Reading the Hugos: Graphic Story

Welcome back for another edition of Reading the Hugos, our ongoing and long running feature looking at the Hugo Awards. Today we're going to look at the six finalists for Graphic Story.

This year, not a single comic I nominated made the final ballot. The one I most feel the loss of is Ed Piskor's X-Men: Grand Design, which I thought was a novel reimagining and retelling of of the earliest X-Men stories (see SFK's review). As a general rule, mainline Marvel comics don't make the Hugo Awards ballot (meaning, Avengers / X-Men stuff that doesn't have strong genre ties or are written by well known / regarded writers like Nnedi Okorafor or Saladin Ahmed) and it would have been nice to see Piskor breaking through here.

Regardless. On to the finalists.


Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä, colours by Jason Wordie, letters by Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)
Black Panther: Long Live the King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
Paper Girls, Volume 4, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image Comics)
Saga, Volume 9, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Monstress: I find myself increasingly in the minority regarding Monstress. There's no questioning the raw excellence of Sana Takeda's art, but I'm not sure I'm really following the story anymore and I'm not interested in going back and re-reading each preceding volume before jumping into the new one, just in the hopes that I'll be able to piece it all together. There's some cool (and badass) stuff in this book - perhaps more here than in "The Blood", but I'm reading Monstress more out of some sense of genre obligation and a vague hope that this will all come together for me in the next book. We'll see.

Paper Girls: Similar to Monstress, I'm not really sure what the overarching story is over Paper Girls or what Vaughan is building to. Unlike Monstress, I'm all in for this ride. I dig the time travel and being of a certain age, dropping the girls into the year 2000 and the fear of Y2K hits a particular emotional nostalgia that I remember so well - but what makes Paper Girls work so well for me is the interactions between the four girls, how they interact with the points in time they're dropped, and the gradual reveals of a war to change or preserve time itself. Maybe even moreso than Saga, I hope this is an ending that Vaughan is going to be able to stick and that he has a plan to bring it all together. But, for now, Vaughan is firing on all cylinders.

Black Panther: Okorafor brings Black Panther back from global threats and wide scale battle, and even from major events threatening Wakanda to tighter stories focused more on the "people on the ground", the citizens of Wakanda through the eyes of T'Challa. I appreciate that these aren't big stories, but rather are trying to reach the heart of what Wakanda is and can be and if it really is or can be as utopian as possible for all of its citizens.

On a Sunbeam: On a Sunbeam is a love story, a friendship story, a space adventure, a story of rebellion at a boarding school, and a bit of an action movie all rolled into one. It’s a beautiful piece of quiet storytelling. With absolutely wild visuals of architecture and space travel that probably would make no sense in a more conventional science fiction story, On a Sunbeam is grounded into the relationships between Mia and Grace and with Mia and the crewmembers of a spaceship shaped like a fish who become a family to her. The two narrative paths of the story are set five years apart, and one part of the “present” storyline is wondering how Mia got from the school to the ship and just what happened? I’ve never read anything quite like this, though it feels familiar at the same time.

The other finalists for Graphic Story are what I think of as more “traditional” comic books, collections of 4 to 5 issues published individually then gathered together for a trade paperback collection often around 120 pages. They are usually a story arc that may or may not hang together as a singular volume. On a Sunbeam was originally a webcomic and when published in book form clocks in over 500 pages. In some ways, On a Sunbeam feels like the sort of work the Graphic Story was created to honor, though looking at the history of the category shows a reasonable cross section between works that make the ballot for 3-5 years in a row and others that are much more of a one off tale or just represent good storytelling that year. However you consider On a Sunbeam, it is wonderful.

Saga: Saga has been a difficult book to talk about because the events of any given volume are just so batshit insane, even nine volumes into to the series - but the core of the story has been the star crossed love story between Marko and Alana and their perpetual attempts to keep their daughter safe even though it seems everything in the galaxy want them dead. The core is there, as are the hints of heartbreak permeating the series through their daughter Hazel's narration.

Volume 9 is the midpoint for the series and it marks the point Vaughan and Staples are taking a year long hiatus. They're leaving us with shock, awe, and pain. Every time it seems the series has hit a new high point, they reach back and let loose another fastball thrown harder than the last one. I'm not sure a baseball analogy works here, but there are some seriously shocking and series altering events in this book that I'm not sure how else to talk about them in vague terms. Listen, Volume 9 collects issues 49 through 54 and this isn't the place to begin if you're new to Saga - go back. It's one story and it's a great one.

