Inkpot Awards Predictions for 2022

Comic-Con International: San Diego begins tonight and runs through the weekend. One of the things I enjoy in the lead-up to it is figuring out who might win Inkpot Awards during the show. (Here’s my 2018 list.)

What is an Inkpot Award? The official Comic-con website defines it:

Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Awards are given to individuals for their contributions to the worlds of comics, science fiction/fantasy, film, television, animation, and fandom services.

It’s not just comic book folks who get these, though I tend to lean more heavily on them since I recognize their names and know their histories better. People who cross over between two or more of those categories are best poised to bring home the statue. People who work across borders to bring in more readers/viewers to the kind of genre fiction that Comic-Con is centered on are looked upon favorably.

The trick to this, by the way, is to look up the “Spotlight On…” panels in the panel schedule. They tend to “surprise” people (often Special Guests) with their Inkpot Awards during those panels.

[I’ll place a ✅ next to each name that received an award at the convention. – Future Augie]

The Locks

Some of the names on the list this year are really surprising. I’m almost shocked they haven’t gotten one before this.

Three people, in particular, stand out to me:

✅Bill Morrison – Ran Simpsons comics through his Bongo line of comics for all those years. He worked for Disney. He edited MAD Magazine. And he did a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” comic book. He also feels to me like a very San Diego-friendly creator: He’s always at the show, he’s both presented at and won Eisner Awards.

✅Kevin Maguire – Legendary comic book artist who’s been in the business for more than 30 years, and whom everyone loves. Bwah-ha-ha “Justice League International” is enough to win him this award. That, alone, should get him an Inkpot. (Keith Giffen got an Inkpot in 1991.) The man drew the “One punch!” panel and occasional meme, and I’m not talking about the manga series there.

Raina Telgemeier – Leads the charge of bringing graphic novels to younger readers. A perennial New York Times best-selling cartoonist. No doubt, she’s one of the most read cartoonists amongst people younger than 20. It’s hard to over-emphasize her importance in comics in the last decade.

The Most Likelies

Let’s look at a few of the other names who have Spotlight panels and might be getting one of these bad boys for their mantel next.

✅Jane Baer – Now this is a resume: She worked as an animator at Disney back in the “Sleeping Beauty” days. She started an animation company in the 80s and did work on Sesame Street, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, and lots more. She’s an Inkpot lock.

✅Cecil Castellucci – She’s been a published novelist for 15 years, including some books with science fiction themes. She also did a short stint in comics, including “P.L.A.I.N. Janes” from DC’s short-lived Minx line.

Amy Chu – She’s written a few comics for DC and has an MBA from Harvard. She’s done some Kickstarted books and some work at Dynamite. She’s also done a lot of work on Women In Comics at events and through her Alpha Girl Comics line. Her panel is in the Comics Art Conference track which isn’t the usual path to Inkpot, but she’s also a Special Guest of the convention. I originally had her in the “Theoretically Possible” category, but being a Special Guest bumps her up to this division.

Ezra Claytan Daniels – Here’s another impressive resume – a designer and graphic novelist who branched off into animation, video games, and documentaries. He did “trial graphics” for the Department of Justice in the case of famed Wizard Wold: Chicago attendee, Rod Blagojevich. He recently worked on the Doom Patrol television series and so much more.

✅Danny Fingeroth – Spider-Man editor of the 90s turned comics journalist of the 2000s and beyond. Editor of TwoMorrow’s “Write Now!” magazine and a Stan Lee biography. He’s worked on comics and in comics.

✅Shaenon Garrity – Manga translator. Web cartoonist. Short story prose writer. Columnist for comics journals/websites. Volunteer at the Cartoon Art Museum. She’s done a bit of everything. It’s an impressive catalog of experiences in the world of comics and comics scholarship, covering a wide array of audiences.

✅Jock – He’s been doing comics for a while, but is also respected for his design work in movies and posters. He’s Scottish, so this might also be a matter of good timing — get the international artist while he’s in the country!

✅Phil LaMarr – Animated superhero voice actor. Also, COVID-era host of the Eisner Awards. Great crossover between media for this award.

Tula Lotay – Good timing here, as she’s not only an accomplished artist but also recently stepped down after running the influential “Thought Bubble Festival” in England for so many years. She’s previously also won the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

✅Willy Mendes – Underground comix artist from the 1970s. She’s worked with TrinaRobbins and Nancy Kalish. Originally from the East Village in NYC, she now lives in L.A. doing fine arts stuff.

