List of webcomic awards

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This article provides a list of notable awards for webcomics and some of the winners from each year.

Webcomics may be eligible for any number of literary awards that recognise achievement in comics or literature generally. As examples, webcomic artists have won Ignatz Awards and Eisner Awards, Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese (originally published as a webcomic on Modern Tales), was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award,[1] and Don Hertzfeldt's animated film Everything Will Be OK, which won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award in Short Filmmaking, was based on his webcomics.[2]

However, a number of awards have existed that are specifically for webcomics, or which focus mainly on webcomics. This list details these awards, including their source, criteria, and winners.

Awards relating to multiple mediums

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Pulitzer Prizes

The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. In 2010, Mark Fiore won a Pulitzer Prize, becoming the first cartoonist to win a Pulitzer for an entry of entirely online cartoons.[3] Fiore was later also a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2018.[4] In 2012 and again in 2020, Matt Bors was a finalist for the Pulitzer, for his webcomics that appeared in the online magazine he founded, The Nib. [5][6] In 2015, Tom Tomorrow was a finalist for the Pulitzer based on his This Modern World comics published by the website Daily Kos.[7]

Ursa Major Awards

The logo for the Ursa Major Awards

The Ursa Major Awards relate to furry media, such as video, written works, and comics. They were first presented in 2001 for works produced in the previous year. In 2004, a category for comic strips that feature anthropomorphic characters was introduced.[8] Despite the category including all forms of comics, all winners have been webcomics.

More information Year, Title ...
Ursa Major Awards: Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2004 Kevin and Kell Bill Holbrook kevinandkell.com/ [9]
2005 Faux Pas Robert and Margaret Carspecken ozfoxes.com/fauxpas.htm [10]
2006 Faux Pas Robert and Margaret Carspecken ozfoxes.com/fauxpas.htm [11]
2007 Ozy and Millie Dana Simpson ozyandmillie.org/ [12]
2008 Ozy and Millie Dana Simpson ozyandmillie.org/ [13]
2009 Fur-Piled Leo Magna liondogworks.com/fur-piled.html (archive) [14]
2010 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [15]
2011 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [16]
2012 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [17]
2013 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [18]
2014 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [19]
2015 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [20]
2016 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [21]
2017 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [22]
2018 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [23]
2019 Carry On Kathryn Garrison Kellogg hirezfox.com/km/ [24]
2020 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [25]
2021 Housepets! Rick Griffin housepetscomic.com/ [26]
2022 Carry On Kathryn Garrison Kellogg hirezfox.com/km/ [27]
2023 The Whiteboard Doc Nickel the-whiteboard.com/ [28]
2024 Foxes in Love Toivo Kaartinen twitter.com/foxes_in_love [29]
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Weblog Awards

Munroe's xkcd won The Weblog Awards' "Best Comic Strip" twice.

The Weblog Awards were held from 2003 to 2008 and featured a Best Comic Strip category starting in 2006.

More information Year, Title ...
Weblog Awards: Best Comic Strip
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2006 Least I Could Do Ryan Sohmer (writer) and Lar deSouza (artist) leasticoulddo.com [30]
2007 xkcd Randall Munroe xkcd.com [31]
2008 xkcd Randall Munroe xkcd.com [32]
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Comic awards that include a webcomic category

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Cartoonist Studio Prize

Presented by the Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies, the Cartoonist Studio Prize was first awarded in 2013 for work produced during the previous year. The award has two categories, "Best Print Comic" and "Best Web Comic".

More information Year, Title ...
Cartoonist Studio Prize: Best Web Comic
Year Title Creator Website Citation
2013 Nimona ND Stevenson gingerhaze.com/nimona (archive) [33]
2014 Out of Skin Emily Carroll emcarroll.com/comics/skin/ [34]
2015 Watching (from Subnormality) Winston Rowntree viruscomix.com/page585.html [35]
2016 I Want to Believe Boulet english.bouletcorp.com/2015/10/21/i-want-to-believe/ [36]
2017 On Beauty Christina Tran sodelightful.com/comics/beauty/ [37]
2018 Leaving Richard's Valley Michael DeForge instagram.com/richardsvalley/ [38]
2019 Being an Artist and a Mother Lauren Weinstein newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/being-an-artist-and-a-mother [39]
2020 East Street Diners Club Will Dinski esdc.substack.com/ [40]
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DiNKY Awards

The Denver Independent Comics & Arts Expo (DINK) gave out comics awards with multiple categories, including the Best Web Comics award.[41]

The category was called "Outstanding Web Comic" in 2016. The following year it was renamed "Best Web Comic".

