The CGS "Best of 2015" Awards: The Final Vote (Deadline: Sunday, 3/13/16!)

Adam_Murdough

A big, boisterous "Thank You" to everyone who submitted nominations for our CGS "Best of 2015" Awards Show! Now begins the all-important final phase: voting for the actual winners! Below is the final slate of nominees, broken down by category:


BEST NEW HERO or HERO TEAM (debut in 2015)
Ant-Man Security Solutions
Captain Marvel & The Carol Corps
The Front Line (Secret Identities)
Huck
Sam Wilson as Capt. America
The Ultimates

BEST NEW VILLAIN or VILLAIN TEAM (debut in 2015)
Dr. Aphra, BT-1, and 0-0-0 (Darth Vader)
Mr. Bloom (Batman)
Paper Girls aliens
Valeria von Doom (Runaways: Battleworld)

BEST NEW COMIC (first issue shipped in 2015)
Paper Girls
Rebels
Star Wars
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

BEST LIMITED SERIES (last issue shipped in 2015)
Captain Marvel & The Carol Corps
The Fade Out
Secret Wars
The Valiant

BEST CLIFFHANGER/MOMENT
"Skywalker..." (Star Wars #6)
"I have a son." (Darth Vader #6)
"Empty is Thy hand!" (The Multiversity Guidebook)
introduction of Alix (Sex Criminals #13)
decapitation of Namor (Squadron Supreme #1)

BEST STORYLINE (within a series or across multiple series)
"The Darkseid War" (Justice League)
Hank Johnson, Agent of HYDRA
"Poison" (Lazarus)
Secret Wars
"Vader Down" (Star Wars titles)

BEST SLEEPER/SURPRISE HIT
Airboy
Dr. Strange
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
The Vision

BEST ONGOING COMIC (need not have begun publication in 2015)
Bitch Planet
Lazarus
Saga
S.H.I.E.L.D. (by Mark Waid)

BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM (OGN or COLLECTION)
The Private Eye
Thanos: The Infinity Relativity

BEST WRITER
Jonathan Hickman
Brian K. Vaughan
Mark Waid
G. Willow Wilson

BEST ARTIST
Mike Allred
Salvador Larroca
Esad Ribic
Fiona Staples
Babs Tarr

BEST WRITER/ARTIST
Ed Piskor
Walt Simonson
Thom Zahler

BEST INKER
Tyler Boss
Michael Lark
Salvador Larroca
Danny Miki
Steve Skroce

BEST COLOR ARTIST
Laura Allred
Fiona Staples
Christian Ward
Matt Wilson

BEST LETTERER
Joe Caramagna
Clayton Cowles
Todd Klein
Fiona Staples

BREAKTHROUGH TALENT OF 2015
Greg Hinkle
Tom King
Team Squirrel Girl
Chip Zdarsky


There are your options, frantic ones; now do your civic duty and VOTE! Submit your ballots via e-mail to bestof@comicgeekspeak.com, anytime before 11:59 pm (EST) on Sunday, March 13th. Please vote for only ONE candidate in each category; no dual votes or "ties" allowed! Also, please vote in every category, if possible. Ballots containing votes in fewer than 12 of the 16 categories will be considered incomplete and disqualified! May the best comics/creators/etc. win!!

nweathington

BEST NEW HERO or HERO TEAM (debut in 2015)
Huck

I went with Huck just because he’s a nice change of pace.

BEST NEW VILLAIN or VILLAIN TEAM (debut in 2015)
Valeria von Doom (Runaways: Battleworld)

I thought about the Paper Girls aliens, but we don't know much about them yet. Valeria, on the other hand, was a hoot. A very fun villain who can go from ruthless to cute as a button on a dime.

BEST NEW COMIC (first issue shipped in 2015)
Paper Girls

This wasn't even a contest for me. I love the characters, the setting, the weirdness, the artwork, the coloring, the production design. Great book.

BEST LIMITED SERIES (last issue shipped in 2015)
The Fade Out

BEST CLIFFHANGER/MOMENT
introduction of Alix (Sex Criminals #13)

BEST STORYLINE (within a series or across multiple series)

Pass. Haven't read any of these yet.

BEST SLEEPER/SURPRISE HIT
The Vision

A lot of good choices here. I’m not surprised that I liked Dr. Strange or Squirrel Girl—the previews were pretty convincing. I am a bit surprised at how many other people liked Squirrel Girl, but I'm even more surprised at the reception for The Vision. Of the three, it's the one you’d expect to be the most superhero-y, but it's actually the least superhero-y. It's intelligent science fiction Isaac Asimov could get behind, and I would not have predicted that type of book to be successful with Marvel readers.

BEST ONGOING COMIC (need not have begun publication in 2015)
Saga

BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM (OGN or COLLECTION)
The Private Eye

I nominated this for Best Limited Series, so this is an easy choice for me. Everything Chris has said about this book is on target. A fantastic story.

BEST WRITER
Brian K. Vaughan

Kind of goes without saying as he wrote my picks for Best Ongoing Series and Best Graphic Album.

BEST ARTIST
Mike Allred

I like pretty much everyone on the list of nominees about the same (except Larroca who is a bit too reliant on his photo reference, and a bit too stiff for my taste—nothing against using it, but don't be a slave to it). But I'm feeling a little old school, and I like Mike.

BEST WRITER/ARTIST
Walt Simonson

Thom’s a friend of mine, and a great guy, and Piskor is doing some fantastic work, but Walt is Walt.

BEST INKER
Michael Lark

Ugh. Once again, the Best Inker category comes up with the weakest list of nominees from my viewpoint. You've got someone nominated for their assistant inking work in Tyler Boss. I don't care for the deadline style of Skroce, and even less for Larroca’s work which feels too stiff to me. And while I like things about Miki’s inking, I don’t think he always benefits the storytelling, as he often seems to get caught up in the details and doesn't do enough to make the figures more readable. That leaves Lark—a very good inker, but not my favorite by any means. There are several artists (Butch Guice for one) who work in a very similar style of inking, and who I think do it better than Lark.

BEST COLOR ARTIST
Matt Wilson

Another list of excellent choices. Laura and Fiona are both great with distinct styles. Ward makes very interesting palette choices, and is visually exciting, but he's a bit of a one-trick pony from what I've seen. Meanwhile, Wilson has been doing a wide range of excellent work for years. While Dave Stewart is still my guy, Wilson isn't far off the mark in terms of versatility and using coloring as a storytelling tool. And though Paper Girls may look like the easiest job he’s ever done, his work on the book is brilliant.

BEST LETTERER
Todd Klein

As with inking, it's getting harder and harder to pick a clear winner in this category. Computer lettering has really leveled the playing field. So I'm picking Todd as a tribute to his long run of excellent work on Fables which ended last year.

BREAKTHROUGH TALENT OF 2015
Team Squirrel Girl

I nominated Erika Henderson, and since she's part of Team Squirrel Girl... A lot of the new crowd of cartoonists look very much alike, but Erika has a unique voice, and one I really like. You can see the development in her work in those first few issues, and I expect great things from her in the coming years.

Diarra_Harris1

Whew! Just sent the email of my vote.