The 21 inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2025 include 12 deceased comics pioneers and 9 living persons. The deceased choices are Peter Arno, Gus Arriola, Wilhelm Busch, Richard “Grass” Green, Rea Irvin, Jack Kamen, Joe Maneely, Shigeru Mizuki, Bob Oksner, Bob Powell, Ira Schnapp, and Phil Seuling. The living choices are Steve Bissette, Lucy Shelton Caswell, Philippe Druillet, Phoebe Gloeckner, Joe Sacco, Bill Schanes, Steve Schanes, Frank Stack, and Angelo Torres.

The selections were made by a panel of six judges: William Foster, Michael T. Gilbert, Karen Green, Alonso Nuñez, Jim Thompson, and Maggie Thompson.

In addition to these choices, voters in the comics industry will elect 6 persons from a group of 18 nominees proposed by the judges. Those nominees will be announced within the next week, and a ballot will be made available for online voting. 

To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, the person must have made a significant contribution to the comic book/graphic storytelling medium, whether by creating a major character (or characters), producing memorable stories that are considered “classics,” having an art style that influenced numerous others, innovating storytelling devices in the medium, advancing comics publishing, or otherwise having a lasting influence on the industry. The person’s first professional work must have occurred at least 35 years before the year of the awards (that would be 1990, for this year’s awards). 

The Hall of Fame trophies will be presented in a special ceremony at the San Diego Convention Center on the morning of July 25. The Eisner Awards in 30+ other categories will be presented in the traditional Friday evening ceremony at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel.

EISNER HALL OF FAME JUDGES’ CHOICES 2025

Peter Arno (1904–1968)

Cartoonist Curtis Arnoux Peters Jr. helped create The New Yorker’s signature style. With the publication of his first spot illustration in 1925, Arno began a 43-year association with the weekly magazine. His many iconic covers and cartoons helped build The New Yorker’s reputation of sophisticated humor and high-quality artwork.

Gus Arriola (1917–2008)

Gus Arriola wrote and drew the Mexican-themed comic strip Gordo. The strip, which prominently featured Mexican characters and themes, set a high standard with its impeccable art and design and had a long and successful life in newspapers (1941–1985).

Steve Bissette (1955– )

Steve Bissette was one of the first graduates of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Together with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben, he was responsible for revitalizing the DC series Swamp Thing into a critically acclaimed horror classic. His later work includes editing and publishing the influential anthology horror comic series Taboo and drawing and self-publishing Tyrant, the epic biography of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908)

The German 19th-century artist is regarded as one of the founders of modern-day comics. He pioneered several elements that have become staples of the medium, such as onomatopeia and expressive movement lines. His iconic series Max und Moritz (1865), about two naughty young boys, was the first children’s comic in history. Its success proved that young readers were an important market for comics.

Lucy Shelton Caswell (1944– )

Lucy Shelton Caswell is the founder (in 1977) and former curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University. She is also founding editor emerita of INKS: The Journal of the Comics Study Society. She has curated more than 75 cartoon-related exhibits and is the author of several articles and books on the history of newspaper comic strips and the history of American editorial cartoons. She is a co-founder (in 2014) of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.

Philippe Druillet (1944– )

Philippe Druillet is one of the most influential French comics creators and is known for his baroque drawings and bizarre science-fiction stories. He made his debut in comics with Lone Sloane, le Mystère des Abîmes in 1966. He became a regular contributor to the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote, then in 1975 co-founded the publishing house Humanoïdes Associés and the Métal Hurlant periodical. Many of his stories from that magazine were published in the U.S. in Heavy Metal magazine.

Phoebe Gloeckner (1960– )

Phoebe Gloeckner’s first comics work appeared in underground comix publications when she was in her teens. She continued to do stories for such titles as Weirdo, Young Lust, Buzzard, Wimmen’s Comix, and Twisted Sisters. In 1998 her quasi-autobiographical strips were collected in A Child’s Life, and her shattering The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2002) was later made into a film.

Richard Edward “Grass” Green (1939–2002)

Grass Green was an American underground comix artist and part of the pioneer generation of the 1960s. He is best known for creating superhero parodies like Xal-Kor the Human Cat (1964) and Wildman and Rubberroy (1969), as well as erotic stories for underground comix and the Eros Comix line by Fantagraphics. Green holds historical significance for being the first Black underground comix artist. He also created REGCo, which offered comic artists and cartoonist pages where the layout, borders, and panels were already put on paper beforehand.

Rea Irvin (1888 –1972)

Rea Irvin was The New Yorker’s first art editor, but that title barely begins to suggest his importance to the magazine. Not only did he draw Eustace Tilley (the magazine’s mascot) for the first cover, he also designed virtually the entire look of the magazine. He was instrumental in inventing the one-line gag cartoon, The New Yorker’s signature contribution to comic art.

Jack Kamen (1920–2008)

Jack Kamen was one of the most prolific and influential artists for EC Comics, drawing crime, horror, humor, suspense, and science fiction stories. After EC, he drew Sunday supplement illustrations and created advertising art for a wide variety of clients. He also drew all the comic book artwork for Stephen King and George Romero’s 1982 horror anthology film Creepshow, their homage to the EC horror comics.

