The Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work is an award for "creative achievement" in non-fiction American comic books.

Winners and nominees

Year Title Authors 2000s 2006 (Kyle Baker Publishing) (Pantheon Books) (Pantheon Books) (Drawn & Quarterly) (Clib's Boy Comics) and True Story, Swear to God: This One Goes to Eleven (AiT/Planet Lar) 2007 (Houghton Mifflin) (Fantagraphics) (Abrams Books) (Digital Manga, ) (author) and Akira Imai (artist) (Image Comics) and Shepherd Hendrix 2008 (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion Books for Children) and Rich Tommaso (First Second Books) (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group) (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and Ronald Wimberly (Drawn & Quarterly) 2009 (Drawn & Quarterly) (First Second Books) (Houghton Mifflin) (IDW Publishing) (NBM Publishing) 2010s 2010 (Drawn & Quarterly) (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company) (Little, Brown) (Secret Acres) (First Second Books) , Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemercier (W. W. Norton & Company) 2011 (Fantagraphics) (Drawn & Quarterly) (Fantagraphics) (NBM Publishing) (McClelland & Stewart) Book 2: Collateral Damage (Fantagraphics) 2012 (Dark Horse Comics) and Jonathan Case (Candlewick Press) (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and Sylvain Savoia (Drawn & Quarterly) (Villard) 2013 (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion Books for Children) There was a tie between Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller and The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song. (Abrams ComicArts) and David Lasky (SelfMadeHero) and Philippe Ôtié, translated by Edward Gauvin (Koyama Press) (Gotham Books) Book 3: A Soldier's Heart (Fantagraphics) 2014 (M Press/Dark Horse Comics) , Andrew C. Robinson, and Kyle Baker (Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group) , Kris, and Vincent Bailly , Book 1: 1970s-1981 (Fantagraphics) : Book One (Top Shelf Productions) , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Fantagraphics) (Drawn & Quarterly) 2015 , Book 2: 1981-1983 (Fantagraphics) (Bloomsbury Publishing) (2d Cloud/Uncivilized Books) (Amulet Books/Abrams Books) (Abrams Books) (Soaring Penguin Press) and John Stuart Clark 2016 (Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing) , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Metropolitan Books) (Fantagraphics) Book 3: 1983–1984 (Fantagraphics) (Fantagraphics) (Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing) 2017 (Top Shelf Productions) , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and Eduardo Risso (NBM Publishing) (St. Martin's Press) (First Second Books) 2018 (First Second Books) (Nobrow Press) and Jerémie Royer, translated by Etienne Gilfillan (Abrams ComicArts) (IDW Publishing) and Matthieu Blanchin, translated by Diana Schutz and Brandon Kander (IDW Publishing) , Éric Corbeyran, and Horne Perreard, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger 2019 (First Second Books) (Gallery 13) (Retrofit Comics/Big Planet Comics) (First Second Books) (Uncivilized Books) 2020s 2020 (Top Shelf Productions) , Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker (One World/Random House) Grass (Drawn & Quarterly) , translation by Janet Hong (First Second Books/Macmillan) (Hill & Wang) , vol. 2 (Seven Seas Entertainment) , translation Jocelyne Allen 2021 (Abrams Books) (Archaia Entertainment/Boom! Studios) , Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane (First Second Books/Macmillan Publishers) (Oni Press) and Julie Dachez, translation by Edward Gauvin (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company) (Drawn & Quarterly) , translation by Helge Dascher2023Flung Out of Space (Abrams ComicArts)Grace Ellis and Hannah TemplerAlfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense (HBM) Noël Simsolo and Dominique Hé, translation by Montana KaneAlice Guy: First Lady of Film (Self Made Hero)José-Louis Bocquet and Catel Muller, translation by Edward GauvinBut I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust (University of Toronto Press) edited by Charlotte SchalliéInvisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism (Fantagraphics)Jess RuliffsonPinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball (First Second/Macmillan)Jon Chad2024Three Rocks: The story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy (Abrams ComicArts)Bill GriffithAre You Willing to Die for the Cause? (Drawn and Quarterly)Chris OliverosLast on His Feet: Jack Jackson and the Battle of the Century (Liveright)Adrian Matejka and Youssef DaoudiMessenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali (First Second/Macmillan)Marc Bernardin and Ron SalasThing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood (Island Press)Samuel Machado and Cynthia Sousa Machado with Steven M. Wise2025Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S. (Fantagraphics)Caitlin CassThe Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War (Gallery 13)Carl SciacchitanoThe Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien (Abrams Fanfare)John HendrixDjuna (Street Noise Books)Jon MacyThe Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History (Union Square)John Vasquez Mejias2026Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance (Pantheon)Ben Passmore Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me (Drawn & Quarterly)Mimi PondFela: Music is the Weapon (Amistad)Jibola Fagbamiye, Conor McCreeryGlobetrotters: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s World Tour (Abrams ComicArts)Julian Voloj and Julie RocheleauMuybridge (Drawn & Quarterly)Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Daschert, Rob AspinalSurrounded: America's First School for Black Girls, 1832 (Ablaze) Wilfrid Lupano, Stéphane Fert, translated by Montana Kane

Notes

References