Abbott: Saladin Ahmed comes hard with Abbott and he doesn't relent for a moment. This is a bad ass comic book and it is everything I didn't know that I wanted until I read it. Elena Abbott is a reporter covering some nasty, nasty crimes ignored by the police. She's better than good at her job, but then she'd have to be as a black woman in 1972 Detroit. Racism. Sexism. Some evil magical shit. Ahmed has packed Abbott with top notch storytelling and a tight narrative that you don't want to look away from, but maybe not late at night.

Abbott is a revelation. There are secrets and lies and this is a stunning, great piece of writing matched to near perfect art. Don't miss this.


My Vote
1. Abbott
2. Saga
3. On a Sunbeam
4. Black Panther
5. Paper Girls
6. Monstress


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Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 3x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

Watching the Hugos: Professional and Fan Artist

Welcome back to our ongoing series of Watching the Hugos: 2018 Edition! Today we're doubling up Professional Artist and Fan Artist into one post because how I think about art and artists don't quite line up perfectly well with the format I've used for the read of the Reading the Hugos series. You'll note that I'm using the "Watching the Hugos" title, which isn't quite right but is the closest I could figure out in order to have consistency across the various categories. It'll do. Let's take a look at who the finalists are and then we'll get into a little bit of commentary. For each category, my evaluation is based on the submissions to the Voter's Packet.

Finalists for Professional Artist
Galen Dara
Kathleen Jennings
Bastien Lecouffe Deharme
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Sana Takeda

Finalists for Fan Artist
Geneva Benton
Grace P. Fong
Maya Hahto
Likhain (M. Sereno)
Spring Shoenhuth
Steve Stiles

The top of the ballot for Professional Artist was very difficult to rack and stack. There’s just some stellar work being done here and there isn’t really a bad choice to be made. All six of the artists are simply excellent.

Galen Dara’s work is stunning as always. I’ve admired her art for years, but from top to bottom in the voter’s packet, this is top of the line art. Likewise, Victo Ngai is quickly becoming of my favorite artists today. Her style is distinctive, but clear. If you remember th
e cover of Amberlough, you have an idea of the stylistic choices she is making in the art she produced last year. It’s fantastic. John Picacio’s Loteria cards are some of the best work of his career and I highly recommend everyone check them out. I’ve followed Picacio for more than a decade and have always been a fan, but between Loteria and his covers for Uncanny, he’s producing some damn fine work.

I first heard of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme when Terry Goodkind decided to publicly blast the cover artist for his latest novel and a vast wave of the internet rose up in the artist’s defense. I had never heard of Lecouffe Deharme before, so I looked up his work and was impressed. Apparently, so were enough Hugo nominators because lo, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme is a finalist for Professional Artist. His work is really good and, as shabby as he was treated by Goodkind, he deserves this moment in the spotlight.

Sana Takeda has a very distinctive style. Her covers for The Dark Crystal are such that, if you’ve read Monstress but didn’t know who the artist was, you’d immediately know that Monstress and The Dark Crystal were drawn by the same artist. Distinctive and excellent. The art of Kathleen Jennings is likewise excellent, but evokes a superficially simpler style. I wouldn’t say that it is simpler, but it isn’t as flashy or performative as some of the work done by the other artists in this category.

My Ballot for Professional Artist
1. Galen Dara
2. Victo Ngai
3. John Picacio
4. Bastien Lecouffe Deharme
5. Sana Takeda
6. Kathleen Jennings


I really love Geneva Benton’s included work here. Her cover for Fiyah Magazine Issue 3 is absolutely one of my favorite pieces of art from last year and even if it was the only included piece, it would be enough to put her at the top of my ballot. It’s not, and there are more great pieces of art, but damn, that cover. Likhain continues to impress, her work would very much fit in on the Professional Artist ballot.

Most of Maya Hahto’s included work is related to pieces created for Worldcon 75 themed around the Ursa bear imagery the convention utilized, but the two standouts are a pencil drawing of author Nalo Hopkinson and a stunning oil painting she created for the Worldcon 75. Those two pieces are absolutely stellar. Grace P. Fong’s contributions are concept work for Uncanny Magazine’s Year 3 Kickstarter – and the some side-headshots which seems like a concept for a much larger work that I’d like to see more of.

