Michael DeForge Leads Your 2013 Ignatz Award Winners

Taking place in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend is the Small Press Expo, or SPX, arguably the biggest indie comics event of the year. And each year one of the highlights of the show is the presentation of the Ignatz Awards. Named in honor of legendary cartoonist George Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoons, the awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators in the previous year. This year's winners were announced yesterday, and leading the way was cartoonist Michael DeForge, who won three awards for his serialized work Lose and his anthology Very Casual, both published by Koyama Press.

Nominations each year are made by a five-member panel of comics professional, and winners are voted on by attendees of the show. Below is a complete list of the 2013 nominees, with winners in bold.

Outstanding Artist

Lilli Carré, Heads or Tails

Michael DeForge, Lose #4

Miriam Katin, Letting It Go

Ulli Lust,Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life

Patrick McEown, Hair Shirt

Outstanding Anthology Or Collection

Freddie Stories,Lynda Barry

Heads or Tails, Lilli Carré

Peter Bagge's Other Stuff, Peter Bagge

Tusen Hjartan Stark#1

Very Casual, Michael DeForge

Outstanding Graphic Novel

The Property, Rutu Modan

Susceptible, Genevieve Castree

Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Ulli Lust

When David Lost His Voice,Judith Vanistendael

You'll Never Know Volume Three: A Soldier's Heart, Carol Tyler

Outstanding Story

"Arid" (Secret Prison #7), Tom Hart

Birdseye Bristoe, Dan Zettwoch

"The Carnival" (Heads or Tails),Lilli Carré

Gold Star, John Martz

"Neighbors" (Stark #1), Joanna Heligren

Promising New Talent

Sam Alden, Hawaii 1997 & Haunter

Nathan Bulmer, Eat More Bikes

Philippa Rice, Looking Out

Diana Thung, August Moon

Angie Wang, "The Teacup Tree," Secret Prison #7

Outstanding Series

The Hive, Charles Burns

Lose, Michael DeForge

Madtown High, Whit Taylor

Pope Hats, Ethan Rilly

Prison Pit, Johnny Ryan

Outstanding Comic

Hyperspeed to Nowhere, Lale Westvind

The Life Problem, Austin English

Looking Out, Philippa Rice

Pope Hats #3, Ethan Rilly

St. Owl's Bay, Simon Hanselmann

Outstanding Minicomic

Il Cammino Delle Capre, Kris Mukai & Zachary Zezima

The End of the F*cking World #16, Charles Forsman

Hawaii 1997, Sam Alden

Layaway, Joseph Lambert

Powdered Milk Volume Ten: The Man Who Could Not Read, Keiler Roberts

Outstanding Online Comic

Bird Boy, Annie Szabla

Gabby's Playhouse, Ken Dahl & Gabby Schulz

Haunter, Sam Alden

July Diary, Gabrielle Bell

SuperMutant Magic Academy, Jillian Tamaki