Required Reading: Early Eisner Thoughts

Honestly, I'm still familiarizing myself with the Comic-Con International's Eisner awards-- its process, how it tends to turn out each year, etc --so I don't know how equipped I would be to write up a plea for what manga should get nods for this year's awards.

Luckily for me, and you, the much more qualified David Welsh has done all the work for us, going through some of the biggest-- and not-so-big --names in manga and suggesting not only that they be nominated but also often what categories they might work in.

I absolutely agree with him that Kaoru Mori's gorgeous period drama Emma should be recognized this year (its last, since the final volume is out), and I'd really like to see Junko Mizuno get more attention as well. While there's no risk that Naoki Urasawa will go completely unrecognized, I think it would be awesome to see him score a nod in the Best Writer/Artist - Drama category as well, right up there with the US bigs. He's a one-in-a-million creator, if you ask me.

Most importantly, though, I'd like to see manga appear in a few categories OTHER than "Best US Edition of Foreign Material - Japan" this year. Last year was a little depressing in not recognizing some materials that really deserved it. I understand that it can be hard to decide between a really great American comic and a really great Japanese comic, and I would never suggest putting a good Japanese comic out in favor of a better American comic...but it seems like considering how much of a part in the US comics industry manga has these days, that it's appropriate for it to share in a bit more of the glory than it did last year.