The Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing is an American award for excellence in comic book writing, presented each year at ComicCon in San Diego. The awards committee, chaired by Mark Evanier, is charged each year with selecting two recipients, one living and one deceased. In 2020 and 2021, when the awards could not be presented in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic there were six deceased honorees each year and no living ones."In a year where Comic-Con cannot take place, it seemed wrong to honor, as we usually do, one posthumous writer and one who is still with us," [Chairman Mark] Evanier explained. "The one who is still with us would be denied the full honors of being brought to the convention and presented with the award onstage. Therefore, after much discussion, we decided to instead present no 'alive' award this year, and, assuming there is a convention in 2021, we will present two of those awards then. For 2020, we have selected six writers from the dozens who have been nominated to receive the posthumous award. Each of these six during their time in the industry produced a body of work that the judges deem worthy of more recognition and/or reward than it has received." Six Posthumous Recipients to Receive 2020 Bill Finger Award "Since we are not yet in a position to honor a writer who is still with us in a proper ceremony, we're going to a long list of comic book writers from the past who we feel did not receive sufficient recognition or reward for their contributions to the field. As with last year, we have selected six posthumous awards and no 'alive' award," [Chairman Mark] Evanier explained. "Each of these six writers left us with a body of work that the judges deem worthy of this honor." Six Posthumous Recipients to Receive 2021 Bill Finger Award
The award, along with the Eisner Awards, is presented in July of each year at the annual San Diego Comic-Con. It was established by Bill Finger's colleague and fellow writer Jerry Robinson.
Evanier in 2003 said the premise of the award was "to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition. That was what Jerry Robinson intended as his way of remembering his friend, Bill Finger. Bill is still kind of the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition."
Recipients YearLiving RecipientDeceased RecipientRef.2005Arnold DrakeJerry Siegel2006Alvin SchwartzHarvey Kurtzman2007George GladirGardner Fox2008Larry LieberArchie Goodwin 2009Frank JacobsJohn Broome 2010Gary FriedrichOtto Binder 2011Bob Haney2012Steve SkeatesFrank Doyle2013Don RosaSteve Gerber2014Bill Mantlo and Jack MendelsohnRobert Kanigher2015Don McGregorJohn Stanley2016Elliot S. MagginRichard E. Hughes2017William Messner-Loebs2018Joye Hummel Murchison KellyDorothy Roubicek Woolfolk2019Mike FriedrichE. Nelson Bridwell2020NoneVirginia Hubbell, Nicola Cuti, Leo Dorfman, Gaylord DuBois, Joe Gill, France Herron2021NoneRobert Bernstein, Audrey "Toni" Blum, Vic Lockman, Robert Morales, Paul S. Newman, Robert "Bob" White2022Bob BollingDon Rico2023Barbara FriedlanderSam Glanzman2024Jo DuffyRalph Newman 2025Don GlutSheldon Mayer 2026Jenny Blake IsabellaMartin Pasko
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