Pioneering distributor, retailer, and publisher Bud Plant will be inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, as the awards recognize the retail side of comics for the second year in a row (see “Phil Seuling, Bill and Steve Schanes Named to Eisner Awards Hall of Fame”).
Plant was an early comics retailer, opening his store in 1968, as well as a distributor of underground comics and fanzines who moved into color comics shortly after Phil Seuling set up the first comics distributor (see “Phil Seuling and Bud Plant Deserve to Be in the Eisner Hall of Fame” and “Bud Plant, A Pioneer of Comics Retail and the Direct Market”). Seuling was inducted in 2025.
Mike Friedrich, whose multifaceted career included stints as an indie publisher and Marvel Comics’ first Direct Sales Manager (see “ICv2 Interview: Mike Friedrich”), was also among the inductees.
The other 16 inductees are comics creators with a wide range of accomplishments: Edwina Dumm, Oliver Harrington, Don Heck, Abe Kanegson, Paul S. Newman, Hector German Osterheld, Tom Palmer Sr., Jimmy Swinnerton, Bob Bolling, Gerry Conway, Denys Cowan, Lee Marrs, Go Nagai, Dave Sim, Carol Tyler, and Rick Veitch.
Inductees for the Hall of Fame are chosen by a separate panel of judges from the regular awards, and in addition to the automatic inductions noted above, they also choose a list of nominees to be voted on by comics professionals. Those names have not yet been released.
Source: ICv2
