SDCC 2026: Notable Eisners Nominees, Details, and More

Originally published July 14, 2026. This article covers the 2026 Eisner Award nominees as well as Eisner Award news and history.

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No matter how many movies, exclusive collectibles, and fan activations dominate San Diego Comic-Con each year, the show keeps one thing at its very core — comics, of course!

In addition to dozens of publishers, hundreds of books, and signings and celebrations of decades of comics, SDCC hosts the Eisner Awards each year. This annual ceremony is dedicated to recognizing some of the top talent and best books hitting comic shelves within the last year. Think of the Eisners like the Oscars of comics.

This year’s ceremony features 32 categories, recognizing over 170 works of print and digital comics from nearly 75 different publishers. These nominations showcase the sheer diversity of comics, proving there’s a story for everyone — and space for everyone to tell their stories. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Eisner Awards:

• The Eisners are hosted during San Diego Comic-Con
• Eisners are voted on by a panel of judges
• DC Comics leads with the most nominations of any publisher
• Stephanie Williams is a historic nominee for Best Writer
• Jeff the Land Shark is nominated for another Eisner
• Other interesting Eisners facts

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The Eisners are hosted during San Diego Comic-Con

• The Eisners ceremony will take place at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego on Friday, July 24.
• The award is named after cartoonist Will Eisner, and the trophy is presented in the form of a globe.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, or Eisners for short, are an annual celebration of comics excellence honoring nominees who were published in the previous year. This year’s 2026 award ceremony covers publications that hit shelves between January 1 and December 31, 2025.

The ceremony usually takes place the Friday evening of SDCC, in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel. The event is open to attendees with a valid Friday or 4-Day badge to SDCC.

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Eisners are voted on by a panel of judges

• Nominations are decided by a panel of judges
• Voting takes place ahead of the awards ceremony, combining industry member votes with the votes of the official judging panel

The voting period for the 2026 Eisners has closed.

Each year, nominees are picked by a panel of judges from various parts of the comic industry. After nominees are announced, voting opens to all comic book professionals who register to submit votes. The voting window is online-only and limited, usually closing in June in order for votes to be tallied and awards to be engraved.

The comic book professionals’ votes are calculated alongside the judging panel. Results are announced the evening of the ceremony, with many press outlets reporting live from the event.

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DC Comics leads with the most nominations of any publisher

• DC Comics has 16 nominations this year, sharing accolades with some of its nominated writers and artists. Many Absolute titles dominate the categories this year.
• Image Comics and Fantagraphics also have 12 and 14 nominations each.
• Absolute Batman, Absolute Martian Manhunter, and Image’s Assorted Crisis Events lead as the most nominated titles of the year.

It’s no shock to fans that the Absolute DC books dominate among this year’s nominees, across multiple categories. Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Batman lead the pack of most-nominated titles, with 6 and 5 nominations respectively.

Absolute Wonder Woman also has a nomination for Best Continuing Series, and its creators Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, and Jordie Bellaire all have nods for Best Writer, Penciller/Inker, and Colorist. DC’s 2025 Pride special is also a contender for Best Anthology.

Marvel’s Eisner Nominations and Horror Highlights

Marvel’s nominations include a Best Continuing Series acknowledgement for Storm, Best New Series for Black Cat, and Best Humor Publication for Jeff the Land Shark.

Horror comics also made a strong showing, with a Best One-Shot nod for Ice Cream Man #43 from Image Comics and Something is Killing the Children: A Monster Hunter Walks Into a Bar #1 from Boom! Studios. The Best Limited Series category has Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring from IDW and Everything Dead and Dying from Image Comics, both going head to head with Absolute Martian Manhunter.

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Stephanie Williams is a historic nominee for Best Writer

• Stephanie Williams is nominated for Best Writer for her work on Street Sharks, Roots of Madness, and Temporal.
• Williams is the first Black woman to ever be nominated for Best Writer at the Eisners, and the second Black writer since Dwayne McDuffie was nominated in 1995.
• The Eisners have been occurring for 38 years.

Thousands of comic books are published every year, meaning it’s impossible to acknowledge every single one in an awards ceremony. Still, with the prestige of the Eisners, recognizing the true diversity and scope of the industry is an essential duty of these awards.

Stephanie Williams has been making an incredible name for herself as a writer across numerous properties, and has been nominated for Best Writer for her 2025 work on books like IDW’s Street Sharks, Roots of Madness from Ignition Press, and Temporal with Mad Cave Studios (which is also nominated for Best New Series).

This nomination makes her the first Black woman to ever be nominated for Best Writer in the award’s 38-year history. She’s also only the second Black writer to be recognized for the accolade since 1995, when Dwayne McDuffie was nominated for his work on Icon.

Some of her past work includes My Litte Pony, various Wonder Woman comics, the graphic novel adaptation of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, and more. She has more upcoming DC Comics work on Wonder Woman, as well as IDW’s Any Given Smile, a continuation of the Smile horror franchise.

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Jeff the Land Shark is nominated for another Eisner

• The comic series It’s Jeff! was nominated for Best Digital Comic in 2022
• It’s Jeff! won the award for Best Humor Publication in 2024
• Jeff the Land Shark is nominated again in 2026 for Best Humor Publication

Everyone’s favorite runaway experiment Jeff the Land Shark returns to the Eisner Awards this year, nabbing another nom-nom-nomination for Best Humor Publication for 2026. Writer Kelly Thompson and artist Tokitokoro have been recognized along with five other publications, going head to head for funniest comic of last year.

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Other interesting Eisners facts

• Every year, comic book stores can be nominated for the “Will Eisner Spirit of Comics” Award, for a comic store that best embodies the ideals of a community-centered space to celebrate comics.
• Comics Periodicals/Journalism and Academic Works about graphic novels also have their own categories.
• George Takei’s graphic memoir, It Rhymes with Takei, has also been nominated.
• Each year, more individuals are also added to the Eisner Hall of Fame. This year had 16 new nominees, of whom four will be inducted into the list of 19 other individuals already chosen for the accolade in the past.
• Even more information can be found at the full Eisner Awards homepage at comic-con.org.

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Will you be attending this year’s Eisner Awards Ceremony? Don’t forget to stop by Sideshow at Booth #2401 if you’re at the show to see all the latest collectibles and announcements in store for this year’s SDCC.

Share your fave picks for Eisner wins in the Sideshow Social Network or at side.show/geekgroup. And don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!