The votes are in and you, the fans, have determined your favorite creators and projects of 2010 in our annual Fan Awards.
A nominating round earlier in the year determined the top five nominees in each category, and the resulting ballot went online and in CBG #1678. Even with a more diverse ballot of nominees this year, in all but one category, the voting was close among the top two or three nominees — and often among all five, indicating that every creator and every project was somebody’s favorite. (Only projects with a 2010 copyright date and creators who had work published with a 2010 copyright date were eligible for consideration.) So, without further ado …
Favorite Writer: Geoff Johns
Only two of the previous year’s finalists returned to the final ballot this year. In fact, it’s the same pair — Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Flash, etc.) and Ed Brubaker (Criminal, Incognito, etc.).
With his return to comics at Dark Horse, Jim Shooter’s work on the Gold Key properties (Magnus, Robot Fighter; Mighty Samson; Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; and Turok, Son of Stone) put him in the running and made for an impressive finish, outpacing Scratch9’s Rob Worley and Ides of Blood’s Stuart Paul.
Geoff Johns 33.17%
Ed Brubaker 29.41%
Jim Shooter 23.04%
Rob Worley 7.35%
Stuart Paul 7.03%
Favorite Penciller: John Byrne
Past favorites returned to the Favorite Penciller category this year, with John Byrne (Next Men, Star Trek, Angel) adding another award to his record. (That makes three times he’s won Favorite Penciller in addition to his being named Favorite Artist before we split the category in 1986.)
Last year’s Favorite Penciller, Amanda Conner (Power Girl), took third to 13-time winner George Pérez (DC Universe: Legacies). 2001 Favorite Penciller John Romita Jr. (Kick-Ass, Avengers) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) rounded out the category.
John Byrne 29.90%
George Pérez 25.56%
Amanda Conner 21.22%
John Romita Jr. 14.63%
Stan Sakai 8.68%
Favorite Inker: Klaus Janson
Klaus Janson (Avengers), who was not one of last year’s finalists, captured almost a third of the votes cast to be named Favorite Inker over last year’s Favorite Scott Williams. Only Williams and nominee Dexter Vines of this year’s choices had appeared on last year’s ballot. Williams has had nine previous wins in the category and continued his award-winning work on Batman in 2010. Paulo Henrique’s 2010 work included such Papercutz projects as The Smurfs, while Steve Leialoha worked on Fables, and Vines was the inker on Ultimate Thor.
Klaus Janson 33.72%
Scott Williams 23.87%
Paulo Henrique 18.03%
Steve Leialoha 13.52%
Dexter Vines 10.85%
Favorite Colorist: Laura Martin
Marvel’s relaunched Avengers series helped Laura Martin add a 10th Favorite Colorist award to her CBG Awards collection.
Dave Stewart, whose 2010 work included several series for Dark Horse, moved ahead of Alex Sinclair and was clearly a Favorite Colorist for many voters.
Aside from those top two vote-getters, the results weren’t as close as last year’s.
Sinclair’s 2010 output included Green Lantern and Flash, while Tom Luth continued coloring Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo covers, and Wes Dzioba colored several Dark Horse projects, especially in its Star Wars line.
Laura Martin 31.95%
Dave Stewart 30.64%
Alex Sinclair 19.92%
Tom Luth 11.28%
Wes Dzioba 6.20%
You can check out Janson and Martin’s award-winning Avengers work in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1.
Favorite Letterer: Janice Chiang
The results radically changed in the Favorite Letterer category. For the first time, Janice Chiang appeared on the final ballot — and she followed that up by surpassing the votes for nominees whose lettering have locked in a spot on the final ballot year after year.
Her work on Life with Archie: The Married Life obviously struck a chord with voters.
Tom Orzechowski, absent from the finalists’ list last year, took second place, followed by last year’s favorite, Todd Klein.
Chris Eliopoulos, followed by Richard Starkings and Comicraft, completed the results.
Janice Chiang 30.05%
Tom Orzechowski 23.48%
Todd Klein 16.26%
Chris Eliopoulos 15.60%
Richard Starkings and Comicraft 14.61%
Favorite Cover Artist: Adam Hughes
Adam Hughes, whose 2010 work included a “Blackest Night” cover for Catwoman, won the crown as Favorite Cover Artist again this year. (Alex Ross routinely took top honors in this category for many years, and the gap between the two popular artists remains small in the specialized category in which art is more designed to grab the reader than tell the story.)
Ross’ work at Dynamite Entertainment in 2010 earned him recognition as one of the top two talents for 15 years.
The two were joined by a fresh batch of nominees, consisting of David Finch (Brightest Day), Raymond Swanland (Turok, Son of Stone), and Jason Kruse (Scratch9).
Adam Hughes 37.86%
Alex Ross 34.67%
David Finch 17.25%
Raymond Swanland 6.03%
Jason Kruse 4.19%
Favorite Editor: Jim Salicrup
One of the few categories in which the top vote-getter claimed nearly half of all votes cast, Favorite Editor has become a much tougher category to predict in today’s age of changing corporate structures. This year, neither Marvel’s Joe Quesada nor DC’s Dan DiDio were on the ballot.
