SPX Announces the 2026 Ignatz Award Nominees and The Ignatz Archive

The Small Press Expo (SPX) has announced the 2026 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

Ignatz Awards nominees are determined by a panel of comics professionals. This year’s team of jurors included:

• Maria Hoey
• Joel Christian Gill
• Nick Bertozzi
• Maggie McCready
• Vik Alexander
• Meg Lentz
• Michael Albrecht
• Sofia Lesage

Voting for the Ignatz Awards will be opened to anybody on the SPX email lists and anyone requesting a ballot. There will be no in-person voting at the show, as voting for the prestigious Ignatz Awards is open to all fans of indie comics. 

The Ignatz Awards ceremony will be held at 9:30PM on Saturday September 12 in the White Oak Room of the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

BALLOT & VOTING INFORMATION

• Voting for the 2026 Ignatz Awards will be by email ballot only, there will be no on-site voting.
• Ballots will be emailed everyone on SPX’s email lists at the same time as this announcement.
• If you wish to vote for the Ignatz Awards and are not on our email lists, sign up for a ballot and get added to our email lists at the SPX website.
• Please check your spam folder if you do not see your ballot.
• Voting ends on Friday September 11 at 8:00PM (EDT).

2026 IGNATZ NOMINEES

OUTSTANDING ARTIST

• Colin Lidston, Move-In Day (Paper Rocket Minicomics)
• Ben Passmore, Black Arms To Hold You Up (Pantheon Books)
• J. Marshall Smith, Testament (Bulgilhan Press)
• Carol Tyler, The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief (Fantagraphics)
• Rob Woods, Barbecue Block Party (Self-Published)

OUTSTANDING ANTHOLOGY

• A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology Vol. 9: Beautiful Regrets ed. Casper Cendre, Oliver Mills, Brett Thomas Gonzalez (A.B.O. Comix)
• Goof #2 ed. Marc Jackson (Self-Published)
• LAAB: A Comics Anthology No. 3 ed. Ronald Wimberly (Beehive Books)
• Revenge #2 ed. Samandal (Beehive Books)
• So Buttons #15 ed. Jonathan Baylis (So Buttons Comix)

OUTSTANDING COLLECTION

• A Strong Woman and Other Stories by Valentine Gallardo (Fieldmouse Press)
• All the Cameras in My Room by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Box Garden Beetle by Akino Kondoh (Glacier Bay Books)
• The Past is a Grotesque Animal by Tommi Parrish (Fantagraphics)
• Wisps by Amanda Baeza (kuš!)

OUTSTANDING COMIC

• Antimatter #1 by Dean Haspiel (Self-Published)
• Fizzle #6 by Whit Taylor (Radiator Comics)
• Girls Gone Wild by Katie Lane (2dcloud)
• Utzy and Dusty by Josh Bayer (Domino Books)
• Zoo #5 by Anand Shenoy (Self-Published)

OUTSTANDING GRAPHIC NOVEL

• Black Arms to Hold You Up by Ben Passmore (Pantheon Books)
• Cannon by Lee Lai (Giramondo Publishing)
• Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me by Mimi Pond (Drawn & Quarterly)
• More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey (Top Shelf Productions)
• The Weight by Melissa Mendes (Drawn & Quarterly)

OUTSTANDING MINICOMIC

• If She Was Beholden, Could She Ever Be the Beholder? by Erika Rier (Self-Published)
• Secret Black Woman: American Virtues by Ingrid Pierre (Self-Published)
• To Bleed Stone Dry by R. D. “Reyookah” Yoon (Self-Published)
• Two Snakes by Suerynn Lee (Alright Editions)
• Uncoiling: A Japanese-American Family History by Yoko O.K. (Self-Published)

OUTSTANDING ONLINE COMIC

OUTSTANDING SERIES

• Coin-Op no 10: Wet Cement by Peter and Maria Hoey (Coin-Op Books)
• Fizzle #6 by Whit Taylor (Radiator Comics)
• Hacienda by Dave Ortega (Self-Published)
• My Pockets are Juicy! by Lonnie Milsap (Self-Published)
• Wedding Juice and Other Melodramas by Sanika Phawde (Self-Published)

OUTSTANDING STORY

• Before We Wake by Sophia Glock (Little, Brown Ink)
• Drome by Jesse Lonergan (23rd Street)
• Mudhouse by Glynnis Fawkes (Paper Rocket Minicomics)
• Suicidals by Michael R. Barton (Self-Published)
• While We Wait by Sorina Vazelina (Self-Published)

PROMISING NEW TALENT:

• A Scientific Study Of Transsexuality by Oscar Woodiwiss (Fieldmouse Press)
• Creamthing In His Golden Year by Sam Hensley (Self-Published)
• Electric Cowboy by Ansel Kite (Silver Sprocket)
• The Witch’s Egg by Donya Todd (Avery Hill Publishing)
• Upwards Incursion by Padraig Campbell (Driftwood Press)