fred Toote by Spain come out and two Mort Meskin books so far From Shadow to Light and Out of the Shadows. Check it out today or at our book at SDCC

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