Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story
| Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | The best science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form and published in the prior calendar year |
| Presented by | World Science Fiction Society |
| First awarded | 2009 |
| Most recent winner | Neil Gaiman (writer), J. H. Williams III (artist) (The Sandman: Overture) |
| Official website | thehugoawards.org |
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. It has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories told in graphic form and published in English or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded annually since 2009. It was started then with the requirement that it would only continue as an official award if approved again by the World Science Fiction Society after that year. It was, and was again awarded in 2010; it was ratified as a permanent category after the 2012 awards.
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with five nominees, except in the case of a tie as happened in 2009. These five graphic stories on the ballot are the five most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of stories that can be nominated. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of five nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years in which a World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, was hosted, but no awards were originally given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have only been given for graphic stories for 1941.
In the 10 nomination years, 52 works from 35 series have been nominated, including Retro Hugos. Girl Genius, written by Kaja and Phil Foglio, drawn by Phil Foglio, and colored by Cheyenne Wright, won the first three awards. After their third straight win in 2011, the Girl Genius team announced that, in order to show that the category was a "viable award", they were refusing nomination for the following year (after which the award was up for re-ratification); Girl Genius was nominated for a fourth time in 2014. The award was won the fourth year by Ursula Vernon's Digger, the fifth by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples's Saga, the sixth by Randall Munroe's "Time", the seventh by G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, and the eighth by Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III's The Sandman: Overture. The sole Retro Hugo was won by Bill Finger and Bob Kane's Batman #1. Schlock Mercenary, written and drawn by Howard Tayler, was nominated the first five years, while Fables, created by writer Bill Willingham, was nominated for the first four. Saga has been nominated four times, while Ms. Marvel; The Unwritten, written by Mike Carey and drawn by Peter Gross; Locke & Key, written by Joe Hill and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez; and Bryan Talbot's Grandville have been nominated twice.
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