Joe Maneely (1926–1958)

Between the late 1940s and late 1950s, Maneely was a frequent contributor to Atlas Comics (which became Marvel Comics), and one of the key collaborators with Stan Lee. He is best remembered as the co-creator and main artist of such titles as Ringo Kid, Black Knight, and Yellow Claw. This latter series introduced both the master villain Yellow Claw and the heroic secret agent Jimmy Woo, who was later featured in several other Marvel comic books. A tragic train accident ended his career at age 32.

Shigeru Mizuki (1922–2015)

Shigeru Mizuki was one of Japan’s most respected artists. A creative prodigy, he lost an arm in World War II. After the war, Mizuki became one of the founders of manga. He invented the yokai genre with GeGeGe no Kitaro, his most famous character, who has been adapted for the screen several times, as anime, live action, and video games. He received two Eisner Awards for his book series Showa: A History of Japan, as well as one for Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths.

Bob Oksner (1916–2007)

Bob Oksner was a Silver Age comic book artist best known for his distinctive work at DC on both adventure and humor titles. When DC began taking on the publication of comics based on TV sitcoms, Oksner drew such titles as Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, The Adventures of Bob Hope, Dobie Gillis, and Sgt. Bilko. Over the years he also produced romance comics, as well as Angel and the Ape, Stanley and His Monster, Lois Lane, and Shazam.

Bob Powell (1916–1967)

Bob Powell began his career at the Eisner-Iger studio in the late 1930s, doing stories for Jumbo Comics, Wonderworld Comics, Hit Comics, Smash Comics, and many other Golden Age series. His most famous series during his Eisner-Iger years was “Sheena.” When the Spirit newspaper comic book section started in 1940, Powell produced the “Mr. Mystic” backup feature. His later credits include work for such publishers as Street & Smith (Shadow Comics), Magazine Enterprises (Strong Man), Harvey Comics (Man in Black, Adventures in 3-D), and Marvel (Daredevil, Giant-Man, Hulk, and Human Torch).

Joe Sacco (1960– )

Joe Sacco is credited as the first artist to practice rigorous, investigative journalism using the comics medium. Between 1993 and 1995, Joe wrote and drew nine issues of Palestine, which documented his two months spent in the Occupied Territories in the winter of 1991–1992 and which shows the human effects of the Israeli occupation and subsequent intifada. In 1995–1996, Joe traveled four times to Bosnia and subsequently produced four harrowing accounts of his time there: Christmas With Karadzic, Soba, Safe Area Gorazde, and The Fixer.

Bill Schanes (1958– )

As a teenager, Bill and his brother Steve co-founded Pacific Comics, a store in San Diego. Pacific went on to become a chain of stores, a publisher of creator-owned comics, and a comic book distributor before it was bought up by Diamond Comic Distributors in the eighties. Bill then went to work for Diamond, where he oversaw the company’s rise of Diamond to dominate the direct market. He was also part of Diamond’s early forays into digital distribution.

Steve Schanes (1954– )

Steve began as a comic book retailer when he was 17 years old when he and his brother Bill opened Pacific Comics, then expanded the company to include publishing and distribution. After that he launched Blackthorne Publishing. During his time in the comics business Steve published some 800 comic books.

Ira Schnapp (1894–1969)

Schnapp was a logo designer and letterer who brought his classic and art deco design styles to DC Comics (then National Comics) beginning with the redesign of the Superman logo in 1940. He did a great deal of logo and lettering work for the company in the 1940s. Around 1949, he joined the staff as their in-house logo, cover lettering, and house-ad designer and letterer, and continued in that role until about 1967. He also designed the Comics Code seal.

Phil Seuling (1934–1984)

Phil Seuling was a comic book retailer, fan convention organizer, and comics distributor primarily active in the 1970s. He was the organizer of the annual New York Comic Art Convention, originally held in New York City every July 4 weekend beginning in 1968. Later, with his Sea Gate Distributors company, he developed the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the then-established newspaper/magazine distributor method, where no choices of title, quantity, or delivery directions were permitted.

Frank Stack (1934– )

Considered by some to be the first underground cartoonist, Frank Stack began his career under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon. With Adventures of Jesus in 1962, Stack established his unique, expressive style. His other underground work included Amazon Comics, Dorman’s Doggie, Feelgood Funnies, and The New Adventures of Jesus. He illustrated several stories for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and in 1994 was the artist on Harvey’s and Joyce Brabner’s award-winning Our Cancer Year.

Angelo Torres (1932– )

Angelo Torres began his career in the early 1950s, assisting his studio mate Al Williamson on such EC titles as Valor together with Frank Frazetta and Roy Krenkel (the team known as the Fleagle Gang). He contributed to Atlas mystery and Western titles in the late 1950s. For Gilberton, he contributed to Classics Illustrated; for Feature Comics, he appeared in Sick during the 1960s. He contributed to Warren titles Eerie, Creepy, and Blazing Combat between 1964 and 1967. Torres was one of MAD’s mainstays, providing caricatures and movie parodies for almost 25 years.

[Based on a press release.]