More information Year, Title ...
DiNKy Awards: Best Webcomic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2016 Some Did Rest Niki Smith niki-smith.com/tag/some-did-rest/ [42]
2017 Mare Internum Der-shing Helmer marecomic.com/ [42]
2018 Finding Home Hari Conner tapas.io/series/FindingHome [42]
2019 Where No One Lives Zorika Gaeta akiroteacomics.com/wherenoonegoes/home.html [42]
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Eagle Awards

The Eagle Award was a series of awards for comic book titles and creators voted on by UK fans. It ran from 1977 to 2012 but was not presented every year. From 2001 until its conclusion it included an award for Favourite Web-based Comic. The winners of that category are listed below:

More information Year, Title ...
Eagle Awards: Favourite Web-based Comic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2001 Sluggy Freelance Pete Abrams sluggy.com [43]
2005 PvP Scott Kurtz pvponline.com [44]
2006 Supernatural Law Batton Lash webcomicsnation.com (archive) [45]
2007 Penny Arcade Jerry Holkins (writer) and Mike Krahulik (artist) penny-arcade.com [46]
2008 The Order of the Stick Rich Burlew giantitp.com [47]
2010 FreakAngels Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield freakangels.com (archive) [48][49]
2011 Axe Cop Ethan Nicolle and Malachai Nicolle axecop.com [50]
2012 FreakAngels Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield freakangels.com (archive) [51]
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Eisner Award

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, commonly shortened to the Eisner Award, is a prize given since 1988 for creative achievement in American comic books. In 2003, Justine Shaw's Nowhere Girl received a nomination for an Eisner award in the "best new series" category, while Shaw was nominated for "talent deserving of wider recognition", making her the first webcomic artist to be nominated for an Eisner.[52]

In addition to considering works published online for general categories, the Eisner Awards have included categories only for digital works since 2005. The category Best Digital Comic was awarded each year from 2005 through to 2016, though was renamed Best Webcomic in 2009. Paste Magazine noted in 2016 that the Eisner's conflation of "digital comic" and "webcomic" may cause independent works to be overshadowed by online services such as Marvel Unlimited and DC Comics' "Digital First".[53] In 2017, the category was split into "Best Digital Comic" and "Best Webcomic" and as of 2020 these two categories remain.

The table below shows the winners of Best Digital Comic/Webcomic and of Best Webcomic.

Harvey Awards

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Kate Beaton won two Harvey Awards for the webcomic Hark! A Vagrant.

The Harvey Awards, named for writer and artist Harvey Kurtzman and originally coordinated by the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created in 1988 as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.

The Harvey Awards have included a category for online works since 2006. Originally called Best Online Comic Work, it was renamed to Digital Book of the Year following the 2018 revamp of awards and their move to New York Comic Con.[74]

More information Year, Title ...
Harvey Award: Best Online Comics Work (2006–2016) or Digital Book of the Year (2018 – present)
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2006 American Elf James Kochalka americanelf.com [75]
2007 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [76]
2008 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [77]
2009 High Moon David Gallaher, Steve Ellis and Scott O. Brown zudacomics.com [78]
2010 PvP Scott Kurtz pvponline.com [79]
2011 Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton harkavagrant.com [80]
2012 Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton harkavagrant.com [81]
2013 Battlepug Mike Norton battlepug.com [82]
2014 Battlepug Mike Norton battlepug.com [83]
2015 The Private Eye Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente Panel Syndicate [84]
2016 Battlepug Mike Norton battlepug.com [85]
2017 No awards given [86]
2018 Barrier Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente Panel Syndicate [87]
2019 Check, Please Ngozi Ukazu checkpleasecomic.com [88]
2020 The Nib Matt Bors (editor) thenib.com/ [89]
2021 Lore Olympus Rachel Smythe webtoons.com/lore-olympus/ [90]
2022 Lore Olympus Rachel Smythe webtoons.com/lore-olympus/ [91]
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Ignatz Awards

The Ignatz Awards are intended to recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year since 1997, except for 2001 as the show was cancelled after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Recipients of the award are determined by the votes of the attendees of the annual Small Press Expo.

