Every year at the Eisner Awards, the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award is given to an artist that is relatively green to the industry. The award is named for the Silver Age artist who created Gold Key’s “Magnus: Robot Fighter” and worked on Tarzan stories and the Star Wars newspaper strip. In the past, artists like David Petersen (“Mouse Guard”), Tyler Crook (“B.P.R.D.”), Aaron Conley (“Sabertooth Swordsman”) and Jerome Opena (“Uncanny X-Force”) have won the award. Last year, Dan Mora of “Klaus” and “Hexed” walked away with the honor. This year’s nominees were announced yesterday and, for the first time, four of the five nominees are women. Here are this year’s nominees:
Rafael de Latorre is the Brazilian illustrator of both “Animosity” and “SuperZero” for AfterShock Comics.
Riana Dorsey is the creator of the webcomic “Suihira: The City of Water,” and is working on the all-ages fantasy “Cloud Riders” for Hashtag Comics.
Mindy Lee is the co-creator (with Kurtis Wiebe) of the science fiction action adventure “Bounty” for Dark Horse, and got her start on IDW’s “CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations.”
Leila Leiz draws “NVRLND” and “Alters” for AfterShock Comics.
Anne Szabla is the writer/artist of “Bird-Boy,” which Dark Horse Comics collected in 2016, which you can read in its original webcomic form here.
It is notable that two of the nominees got their professional starts at AfterShock, and that there is such a strong webcomics presence among the nominees. The winner will be announced at the Eisner’s ceremony on July 21st at San Diego Comic Con.
