A Record Five Eisner Nominations
Five comics I translated are nominated for Eisner Awards this year!
The 2020 Eisner Award nominations, announced today, saw five comics I translated for five different publishers (well, four and a half) make the list, beating my previous personal record of three in the same year. It’s terrific to see translated books migrate from the usual catchall “foreign” category into competition with domestic titles—it was getting crowded in there! In fact, this year’s translated nominees are scattered throughout the categories, including work from Polish, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish. My five are spread over three:
Best Anthology
ABC of Typography, by David Rault, translation by Edward Gauvin (SelfMade Hero)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
Diabolical Summer, by Thierry Smolderen and Alexandre Clérisse, translation by Edward Gauvin (IDW)
Gramercy Park, by Timothée de Fombelle and Christian Cailleaux, translation by Edward Gauvin (EuroComics/IDW)
Wrath of Fantômas, by Olivier Bocquet and Julie Rocheleau, translation by Edward Gauvin (Titan)
Best Digital Comic
Black Water Lilies, by Michel Bussi, adapted by Frédéric Duval and Didier Cassegrain, translated by Edward Gauvin (Europe Comics)
And, as an aside, I also copyedited two other nominated titles: the memoir They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker (Top Shelf), up for Best Reality-Based Work; and Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero) also up for Best International Material.
I’m especially proud of my work on David Rault’s history of typography, each of whose eleven chapters is drawn by a different artist. The contributors (Hervé Bourhis, Jake Raynal, Francois Ayroles, Delphine Panique) are a roster of today’s top French talent, and include Diabolical Summer artist Alexandre Clérisse. He, Didier Cassegrain, and Quebecois Julie Rocheleau are also all nominated for Best Painter/Digital Artist, which is landmark category penetration: a first for the number of Francophone nominees for that award.. And after far too long, Lewis Trondheim has finally arrived, earning a Best Writer nomination for 2 titles, both nominated for Best International Material.
Of interest, perhaps, is that all
I’d like to thank my publishers for giving me the chance to work on such great material and be a part of bringing it to the attention of U.S. readers and juries. I had no hand in getting these books chosen, but I like to think I did have one in ensuring the evident quality that might have contributed to their selection.
