Austin Comic Creators Snag Ringo Award Nominations

Two Austin-created books, The Ghoul Agency and Halloween Man, have scored nominations in the Ringos, a comics award voted on by industry professionals.

Big news in the world of sequential art: two Austin-made books have been nominated for the Ringos, aka the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards, an honor by comic professionals for comic professionals.

Halloween Man creator Drew Edwards has been nominated for Best Writer, alongside industry legends like Ed Brubaker (Captain America - Winter Soldier, Daredevil, Fatale), Scott Snyder (Batman, Wytches), and Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man), and a full-blown Pullitzer winner, Anthony Del Col, who shared the first ever Pulitzer for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary for his work on Insider's "I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp."

However, that's not the only nomination for an Austin creative. The Ghoul Agency, published by Action Lab Entertainment, is written by Gene Selassie (recently featured in our Comics Issue), and it secured a place on the short list for Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel.

The Ringos are named after the late Mike Wieringo, one of the most popular comic artists of the 1990s and early 2000s. He became a fan favorite for his run on The Sensational Spider-Man, then going on to draw Fantastic Four and The Adventures of Superman. He also won a loyal readership for Tellos, the high-fantasy series he created with writer Todd Dezago about a boy and his tiger. His style was ebullient and vibrant, qualities reflected in the Ringos commitment to honoring "the creativity, skill and fun of comics."

The nominees were selected by a combination of online voting and a jury of comics industry professionals. However, the final voting is only open to comics creators. The winners will be announced on Sat., Sept. 9 at Baltimore Comic-Con.