Comics published online have won awards in multiple categories, such as Chester 5000 winning Outstanding Series and Hark! A Vagrant for Outstanding Anthology or Collection. As well as these, the Ignatz Awards have presented an award for Outstanding Online Comic since 2002.

More information Year, Title ...
Ignatz Awards: Outstanding Online Comic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2001 Category created but no award given due to cancellation of ceremony
2002 Bee Jason Little beecomix.com [92]
2003 American Elf James Kochalka americanelf.com [93]
2004 American Elf James Kochalka americanelf.com [94]
2005 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [95]
2006 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [96]
2007 Achewood Chris Onstad achewood.com [97]
2008 Achewood Chris Onstad achewood.com [98]
2009 Year of the Rat Cayetano Garza magicinkwell.com [99]
2010 Troop 142 Mike Dawson mikedawsoncomics.com/troop142 [100]
2011 Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton harkavagrant.com [101]
2012 SuperMutant Magic Academy Jillian Tamaki mutantmagic.com [102]
2013 SuperMutant Magic Academy Jillian Tamaki mutantmagic.com [103]
2014 Vattu Evan Dahm rice-boy.com/vattu [104]
2015 The Bloody Footprint Lilli Carré New York Times [105]
2016 Octopus Pie Meredith Gran octopuspie.com [106]
2017 The Meek Der-Shing Helmer meekcomic.com [107]
2018 Lara Croft Was My Family Carta Monir medium.com [108]
2019 Full Court Crush Hannah Blumenreich hannahblumenreich.com [109]
2020 Witchy Ariel Reis [citation needed]
2021 Birds of Maine Michael DeForge [citation needed]
2022 Ride or Die Mars Heyward [citation needed]
2023 The God of Arepo Reimena Yee [110]
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Joe Shuster Awards

The Joe Shuster Awards recognise Canadian comic creators, retailers and publishers. The awards have been handed out since 2005 and are administered by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association. As of 2024, these awards have not been presented since the "2021" awards, presented in 2022 for works produced in 2020.[111][112]

The Joe Shuster Awards have presented a Webcomics Creator award since 2007.[note 1] Unlike other categories given by other awards, this award is for a creator or team rather than a work and so can be in recognition of multiple pieces of work. This category is not always presented; it was not presented in 2016, nor in 2019 even though other Joe Shuster Awards were presented in those years.[113] The award will be granted in 2020, with nominees announced and the winner to be announced in late October.[114]

More information Year, Title(s) ...
Joe Shuster Awards: Outstanding Webcomic Creator/Creative Team
Year Title(s) Creator(s) Website Citation
2007 April & May & June
Kanami
Penny Tribute
Dan Kim manga.clone-army.org, see:

ANM;Kanami; Penny Tribute

[115]
2008 Looking for Group
Least I Could Do
Ryan Sohmer (writer) and Lar deSouza (artist) lfgcomic.com
leasticoulddo.com
[116]
2009 Sin Titulo Cameron Stewart sintitulocomic.com [117]
2010 The Abominable Charles Christopher Karl Kerschl abominable.cc [118]
2011 His Face All Red
Dream Journals
The Death of José Arcadio
Out the Door
The Hare's Bride
Emily Carroll emcarroll.com/comic/ [119]
2012 (awarded for comics made in 2011) Emily Carroll emcarroll.com/comic/ [120]
2013 Ant Comic Michael DeForge kingtrash.com/ants/index.html (archive) [121]
2014 The Fox Sister Jayd Aït-Kaci and Christina Strain thefoxsister.com [122]
2015 Fey Winds Nicole Chartrand feywinds.com [123]
2016 Category not awarded this year
2017 Bun Toons Ty Templeton tytempletonart.wordpress.com/bun-toons [124]
2018 Ménage à 3 Gisele Lagace, David Lumsdon menagea3.net [125]
2019 Category not awarded this year [113]
2020 Afterlift Chip Zdarsky, Jason Loo, et al [126]
2021 Category not awarded this year [127]
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National Cartoonists Society Awards

