AVATAR, to no one’s surprise, snagged nine Oscar nominations this morning, tied with THE HURT LOCKER for most. The two films are the leading contenders and sets up an exciting “Battle of the Exes” between directors James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, who were once married.

Pixar’s UP became only the second animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST got the nod in 1991) but it comes in the year of the “Expanded Best Picture” nods — the Academy decided to have 10 Best Pictures nominees instead of the usual 5, leading to things like UP and DISTRICT 9 getting kudos they would never have received in the old system–not that UP didn’t richly deserve the honor.

The Best Animated feature nominees include CORALINE, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, UP, and a surprise — THE SECRET OF KELLS, an Irish-Belgian animated film with the voices of Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally that won’t be out in the US until spring.

Complete list of noms in the jump, including a shameful nomination for TRANSFORMERS:
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The Angoulême comics festival wrapped up over the weekend, with the Grand Prix being presented to Baru, a well-respected French cartoonist whose genre-spanning career is the kind of thing the French do way better than us.

The Comics Reporter has the rest of the prize winners here. Winners include Riad Sattouf and Joe Daly, but please go check out the entire list before we spoil it for you.

More from the fest:
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The latest batch of Xeric Grant winners has been announced — since its foundation in 1992, the Xeric has recognized a fairly amazing lineup of cartoonists and comics. Here’s some more comics we’ll be looking for in 2010:

Sarah Becan – The Complete and Definitive Ouija Interviews

Bryan G. Brown – First Fight

Sixta C. – Soldiers of God

Ben Costa – Shi Long Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk

Blaise Larmee – Young Lions

Lane Milburn – Death Trap

Stefan Salinas – Within the Rat

Nathan Schreiber – Power Out

The Xeric Foundation has announced its most recent grant recipients. A total of $32,042 was awarded for eight comic book projects. The Foundation has awarded in excess of $2.3M to comic book creators and nonprofit organizations since its first grant cycle in September 1992.

Established by Peter Laird, co-creator of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Northampton, MA based foundation offers financial assistance to self-publishing comic book creators in the US and Canada and to qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations in western Massachusetts.

The next deadline and review dates for comic book grants are March 31, 2010 and May 1, 2010, respectively. The charitable organization grants are decided annually in March and announced separately.

The Space Prize is presented each year to the best in comics collected at the previous year’s SPACE festival in Columbus, OH in the categories Minicomic, Short Story and Webcomic and a Grand Prize. This year’s SPACE will be held on April 24 and 25, 2010 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Columbus. More info here. And the winners are:

General Category:
1st Place:
The Dreamer #1-5
Lora Innes-Artist, writer
Tom Waltz- Editor

2nd Place:
Tiny Life 1)a
Nick Jones and Nicolas Colacitti

3rd Place:
The Second Part of the Secret History of the Ineffables
Craig Bogart

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The ComicPRO retailer organization has announced the formation of their Industry Appreciation Awards to honor individuals who have improved the direct market. PR below, more info here.

The direct market remains the way most comic-book stories get from creator to fan. ComicsPRO, the largest organization of direct-market retailers, wants to honor those people who stand in that gap and help smooth that process. From publishers, distributors, marketers and more, a lot of people are involved in bringing the stories we all love to market. ComicsPRO would like to stand up and recognize those who have been simply the best at what they do, making the comic-book direct market more successful for all of us.

ComicsPRO has created The ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award to honor these individuals, and the first winners of the award will be announced at this year’s ComicsPRO Annual Members’ meeting in Memphis, TN from March 25-27. 

There are two categories for the Industry Appreciation Award, one for professionals who are still active in the business of comics and one for those who have passed away and left an indelible mark on the profession of comic book specialty retailing. After a period of accepting nominations from members, the ComicsPRO Board of Directors presents this final ballot. Members will vote for one Award recipient from each category.