✅Steve Niles – “30 Days of Night” was ahead of its time as a successful movie based on a comic, and he’s been working continuously in the industry ever since, mostly in the world of horror.

Dan Parent– Long time (relatively speaking) Archie artist, best known these days probably for his Kevin Kelly work, for which he won a GLAAD award.

Nathan Pyle – A cartoonist with a background in theology who has published books taking a look at how weird city life is. The results are multiple New York Times best-selling books. He’s also worked on a card game and has an animated series based on his cartoon in production for Apple. He’s a cartoonist who brings cartoons to the “outside” world, away from comic books.

✅Barbara Randall Kesel – I know her best for her work at CrossGen, but she’s been in comics for decades now, as both a writer and editor.

✅Dan Slott – Mr. Spider-Man. But let’s not forget his Looney Tunes and Ren and Stimpy work, shall we? He’s the type of comics writer we all wish we could be — he’s still a huge fan even as he’s in the industry. Lots of creators become more jaded or don’t have time for comics, but it never feels that way with Slott. Oh, and his She-Hulk run was awesome, too!

✅Hidetaka Tenjin – Honestly, I had to look him up, but he’s a perfect Inkpot candidate. He’s a Japanese anime artist and illustrator who has worked on the licenses of all sorts of classic anime things, as well as animation on several series. This is his first trip to San Diego. They might never have another opportunity to give him this trophy.

✅Trino – A celebrated and famous cartoonist in Mexico. At his panel, he’ll be interviewed by the consul general of Mexico in San Diego. It’ll be an international incident if they don’t award him an Inkpot!

Also, Theoretically, Possible

These are all people who could be Inkpot winners, but most are just too new in their careers.

The question is whether the Inkpot committee sees this as a lifetime achievement award kind of thing or more as an Immediate Impact award.

If they award Inkpots for cartoonists with a single outstanding achievement, Emil Ferris would have one, too. I checked — she doesn’t.

Tomi Adeyemi – She wrote “Children of Blood and Bone,” which I know was a big deal book a few years back. Paramount is working on the movie now.

Pierce Brown – He’s a science fiction novelist. He’s successful, but it’s so far been one successful six-book series. Novelist Leah Bardugo won an Inkpot in 2019 after being a published writer for only 7 years, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. They do like to include novelists in the annual Inkpot winners list, so who knows?

Keithan Jones – Creator of “The Power Nights” series and owner of a comics publisher, Kid Comics.

✅Lilah Sturges – Again, it’s relatively early in her career, though “Lumberjanes” was a big deal book for a while. I’d say she won’t get one here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. I’m really on the fence here.

Sophie Yanow – A Montreal-based cartoonist with work published in French first, and English. I list her in this section because she’s only published three books. One did win an Eisner, though, and she does have some other webcomic, anthology, and short story work in there. I wouldn’t write her off.

Doing the Math

That’s 20 candidates between the “Locks” and the “Most Likelies”, with another five being possible but not probable.

That’s a pretty good number of Awards to give out, based on the average of previous years. I could also see them giving out more than usual while they catch up from missing the last two years.

Every time I do this, someone wins that I missed completely. It’s usually a novelist or a television person or someone in a Hall H presentation, so we’ll see what happens there. (I’d expect someone associated with role-playing to take one home this year, too. Just a hunch.).

Also, some of the names I expect to get an award don’t, and at least one of the ones I don’t expect to get an Inkpot does.

Let’s come back to this list next week and see how good my categories were… (I will likely update the list over the weekend as we go, too.)

Coda: Manifestation is a Crock

It’s almost as useful as essential oils. Manifestation is a load of bull someone who wants to sell you their self-improvement book came up with, I’m sure.

It is only useful if it is some kind of mantra you tell yourself while taking steps in that specific direction. Don’t expect to “throw it out there into the universe” and for it to suddenly come true.

That all said, my July calendar is relatively clear for the next five years if the nomination committee(*) of the Inkpot Awards wants to give some hardware to someone who’s written about comics online every week for 25 years, had 400 letters printed, and openly advocated for European comics in North America aginst all common or business sense.

👋 I’m right over here if you need me…

(*) Nobody actually knows how Inkpot Awards are chosen. There’s nothing on the website to suggest any kind of committee or nominating process. They only give them out to people in person at the show, so maybe it’s an afterthought once the final guest list is announced and the panel schedules are figured out?