2026 Eisner Awards: Which Graphic Novels and Comics Won?

Published Thursday, August 27, 2026

The Will Eisner Awards are considered by many to be the "Oscars" of the comic book industry. The award began in 1988 and this year there were 32 categories. We've highlighted some of the winners below and provided links so you can request them! To see the full slate of categories and nominees, visit the Comic-Con Website.

Best Graphic Album

Drome book cover
Drome
by Jesse Lonergan

First, there was nothing. Then, humanity was born, and an endless cycle of violence began. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess is called forth to rein in humankind’s destructive impulses, and teach a language of peace and harmony. Civilization quickly takes root, a great city rising from the desert. But the balance between chaos and order is a fragile one, and there are higher powers at work in this strange new world.

Creator Jesse Lonergan pushes the boundaries of the comics medium in this visually spectacular epic. In turns pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Drome is a creation myth for the modern age.

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Best Graphic Memoir

It Rhymes with Takai book cover
It Rhymes with Takei
by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger

George Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist, helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans, and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing—one face he did not show the world. There was one very intimate fact about George that he never shared… and it rhymes with Takei.

Now, for the first time ever, George shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the paralyzing fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes With Takei presents a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history.

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Best Adaptation from Another Medium

Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel
by William Golding, adapted by Aimée De Jongh

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable tale about "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart."

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Best Publication for Early Readers

All the Hulk Feels book cover
All the Hulk Feels
by Dan Santat

When scientist Bruce Banner starts to feel his emotions getting out of hand, he transforms into his alter ego, the Incredible Hulk! Usually, Hulk is ready to use his anger to smash supervillains, but when everyday moments like pickles on a burger (yuck!) begin triggering Bruce’s transformations, Hulk grows frustrated. Will their differences get the better of them? In a silly and heartfelt series of letters exchanged through a pocket in their purple pants, Bruce and Hulk learn to befriend even their most ferocious emotions.

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Best Publication for Kids

The Cartoonists Club
The Cartoonists Club
by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud

Makayla is bursting with ideas but doesn't know how to make them into a story. Howard loves to draw, but he struggles to come up with ideas and his dad thinks comics are a waste of time. Lynda constantly draws in her sketchbook but keeps focusing on what she feels are mistakes, and Art simply loves being creative and is excited to try something new. They come together to form The Cartoonists Club, where kids can learn about making comics and use their creativity and imagination for their own storytelling adventures!

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Best Publication for Teens

This Place Kills Me book cover
This Place Kills Me
by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux

At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward. Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos.

Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities deem the it-girl’s death a suicide, Abby’s not convinced. She’s sure there’s more to Wilburton and the WTS than meets the eye. As she gets tangled in prep school intrigues, Abby quickly realizes that Elizabeth was keeping secrets. Was one of those secrets worth killing for?

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Best Reality-Based Work

Black Arms to Hold You Up book cover
Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance
by Ben Passmore

It’s the summer of 2020, and downtown Philly is up in flames. “You’re not out in the streets with everyone else?” Ronnie asks his ambivalent son, Ben, shambling in with arms full of used books: the works of Malcom X, Robert F. Williams, Assata and Sanyika Shakur, among others. “Black liberation is your fight, too.”

So begins Black Arms to Hold You Up, a boisterous, darkly funny, and sobering march through Black militant history by political cartoonist Ben Passmore. From Robert Charles’s shootout with the police in 1900, to the Black Power movement in the 1960s, to the Los Angeles and George Floyd uprisings of the 1990s and 2020, readers will tumble through more than a century of armed resistance against the racist state alongside Ben—and meet firsthand the mothers and fathers of the movement, whose stories were as tragic as they were heroic.

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Best Continuing Series

Absolute Batman book cover
Absolute Batman
by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and others

Without the wealth, without the cave, he’s still the Absolute Dark Knight!

Meet Batman as you’ve never seen him before, reimagined with a modern origin story at the hands of superstar creative team Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta!

An astonishing new version of DC’s iconic characters is here! In the Absolute Universe, familiar heroes have been reinvented from the ground up with origin stories that completely reshape both their abilities and their circumstances but maintain the core characteristics that fans have known and loved for decades!

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Best U.S. Edition of International Material

Nocturnos Book Cover
Nocturnos
by Laura Perez, translated by Andrea Rosenberg

“The night does not belong to us. She harbors her own mysteries.” Nocturnos delves into the ethereal world of the night, when the mundane vibes of the day cede to a mysterious atmosphere in which anything seems possible. In the twilight hours, the darkness feels vast and untamable, the dead can intrude upon the land of the living, and the distance between imagination and reality seems closer than ever.

Haunting narration connects a series of vignettes that capture glimpses of people’s lives as they navigate the nighttime. A traumatic collision while driving down a dimly lit road; a bedtime story that blurs the bounds of the imaginary, a walk through the woods that leads to strange symbols; this nighttime tour encompasses lush forests, dreamscapes, and the shadowy corners of private rooms. Along the way, these stories question the truths veiled in dreams, the nature of fear and loneliness, and the unknowable aura of the nocturnal world.

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Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia

Purgatory Funeral Cakes book cover
Purgatory Funeral Cakes
by Sanho, translated by Danny Lim

Funeral cakes are the final gift from the living to their departed loved ones—and the only comfort on their journey to rebirth.

Baker Margot and her ghostly assistant Miro make specialty cakes for the dearly departed. Each cake is made custom—tailored to the lost individual. Still-living loved ones share their memories of the deceased which serve as inspiration for the flavors and style, creating a truly one-of-a-kind cake.

First, a mystery novelist spends her time volunteering at a hospital to read to patients and meets a blind young woman who grew up in the hospital. The two bond over mystery novels, inspiring the Mystery Novel Crepe cake, a cake made with crepe layers like the pages of a book.

Then, the daughter of a vampire reminisces over her daytime life and the hours that separated her from her night-bound mother, and the moments they shared in an evening primrose field inspiring the Evening Primrose Cupcake.

The love and care put into each cake will surely bring comfort to both living and dead in this heartwarming story of love and loss.

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Katherine Cropped Black And White
About the Author

Katherine is the Operations Coordinator and has been working at EPL since 2008. She loves books, especially ones with unique plots and those written so well that she can't put them down.