The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, has announced the 2015 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today’s comic artists, Lamar Abrams, Cara Bean, Robyn Chapman, Sophie Goldstein and Corrine Mucha, with the votes cast for the awards by the attendees during SPX. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 9:30 P.M.

ComiXology will be sponsoring this year’s Ignatz Awards.

The 2015 Ignatz Award Nominees

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Outstanding Artist

• Emily Carroll – Through The Woods
• Ed Luce – Wuvable Oaf
• Roman Muradov – (In a Sense) Lost and Found
• Jillian Tamaki – SuperMutant Magic Academy
• Noah Van Sciver – Saint Cole

Outstanding Anthology or Collection

• Drawn and Quarterly, 25 Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, edited by Tom Devlin, Chris Oliveros, Peggy Burns, Tracy Hurren, and Julia Pohl-Miranda
• An Entity Observes All Things by Box Brown
• How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
• Pope Hats #4 by Ethan Rilly
• SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki

Outstanding Graphic Novel

• Beauty by Kerascoët and Hubert
• The Oven by Sophie Goldstein
• Rav by Mickey Zacchilli
• Saint Cole by Noah Van Sciver
• Wendy by Walter Scott

Outstanding Story

• Doctors by Dash Shaw
• “Me As a Baby” from Lose #6 by Michael DeForge
• “Nature Lessons” from The Late Child and Other Animals by Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger
• “Sex Coven” from Frontier #7 by Jillian Tamaki
• Weeping Flower, Grows in Darkness by Kris Mukai

Promising New Talent

• M. Dean – K.M. & R.P. & MCMLXXI (1971)
• Sophia Foster-Dimino – Sphincter; Sex Fantasy
• Dakota McFadzean – Don’t Get Eaten by Anything
• Jane Mai – Soft
• Gina Wynbrandt – Big Pussy

Outstanding Series

• Dumb by Georgia Webber
• Frontier edited by Ryan Sands
• March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
• Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly
• Sex Fantasy by Sophia Foster-Dimino

Outstanding Comic

• Borb by Jason Little
• The Nature of Nature by Disa Wallander
• The Oven by Sophie Goldstein
• Pope Hats #4 by Ethan Rilly
• Weeping Flower, Grows in Darkness by Kris Mukai

Outstanding Minicomic

• Devil’s Slice of Life by Patrick Crotty
• Epoxy 5 by John Pham
• King Cat #75 by John Porcellino
• Sex Fantasy #4 by Sophia Foster-Dimino
• Whalen: A Reckoning by Audry

Outstanding Online Comic

• The Bloody Footprint by Lilli Carre
• Carriers by Lauren Weinstein
• Mom Body by Rebecca Roher
• O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti
• Witchy by Ariel Ries

SPX will be held Saturday, September 19 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 20, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $15 for Saturday, $10 for Sunday and $20 for both days.

This year’s image of Ignatz, as seen above, was created by 2014 Promising New Talent Winner Cathy G. Johnson.