Eisner Awards 2026: Yes, That Leaked List Was Real

Two whole days ago, the full list of winners for the Eisner Awards — essentially the Oscars of comic books — was posted online by the Awards body themselves, before the link was quickly removed. And at the time, I caveated it with the fact that the ceremony wouldn’t be happening until July 24 at San Diego Comic-Con, so to take it all with a grain of salt. Well, it’s sugar time, baby: the list was 100% real, as confirmed by the announcement of the Eisner Awards last night in San Diego.

So what happened? The answer is “we don’t know” at the current time, as the only statement provided to press by the Eisner was that they were investigating the alleged (now clearly accurate) leak. “Whether or not this is true, we will obviously investigate what happened, but more importantly, I would hope that no one would mar the spotlight for those deserving nominees and recipients,” said David Glanzer, Chief Communications and Strategy Officer of Comic-Con International. “Tomorrow evening is for them, and it would be awful if this took away from the meaningful and celebratory experience they richly deserve.”

First of all: sorry for the mar-ing. Second of all, there’s been a lot of armchair quarterbacking about this online, particularly focusing on a changing of the guard behind-the-scenes at the Eisner Awards. And as The Beat notes, this is far from the first controversy the Eisners have been embroiled in, including this year’s flap over the inclusion of an AI-generated story in the nominations (which was subsequently pulled). Point being, this is a huge gaffe, but mistakes happen. And silver lining, it’s probably better to have the actual awards list accidentally posted than a temp one that includes the wrong winners.

As for the awards themselves, now that we know they’re real, we can add a few numbers here. In total, the big individual title winner was DC’s Absolute Martian Manhunter, which won for Best Limited Series and Best Penciller/Inker, as well as sharing awards for Best Cover Artist (for Javier Rodríguez) and Best Lettering (for Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou). Abrams’ This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux also won multiple awards, for Best Publication for Teens, and Best Writer.

Publishers-wise, DC Comics dominated with eight wins, plus two shared awards (see above). Abrams nabbed four total, Fantagraphics three, and Image Comics two awards, plus two shared.

In addition to the leaked awards, a number of other awards were given out that we’ve posted below, and fwiw the Eisner website still lists things like “The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, given to a store that has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large, was awarded by Joe Ferrara to ???” So if I was spitballing here, it might not be a leak as much as they may just need to get a new webmaster. Or alternately, congrats to ???

Eisner Awards 2026 Full Winner’s List

Best Short Story: “Blood Harvest,” in Brain Damage, by Shintaro Kago, translated by Zack Davisson (Fantagraphics)

Best One-Shot/Single Issue: Absolute Batman 2025 Annual #1, by Daniel Warren Johnson, James Harren, and Meredith McClaren (DC)

Best Continuing Series: Absolute Batman, by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and others (DC)

Best Limited Series: Absolute Martian Manhunter, by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez (DC)

Best New Series: Assorted Crisis Events, by Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadski (Image)

Best Publication for Early Readers: All the Hulk Feels, by Dan Santat (Abrams Fanfare/Marvel)

Best Publication for Kids: The Cartoonists Club, by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud (Scholastic Graphix)

Best Publication for Teens: This Place Kills Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux (Abrams Fanfare)

Best Humor Publication: Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Anthology: DC Pride 2025, edited by Andrea Shea and Jillian Grant (DC)

Best Reality-Based Work: Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance, by Ben Passmore (Pantheon)

Best Graphic Memoir: It Rhymes with Takei, by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger (Top Shelf)

Best Graphic Album–New: Drome, by Jesse Lonergan (23rd St. Books)

Best Graphic Album–Reprint: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen: The Deluxe Edition, by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber (DC)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel, by William Golding, adapted by Aimée De Jongh (Penguin Classics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Nocturnos, by Laura Perez, translated by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia: Purgatory Funeral Cakes, by Sanho, translated by Danny Lim (Dark Horse)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips: The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1928–1930, edited by J. Michael Catron and Bill Blackbeard (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: AKIRA Volumes 1–5 Hardcover Collection, by Katsuhiro Otomo, edited by Haruko Hashimoto, Ajani Oloye, and Lauren Scanlan (Kodansha USA Publishing)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work: Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989, by Andrea Horbinski (University of California Press)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: SKTCHD, by David Harper, www.sktchd.com

Best Comics-Related Book: Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, by Dan Nadel (Scribner)

Best Publication Design: The Essential Peanuts, designed by Shawn Dahl with Chip Kidd (Abrams ComicArts)

Best Webcomic: Tiger, Tiger by Petra Erika Nordlund (tigertigercomic.com)

Best Digital Comic: Practical Defense Against Piracy, by Tony Cliff (delilahdirk.com)

Best Writer: Mariko Tamaki, This Place Kills Me (Abrams Fanfare)

Best Writer/Artist: Jamal Campbell, Zatanna (DC)

Best Penciller/Inker: Javier Rodriguez, Absolute Martian Manhunter (DC)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist: Martin Simmonds, The Department of Truth (Image)

Best Cover Artist: Javier Rodriguez, Absolute Martian Manhunter, Batman & Robin: Year One #7, The New Gods #8 (DC)

Best Coloring: Jordie Bellaire, Absolute Wonder Woman, The Nice House by the Sea (DC); The Exorcism at 1600 Penn (IDW); Assorted Crisis Events, The Department of Truth, Exquisite Corpses, W0RLDTR33 (Image); GI Joe (Image/Skybound); EC Catacomb of Torment, EC Epitaphs from the Abyss (Oni Press)

Best Lettering: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Ill Vacation, Stillman (Comixology Originals); Absolute Martian Manhunter, Challengers of the Unknown, DC K.O., The Flash, Green Arrow, Poison Ivy (DC); Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Starship Godzilla, (IDW); Author Immortal (Image); Our-Soot-Stained Heart (Mad Cave)

The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Ruth Clampett

The Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award: Stipan Morian

Bill Finger Award or Excellence in Comic Book Writing: Jenny Blake Isabella and Martin Pasko

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award: Andrea Gilroy and Katie Pryde for Books With Pictures, Eugene

Hall of Fame:

Judges’ Choices Bob Bolling, Gerry Conway, Denys Cowan, Edwina Dumm, Mike Friedrich, Oliver Harrington, Don Heck, Abe Kanegson, Lee Marrs, Go Nagai, Paul S. Newman, Hector German Osterheld, Tom Palmer Sr., Bud Plant, Mike Royer, Dave Sim, Jimmy Swinnerton, Carol Tyler, and Rick Veitch.

Voters’ Choices: Colleen Doran, Jeff Smith, Akira Toriyama, Chris Ware

Comic Book Club Live Info:

Want to watch Comic Book Club live? We stream every Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on YouTube and Twitch. Come hang out, and ask questions of our guests (and us!). And you could potentially win a $25 gift card to Midtown Comics. You can check out a current list of upcoming guests and other live appearances on our Shows page.