RINGO Awards Announced; JAMAR NICHOLAS Profile

The Comics Industry Celebrates the 2022 Ringo Awards

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - October 30, 2022 - Comic creative professionals, publishers, retailers, and fans came together Saturday night, October 29, 2022 to experience the comic book industry celebrating recognition of their peers, co-workers, and competitors at the 2022 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards.

This year's Ringo Awards was sponsored by Cards, Comics & Collectibles, the Baltimore Comic-Con, as well as BOOM! Studios, Comix Well Spring, Diamond International Galleries, Gem City Comic Con, Geppi Family Enterprises, Hard Rock Cafe, Heavy Metal, Image Comics, InterPop, Prana: Direct Market Solutions, Rocketship Entertainment, Scholastic/Graphix, Source Point Press, Tapas Media, and TKO Studios.

The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards is an annual celebration of the creativity, skill, and fun of comics. The nomination ballot is determined by fans and pros alike.

Jamar Nicholas, award-winning, Philadelphia-based artist and educator, honored the Ringo Awards as the 2022 keynote presenter at the event. Beginning his cartooning career in self-publishing, 1998’s The Jamar Chronicles #1 (Sweatshop Press) began Jamar’s foray into comics. In a world before Google, Jamar and a few friends created the Indy Cred All-Stars, an online Yahoo! message board that was a community of DIY-ers trying to figure out the Riddle of Comics. This became a haven in the early years of several cartoonists that have gone on to great things in the industry. From there, he ventured into early webcomics with The Jamar Chronicles Weekly and in 2002, created Detective Boogaloo: Hip-Hop Cop, distributed on filmmaker Kevin Smith’s Moviepoopshoot.com. During that time, he entered into the comics space with a short stint on Image/Devil's Due's Radiskull & Devildoll, based off of the popular web cartoon series created by Joe Sparks. A career-altering job illustrating Annie Auerbach’s The Grosse Adventures at Tokyopop led Jamar to discover the love of creating stories for young people. In 2010, Jamar adapted and illustrated Geoffrey Canada’s Fist Stick Knife Gun, a story about escaping inner-city violence. The Graphic Novel space was a lot different then, even if it was ONLY 12 years ago. Winning several GLYPH Awards for the project, Jamar began a strong focus on creating long-form comic work. Everything old is new again -- in 2015, Jamar brought Detective Boogaloo: Hip-Hop Cop to the newspapers, in full-color and serialized daily in the US Metro news service (Philadelphia, NYC, and Boston), where he had an estimated 3 million readers a month. 2017 brought Leon: Protector of the Playground (Kids Love Comics), which was received with critical acclaim and more accolades, including the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in 2018. Jamar’s latest book, Leon the Extraordinary, released on October 4th. The first in an all-new series from Scholastic Graphix, Leon the Extraordinary tells the story of an ordinary kid trying to make a difference and save the day in a world full of superheroes.

A very special thanks go to the sponsors who donated items to the 2022 Ringo Awards Gift Bags, including Abrams Books, AfterShock Comics, AWA Studios, Bad Egg Publishing, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, Diamond Select Toys, Heavy Metal, Image Comics, Iron Circus Comics, Maerkle Press, Oni Press, Rocketship Entertainment, Scholastic/Graphix, Source Point Press, TKO Studios, and Valiant Entertainment.

Winners of the 2022 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards are:

Fan Favorites:

Sponsored by Rocketship Entertainment: Favorite Hero: Sylas from Syphon (Image) Favorite Villain: Captain Martell from Blowback (self-published) Favorite New Series: Clinic of Horrors (WEBTOON) Favorite New Talent: Vincent Kings Favorite Publisher: Image Comics

Jury and Fan Winners:

Sponsored by Heavy Metal: Best Non-fiction Comic Work: Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

Sponsored by InterPop: Best Colorist: Dave McCaig

Sponsored by Rocketship Entertainment: Best Webcomic: Lore Olympus, WEBTOON (https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320)

Sponsored by Tapas Media: Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel: Avatar: The Last Airbender--Suki, Alone. Dark Horse Comics

Sponsored by Image Comics: Best Series: Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios Best Artist or Penciller: Filipe Andrade

Sponsored by Scholastic/Graphix: Best Writer: James Tynion IV

Sponsored by Geppi Family Enterprises: Best Humor Comic: Not All Robots, AWA Studios Best Anthology: DC Pride 2021, DC

Sponsored by Source Point Press: Best Single Issue or Story: Something is Killing the Children #20, BOOM! Studios

Sponsored by Gem City Comic Con: Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Lemire Best Presentation in Design: Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

Sponsored by BOOM! Studios: Best Letterer: Taylor Esposito Best Inker: Sal Buscema

Sponsored by Tapas Media: Best Cover Artist: Simone Di Meo

Sponsored by Rocketship Entertainment: Best Humor Webcomic: Sarah's Scribbles, Tapas Media (tapas.io/series/Doodle-Time/)

Sponsored by Tapas Media: Best Original Graphic Novel: Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

Mike Wieringo Spirit Award: Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press

Hero Initiative Awards:

Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award: Scott Dunbier Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award: Steve Geppi

In addition, the Baltimore Comic-Con would like to thank those individuals who presented at this year's award ceremony, including: Keynote speaker Jamar Nicholas; Whitney Matheson and Gene Luen Yang, Josh Geppi, Afua Richardson and Bill Morrison, Todd Dezago, Craig Rousseau, Matt Wieringo, Bella Rachlin and Jarrett Melendez, Ann Nocenti and Dexter Vines, Walter Simonson, Jill Thompson and Michael Son, and Charles Kochman and John Leguizamo. We would also like to thank John Gallagher for his contributions to our awards ceremony program and presentation, as well as Chad Ramsden, Chuck Lindsay, Shauna Lindsay, and John Dwyer for producing.

Please join us next year for the seventh annual Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards taking place at the 24th annual Baltimore Comic-Con on September 9, 2023, and keep an eye on our website and social media accounts below for 2023 ballot information.

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About Mike Wieringo

Michael Lance "Mike" Wieringo was known to fans and friends as "Ringo", which is how he signed his artwork. His comics artist graced the pages of DC Comics' The Flash, Adventures of Superman, Batman, and Robin, Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, and Rogue, and his co-creation Tellos. He passed away on August 12, 2007 at the young age of 44 from an apparent heart attack.

About the Ringo Awards The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards is an annual celebration of the creativity, skill and fun of comics. The Ringo Awards recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories, and are the only industry awards nominated by fans and pros alike, with final voting by the comic professional community. Launched in 2017, the awards ceremony is held annually at the Baltimore Comic-Con. Further details are available at www.ringoawards.com. About The Baltimore Comic-Con   The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 23rd year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com.