The National Cartoonist Society Division Awards (also called the National Cartoonist Society Awards,[128] the Reuben awards,[129] or the Silver Reubens[130]) are awards for cartooning, illustration and animation which have been presented since 1956. They are presented by the National Cartoonists Society, an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States.

The NCS first presented a category for webcomics in 2012.[131] The next year it was split into two categories — Online Comics – Short Form, and Online Comics – Long Form[note 2] — which remains the set-up through 2019.

The awards are given out in May each year. The naming of each award ceremony is not always consistent, with some ceremonies being referred to as the year they are in,[132] some as the year past,[133] and some not as a year but as a count, eg "the 71st" ceremony.[134] The current naming system appears to be that the award ceremony relates to the previous year; for example, the "2018 Divisional Awards" were presented in May 2019. This is the naming system used in the table below.

More information Year, Title(s) ...
National Cartoonist Society Divisional Awards: Online Comics - Short Form
Year Title(s) Creator(s) Website Citation
2011 Scenes from a Multiverse Jon Rosenberg amultiverse.com [131]
2012 Ten Cats Graham Harrop gocomics.com/ten-cats [135]
2013 Buni Ryan Pagelow bunicomic.com [128]
2014 Girls with Slingshots Danielle Corsetto gwscomic.com [129]
2015 Sheldon Dave Kellett sheldoncomics.com [132]
2016 Donald and John Ruben Bolling thenib.com/donald-and-john [134]
2017 Gemma Correll Gemma Correll gemmacorrell.com [136]
2018 Cat and Girl Dorothy Gambrell catandgirl.com [133]
2019 Jim Benton Jim Benton jimbenton.com/ [137]
2020 Bird and Moon Rosemary Mosco birdandmoon.com [138]
2021 Wide Open! Rich Powell gocomics.com/wide-open [139]
2022 Wide Open! Rich Powell gocomics.com/wide-open [140]
2023 Sarah's Scribbles Sarah Andersen tapas.io/series/Doodle-Time/ [141]
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More information Year, Title(s) ...
National Cartoonist Society Divisional Awards: Online Comics - Long Form
Year Title(s) Creator(s) Website Citation
2012 Untold Tales of Bigfoot Vince Dorse untoldtalesofbigfoot.com [135]
2013 Tuki: Save the Humans Jeff Smith boneville.com/tuki/ (archive) [128]
2014 Stand Still, Stay Silent Minna Sundberg sssscomic.com/ [129]
2015 The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo Drew Weing drewweing.com [132]
2016 OMG Check Please Ngozi Ukazu checkpleasecomic.com [134]
2017 Bad Machinery John Allison scarygoround.com/badmachinery/ar.php (archive) [136]
2018 Barbarous Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh johnnywander.com/barbarous [133]
2019 Isle of Elsi Alec Longstreth isleofelsi.com [137]
2020 Gunnerkrigg Court Tom Siddell gunnerkrigg.com [138]
2021 Peyote Coyote Dan Piraro peyotecowboy.net [139]
2022 Girl Genius Phil Foglio girlgeniusonline.com/ [140]
2023 3rd Voice Evan Dahm rice-boy.com/3rdvoice/ [141]
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Ringo Awards

The Ringo Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for artist Mike Wieringo, the Ringo Awards were founded by Cards, Comics, and Collectibles in Reisterstown, Maryland and the Ringo Awards Committee in 2017 to be the successor to the Harvey Awards that left the Baltimore Comic-Con as its venue in 2016.[142]

The Ringo Awards are nominated by an open vote among comic-book professionals and fans. The winners are selected from the top two fan choices as the first two nominees and the professional jury selects the remaining three nominees in each category.[143]

The Ringo Awards have included a Best Webcomic category since its first awards ceremony in 2017. In 2021, a separate category for Humor Webcomic was introduced.