The 2010 nominees for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award:
o Neil Gaiman
o Steve Geppi
o Paul Levitz
o Dave Sim
o Bob Wayne

The 2010 nominees in the posthumous category for the ComicsPRO Industry Appreciation Award:
o Will Eisner
o Carol Kalish
o Phil Seuling
o Julius Schwartz

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The Young Adult Library Services Association has released a list of 73 Great Graphic Novels for Teens

The list of 73 titles, drawn from 127 official nominations, is presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The books, recommended for those ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens. In addition, the Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee created a Top Ten list. “There was a wealth of great titles to choose from this year,” said Eva Volin, committee chair. “This allowed the committee to create a well-rounded list that includes everything from European comics to manga, superhero titles to adaptations of classic literature. We think librarians will find this to be a very useful list.”

The Top Ten Graphic Novels are as follows:

Hardison, Jim and Bart Sears. The Helm. Dark Horse. 2009.

Igarashi, Daisuke. Children of the Sea, vol 1. VIZ Media. 2009.

Jensen, Van and Dusty Higgins. Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer. SLG Publishing. 2009.

Kelly, Joe and J.M. Ken Nimura. I Kill Giants. Image. 2009.

Lethem, Jonathan and Farel Dalrymple. Omega the Unknown. Marvel. 2008.

Love, Jeremy. Bayou, vol 1. DC Comics/Zuda. 2009.

Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Pantheon Books. 2009.

Siddell, Tom. Gunnerkrigg Court, vol 1: Orientation. Archaia Studios Press. 2009.

Urasawa, Naoki and Takashi Nagasaki. Pluto. VIZ Media. 2009.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Ooku: The Inner Chambers, vol 1. VIZ Media. 2009.

These ten picks are emblematic of pretty much the whole list — one worth analyzing a bit in terms of the breadth of the selections — this is “the new mainstream” or whatever you want to call it now, a mix of manga, non-event superheroes, licensed adaptations and YA graphic novels from mainstream publishers. While it encompasses a few critically acclaimed titles, it’s really more middle-of-the-road, and suggests that if this is what today’s comics-reading teens are reading, the next decade of comics may be even better than the last, at least in terms of being open to a wide variety of material.

The American Library Association Youth Media Awards were handed out this morning, including the Newbery (won by Rebecca Stead for When You Reach Me) and the Caldecott (won by Jerry Pinkney for The Lion & the Mouse.) In addition, many awards for books for younger readers were presented — you can see the entire list here — and several graphic novels were honored.

For the second year in a row, books from Toon Books, the comics line for early readers spearheaded by Francoise Mouly, were honored by the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books. Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes won the top award, and Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith won honorable mention.

In addition, David Small’s Stitches won an Alex Award, a prize which recognizes “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.”

The kinds of library awards are extremely significant in the continuing legitimization and success of graphic novels in libraries — librarians typically look to these kinds of awards for hints on what to order for their collections, and should give all the books mentioned added shelf life.

Sandy Bilus counts 130 separate “Best of” lists for 2009 to come up with the Best Comics of 2009 Meta-List. Bilus uses the weighted scale devised by Chad Nevett and a system pioneered by dear departed Dick Hyacinth.

It will come as no surprise that Asterios Polyp crushes here. It was the book of the year before it even came out, and we think it’s here to stay.

2 Parker: The Hunter, by Darwyn Cooke
3 George Sprott: 1894-1975, by Seth
4 Pluto, by Naoki Urasawa
5 A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
6 Monsters, by Ken Dahl
7 Detective Comics, by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III
8 Stitches, by David Small
9 Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe, by Bryan Lee O’Malley
10 The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by Robert Crumb

Bilus notes, as we have, the dearth of superhero material that caught on this year, and, in contrast, the bounty of manga.

Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto (#4) and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life (#5) are the first manga to crack the top ten of any Meta-List over the past five years (I haven’t created meta-lists for any years prior to 2005) and the only manga to rank in the top twenty other than Tatsumi’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo, which hit #20 on the 2006 list.  Further down the 2009 list is Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (#20), Taiyo Matsumoto’s Gogo Monster (#46), Tetsu Kariya and Akria Hanasaki’s Oishinbo (#52), and the manhwa trilogy The Color of Earth/The Color of Water/The Color of Heaven, by Dong Hwa Kim (#58).  This development might be a sign that manga in general is becoming more accepted among critics and reviewers (as opposed to just being popular) or it might just be that certain authors are particularly beloved (Tatsumi, Urasawa, and Matsumoto all have shown up on previous lists).

