Pullitzers, Eisner Nominations, Foundation Funding – Comics Journalism Gains Momentum

The past few weeks have been a veritable mini-golden age for comics journalism, as the slumbering behemoth that is the mainstream media slowly but surely wakes up to the storytelling potential that illustrated reportage affords. First up is the editorial cartoonist machine that is Matt Bors, who in addition to being the comics journalism editor over at Cartoon Movement, cranks out an inordinate number of editorial cartoons for the syndicates every week. This week he was honoured as a finalist for the Pullitzer, hot on the heels of his Herb Lock Prize. Next is another comics journalism standard bearer, Erin Polgreen, who in addition to being a keystone at the Media Consortium has recently been awarded a Women Entrepreneurs in Digital News Frontier Grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation to kick off her latest project, Symbolia - a soon-to-be-launched tablet magazine focusing on showcasing illustrated journalism. Susie Cagle, another member of the Graphic Journos collective, was honoured by the Society of Professional Journalists for her coverage of Occupy Oakland, and Josh Neufeldgot a well-deserved Eisner nomination for his piece on the protests in Bahrain, Lines in the Sand. Last but not least, Yiddishkeit, the anthology featuring my collaboration with the late Harvey Pekar also got an Eisner nod for best anthology. Editors, take note!