More information Year, Title ...
Ringo Awards: Best Webcomic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2017 The Red Hook Dean Haspiel Webtoons [144]
2018 1000 Chuck Brown and Sanford Greene Webtoons [145]
2019 The Nib Various thenib.com [146]
2020 Fried Rice Erica Eng friedricecomic.com [147]
2021 Fangs Sarah Andersen tapas.io/series/fangscomic/info [148]
2022 Lore Olympus Rachel Smythe webtoons.com/lore-olympus/ [149]
2023 Lore Olympus Rachel Smythe webtoons.com/lore-olympus/ [150]
2024 Lore Olympus Rachel Smythe webtoons.com/lore-olympus/ [151]
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More information Year, Title ...
Ringo Awards: Best Humor Webcomic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2021 Sarah's Scribbles Sarah Andersen tapas.io/series/Doodle-Time/ [148]
2022 Sarah's Scribbles Sarah Andersen tapas.io/series/Doodle-Time/ [149]
2023 Evil, Inc. Brad Guigar evil-inc.com/ [150]
2024 Blue Chair Shen webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/bluechair/list?title_no=199 [151]
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Awards exclusively for webcomics

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Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards

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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal won "Outstanding Single Panel Comic" at the 2006 and 2007 Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards.[152][153]

The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards[154] were awarded from 2001 through to 2008. Voting rights were only granted to online cartoonists. These award had a large number of categories – the 2005 ceremony had 26 categories – such as "Best Art", "Best Writing", "Best Gag Comic" and "Best Newcomer". The main category was called "Best Comic" in 2001 and 2002 and called "Outstanding Comic" from 2003–2008. The winners of this main category are below:

More information Year, Title ...
Web Cartoonist Choice Awards: Best Comic (2001–2002) or Outstanding Comic (2003–2008)
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2001 Boxjam's Doodle Adam Burke boxjamsdoodle.com [155]
2002 Megatokyo Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston megatokyo.com [156]
2003 Nowhere Girl Justine Shaw nowheregirl.com [157]
2004 Count Your Sheep

Penny Arcade (joint winners)

Adrian Ramos

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins

countyoursheep.com

penny-arcade.com

[158]
2005 Scary Go Round John Allison scarygoround.com [159]
2006 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [160]
2007 The Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch pbfcomics.com [161]
2008 Girl Genius Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio girlgenius.net [162]
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Clickburg Webcomic Awards

The Clickburg Webcomic Awards, also called the Clickies, was a Dutch ceremony held four times between 2005 and 2010. It was created to promote webcomics in the Netherlands and Belgium, and winners were only from those countries. The Clickies were first awarded in 2005 at the world's first webcomic convention, Clickburg. The awards were again bestowed in 2006, 2007, and 2010, each time in a slightly different format. Its categories, which changed each time, included "Epic Clickie", "Gag Clickie", and "Cartoon Clickie".

The Webcomic List Awards

In 2009 and 2010, users of the internet forum The Webcomic List held an amateur award ceremony, where winners of its various categories were selected through a panel of judges. The ceremony itself was presented in the form of a webcomic, allowing it to spoof televised award shows as well as exhibit sample portions of the awardees. Each awards ceremony gave out nine different awards; the winners of the Best Comic award are listed below:[163][164]

More information Year, Title ...
The Webcomic List Awards: Best Comic
Year Title Creator(s) Website Citation
2009 Gunnerkrigg Court Tom Siddell gunnerkrigg.com/ [163]
2010 Red's Planet Eddie Pittman redsplanet.com/ (archive) [164]
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See also

Notes

  1. The exact title of this category has varied over the years; "Webcomic" has been styled as "Web Comic" and "WebComic", and "Creator" has been "Creator(s)" and "Creator/Creative Team".
  2. Originally "On-Line Comics".

References

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