The Eisner Award for comics and graphic novels was just announced.

From http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13005.html

Dark Horse with five outright awards and DC Comics with four led all publishers in the 2008 Eisners, while Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, and Archaia Studio Press each won two.  Dan Clowes won “Best Short Story” for “Mr. Wonderful,” which was serialized in the New York Times Magazine, while Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha won “The Best Single Issue” for JLA #11, and Brian K. Vaughan took the “Best Continuing Series” for Y: The Last Man and Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy was voted “Best Limited Series.”

Other key awards include “Best New Series” won by Joss Whedon and company for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, “Best Graphic Album” won by Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds, and “Best Reality-Based Work,” which went to James Sturm and Rich Tommaso’s Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.  David Petersen’s Mouse Guard 1152 won two awards, “Best Publication for Kids” and “Best Graphic Album-Reprint,” while Viz Media took home “Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan for Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White, and IDW won “Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips” for its Complete Terry and the Pirates Vol. 1.  

Ed Brubaker was named “Best Writer,” while Chris Ware took home Best Writer/Artist, and Eric Powell won both “Best Writer/Artist—Humor” and “Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art).”  Atom! and Portlyn Freeman of Brave New World comic shop of Newhall, California won the prestigious ‘Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award.”

For the full list http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml

Awards: PNBA Book Awards Winners

The winners of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association’s 2008 Book Awards are:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) check our catalog.
• Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison (Grove Press) check our catalog.
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (FSG) check our catalog.
• Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s by Lauren Kessler (Viking) check our catalog
• The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle (Scribner)
• Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (HarperCollins) check our catalog.

A committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska made the selection from nearly 200 nominees, all of which were written by Northwest authors and published in 2007. The association will celebrate the authors at a reception for members at the Heathman Hotel in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, March 29.