One of the interesting things about the Fan Artist category is that the perennial inclusion of Spring Schoenhuth represents the possibility of the category and how it can represent a much wider variety of art that simple “cover art” and the style of art we most often see in both the professional and fan artist categories. Schoenhuth does metalwork and the pieces, at least from pictures, are fantastic. That they’re not really my thing does not lessen the high quality of the work.

Then there’s Steve Stiles. Very much an institution in this category, Stiles is a fifteen time finalist for Fan Artist and was awarded the Hugo in 2016 (which, I should probably note, is one of the years the ballot was heavily papered with Sad and Rabid Puppy selections and Stiles was the only Non-Puppy finalist in this category.) Honestly, I don’t see the appeal to Stiles’s work. He is part of the traditional fanzine scene and I think there is a lot of recognition based on that segment of fandom, which is fine. There is a place at the table for most styles of art, but I don’t appreciation his work and I just can’t put it above No Award.

Compared to Professional Artist, it was easier to rank Fan Artist. Benton and Likhain are a step above the rest, though I would love to see more work from Maya Hahto like the two pieces I called out above.

My Ballot for Fan Artist
1. Geneva Benton
2. Likhain
3. Maya Hahto
4. Grace P. Fong
5. Spring Schoenhuth
6. No Award


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POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

Watching the Hugos: Professional and Fan Artist

Welcome back to our ongoing series of Watching the Hugos: 2017 Edition! Today we're doubling up Professional Artist and Fan Artist into one post because how I think about art and artists don't quite line up perfectly well with the format I've used for the read of the Reading the Hugos series. You'll note that I'm using the "Watching the Hugos"title, which isn't quite right but is the closest I could figure out in order to have consistency across the various categories. It'll do. Let's take a look at who the finalists are and then we'll get into a little bit of commentary. For each category, my evaluation is based on the submissions to the Voter's Packet.

Finalists for Professional Artist
Galen Dara 
Julie Dillon 
Chris McGrath 
Victo Ngai 
John Picacio 
Sana Takeda

Finalists for Fan Artist
Ninni Aalto 
Elizabeth Leggett 
Vesa Lehtimäki 
Likhain (M. Sereno) 
Spring Schoenhuth 
Steve Stiles

Professional Artist was an incredibly tough category this year. I noted in February that Victo Ngai's cover of Amberlough was enough to sell the book without knowing a single thing else about it. It remains stunning. I don't know much about what the Loteria project John Picacio has been working on is all about, but I've been following his updates and it is quite possibly the best work of his career - and that's saying something. La Corona (above) is a standout piece of art.

Galen Dara's cover of Lightspeed 74 is exceptional, as is everything else presented in the packet. When I wrote about the Graphic Story finalists, I noted that Sana Takeda's art for Monstress was the finest of all the work in that category, and it continues to stand out here among the Professional Artists.

Considering how to rack and stack those four finalists was the largest challenge in considering any of the artists. They were all so consistent in their excellence that I might slot them differently on a different day but on this day, this is how they are shaking out. As good as the work of Chris McGrath and Julie Dillon were, they did not quite stand up to the top four on my ballot.

My Ballot for Professional Artist
1. Victo Ngai
2. Galen Dara
3. John Picacio
4. Sana Takeda
5. Chris McGrath
6. Julie Dillon


Fan Artist, on the other hand, was quite a bit easier to consider. If published in a professional market, Likhain's work would not have been out of place on the Professional ballot. Vesa Lehtimaki has some pretty cool fan art mixing live scenery with Lego or Star Wars vehicles. I've been a fan of Elizabeth Leggett's work in the past, both her professional and fan stuff, but this year I wasn't quite as impressed compared to Likhain and Lehtimaki. Spring Schoenhuth is a perennial finalist for her metalwork, which appears to be high quality but not quite my thing.

After that, I'm less impressed with Ninni Aalto's submissions. They're better than Steve Stiles, but that is faint praise because I am so far from being able to appreciate his work that I can't imagine a year where I would place it above No Award at this point.

My Ballot for Fan Artist

1. Likhain
2. Vesa Lehtimaki
3. Elizabeth Leggett
4. Spring Schoenhuth
5. No Award


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POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.