ComicsPRO has announces the nomineed for its annual Comic Industry Awards. The awards honor those people who are or have been the best at what they do, making a significant difference in the business of the comic-book specialty market. ComicsPro is the trade association for comics specialty retailers. A non-profit trade association, the organization is dedicated to the health and progress of direct market comic book retailers. ComicsPRO allows retailers to speak with a unified voice on important industry issues, provides educational and mentoring opportunities to current and future retailers, and provides ways for members to reduce the fixed costs they all incur.

There are two categories for the ComicsPRO Awards, the Industry Appreciation Award for active professionals in the industry and the Memorial Award to recognize giants of the comics business who are no longer with us.

The 2018 ComicsPRO Industry Award nominees are:

Industry Appreciation Award

• Raina Telgemeier – Her blockbuster best-selling graphic novels, including Smile, Sisters, Drama, and Ghosts are leading the way in exciting and igniting new and younger comics readers.
• Gene Luen Yang – The first graphic novelist to be named The Library of Congress’ Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Gene is also a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and is the creative force of many graphic novels including American Born Chinese and the Secret Coders series, as well as the co-creator of DC Comics’ New Super-Man.
• DC Comics Retail Support Team – The DC Comics Retail Support Team work tirelessly to give comics retailers the information and tools to build their DC business.
• Adam Freeman – As Director of Sales at Valiant Entertainment, Adam has been instrumental in helping spread the word to retailers and the public about the Valiant Universe. Freeman is a former retailer and has worked for various other publishers in his career

Memorial Award

• Steve Dillon (Deadline, Preacher, Punisher)
• Len Wein (Writer/editor, co-creator Wolverine, Swamp Thing)
• Carl Barks (Scrooge McDuck creator, the “Good Duck Artist”)
• Bernie Wrightson (Frankenstein, co-creator Swamp Thing, seminal horror artist)

ComicsPRO members will vote on the nominees with the results announced at the 2018 ComicsPRO Comic Industry Conference in Portland OR February 22-24.

At the annual meeting, the ComicsPRO Board Of Directors will also posthumously present the first ever ComicsPRO Unsung Hero Award to Diamond’s Outside Sales Manager Dave Hawskworth. Hawksworth’s career spanned 30 years, initially working at Capital City Distribution’s Columbus OH warehouse, before transitioning to Diamond Comic Distributors outside sales manager position when Diamond bought Capital City in 1996. Dave passed away unexpectedly on January 9, 2018. ComicsPRO is honored to have Dave’s wife Patti attend the Portland event to accept the award.

The ComicsPRO Unsung Hero Award will be given at the discretion of the ComicsPRO Board of Directors to those in the comics industry the Board deems worthy of special recognition beyond mere praise as a result of their tireless efforts to improve the comics industry.