However, Marvel editors Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso — both absent from last year’s ballot — claimed nearly a third of all votes between them.
Meanwhile, longtime Dark Horse editor Chris Warner took third, while Shannon Eric Denton returned to claim fourth place again.
But it was Papercutz Editor Jim Salicrup who claimed the title of Favorite Editor this year, handily winning over the other nominees. We’re hoping that ax didn’t have anything to do with it.
Jim Salicrup 46.08%
Tom Brevoort 18.20%
Chris Warner 12.52%
Shannon Eric Denton 12.02%
Axel Alonso 11.19%
Favorite Story: Untitled — Walking Dead #78
The Walking Dead shambled its way to the head of the class, taking Favorite Story with the untitled tale in #78. A close contender for Favorite Story was the introduction of Kevin Keller in Veronica #202’s “Isn’t It Bromantic?” — and Jim Shooter’s relaunched Turok, Son of Stone #1 took third. (Editors’ Whine: Of the nominees, finding the title of the story in Ides of Blood #1 was the most difficult.)
As we note its multiple nominations, we suggest it could be worth your while to keep an eye on Scratch9.
Untitled story Walking Dead #78 (Image) 30.92%
“Isn’t It Bromantic?” Veronica #202 (Archie) 28.93%
“Aztlan, Part 1: Out of Time” Turok, Son of
Stone #1 (Dark Horse) 18.81%
“Rome of Shadow, Rome of Light” Ides of
Blood #1 (DC/WildStorm) 13.74%
“The Pet Project” Scratch9 #1-3 (Ape) 7.59%
Favorite Comic Book or Mini-Series:
Amazing Spider-Man/Walking Dead (tie)
Amazing Spider-Man moved up from third last year to claim half of the Favorite Comic Book title this year, tying with Walking Dead. It was a dead heat from the moment the final ballot went live online.
DC’s biweekly Brightest Day shone, as well, while Scratch9, as we noted earlier, is a title to watch.
DC/WildStorm’s Ides of Blood will be eligible again in next year’s Fan Awards, since only half of the first six-issue story arc was published in 2010.
Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel) 30.19%
Walking Dead (Image) 30.19%
Brightest Day (DC) 23.95%
Scratch9 (Ape Entertainment) 7.93%
Ides of Blood (DC/WildStorm) 7.76%
Favorite Original Graphic Novel: Superman Earth One
With all the media attention it received when it was released, is it any wonder J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis’ Superman Earth One would be chosen as Favorite Original Graphic Novel this year?
The other nominees in the category are a diverse lot — as opposed to last year’s slate, which was dominated by books from DC’s Zuda imprint. A volume from Oni’s Scott Pilgrim series made the list this year, no doubt helped by the feature film. Arcana’s Grunts: War Stories, Archaia’s Return of the Dapper Men, and Top Shelf’s BB Wolf and the 3 LPs rounded out the list. Do we need to suggest that you should check out any you haven’t yet read?
Superman Earth One (DC) 44.59%
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour (aka Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6) (Oni) 25.48%
Grunts: War Stories (Arcana) 12.74%
Return of the Dapper Men (Archaia) 11.00%
BB Wolf and the 3 LPS (Top Shelf) 6.18%
If you haven’t checked out Superman Earth One, we have copies available at our official online bookstore, Shop.Collect.com.
Favorite Character: Batman
Much like Bruce Wayne, Batman returned to claim Favorite Character (21 times and counting!) this year, but Spider-Man returned to the list to give The Caped Crusader close competition.
Green Lantern willpowered into the Final Five with the help of writer Geoff Johns and the rest of the creative team, while Superman continued his “always a bridesmaid” ways.
Jim Shooter’s second revival of Magnus, Robot Fighter earned the steel-hard warrior a respectable fifth-place finish.
Batman 30.16%
Spider-Man 27.14%
Green Lantern 15.71%
Superman 15.24%
Magnus, Robot Fighter 11.75%
Favorite Publisher: DC
Last year, DC took in more than half the votes for Favorite Publisher of 2009. This year, it still takes the blue ribbon — earning more than a third of the votes for 2010. That brought DC its 13th year of being named the favorite publisher of CBG’s readers.
In the meantime, Papercutz climbed into third place, knocking Image from the nominees list and taking nearly three times the percentage of votes that Image received last year.
Marvel slipped approximately 6% in the percentage of votes received, while Dark Horse increased its percentage by 8%, and Boom! Studios improved its grasp on fifth place by more than 1%.
DC 34.66%
Marvel 20.76%
Papercutz 20.00%
Dark Horse 18.02%
Boom! Studios 6.56%
Thanks to all those readers who participated in our nominating process and those who voted for their favorites out of the resultant final ballot.
As we’ve reminded everyone in each of our 29 years of fan polls, every project of the year was somebody’s favorite.
The Magazine