If the list proves anything besides the fact that Comics Are Really Awesome, it’s that manga for the rest of us has got a toehold here — let’s hope the audience is big enough to keep it coming.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced their Media Award nominations today, including the comics category. The awards recognize “news coverage and entertainment programming that go beyond stock stereotypes with LGBT storylines that more fully reflect the challenges gay and transgender people face and the aspirations we hold for ourselves and our families.”

OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK
Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie, Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Comics)
Detective Comics by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)
Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Secret Six by Gail Simone (DC Comics)
X-Factor by Peter David (Marvel Comics)

It’s probably no surprise that Asterios Polyp won PW Comics Week’s annual critic’s poll. Footnotes in Gaza came in second, and the rest of the list — more than 60 titles strong — is a pretty strong indication that if you were following graphic novels in ‘09, you got a LOT of entertainment.

Kai Ming Cha’s Manga list is here.

As the organizer of this yearly fest, thanks to everyone who participated!

“Best of” lists are coming at us thick and fast! Catch ‘em all! And then complain!

• Whitney Matheson has her best of the year list, and we guarantee it is unlike any other list you’ll see.

• Whitney is also doing her mind-boggling 100 most inetresting people of the year feature which includes Lilli Carré right next to Beth Ditto and Eric Stonestreet.

69. Lilli Carre. The artist continued making must-see work with Nine Ways to Disappear, a fantastic collection of graphic short stories. It’s strange how my copies of this title keep disappearing when friends come to visit — I wonder if Lilli has anything to do with that?

• Complex has The 50 Best Comic Book Covers of 2009, which is visually excellent but omits manga and indies, while including UDON and Judge Dredd. Hm…okay.

• Graeme McMillan lists 10 Of The Decade’s Best SF Comics at io9.

• Marissa Meli has Girl Geek’s Top 8 Comics & Graphic Novels of 2009.

• Splash Page presents their best of the year.

The great Gilbert Hernandez is one of this year’s eight winners of a USA Fellows 2009 Literature grant of $50,000. Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, and Chris Ware won grants in 2006.

Considering that Beto is, indeed, what you might call a national treasure, this is welcome news.

More context by Carolyn Kellogg here.

[Most links via FLOG]

The American Film Institute has released its annual list of 10 notable films:

Coraline
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
Up
Up In The Air

While none of the movies with “9″ in the title made it — 9, NINE, or DISTRICT 9 — the two “UP” movies did and so did the two “A [Blank] MAN.”

CORALINE and UP are both animated — one Henry Selick’s much-praised stop-motion 3D adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, the other from Pixar. As CGI makes actual filmmaking more and more like animation, it seems that any stigma attached to the process is quickly disappearing.

Time’s nerd site, Techland has named its top ten comics of the decade,, or at least contributor Mike Williams has, and it’s pretty depressing.

1. The Ultimates
2. 100 Bullets
3. Planetary
4. All Star Superman
5. The Walking Dead
6. The Authority
7. Mouseguard
8. Blankets
9. Invincible
10. Y The Last Man

Not that all of those books don’t deserve a serious, thoughtful consideration, but, talk about…ONE DIMENSIONAL. “Best Books Published by DC and Robert Kirkman with one book each from Top Shelf, Archaia and Marvel.” Plus, MOUSE GUARD? It’s cute as hell but the storyline is very underwritten. And THE AUTHORITY? Would that be the glory days of Ellis and Hitch (1999-2000)? Or the highly censored, still pretty cool days of Millar/Quitely (2000-2002)? OR the” Oh, right” days of Robbie Morrison and Dwayne Turner (2003-2004)? OR the “This is the real glory days except it lasted all of two issues because everyone hated it so much” Grant Morrison/Gene Ha spurt (2006-7)? OR the current, somewhat average Abnett/Lanning/Coleby run (2008-20??)

Williams does lay out his criteria for the list:

Great art and the test of time. First, great story telling can support poor art but c’mon, these are comics and I run column called Panel of the Week. Great art is a must (usually). Next, I favor a lot of complete runs here. There’s something to be said about letting a writer and an artist tell a complete story without having to hand it off to the next team. Stand alone tales that have no tie ins, no crossovers, and need no other issues to tell a story. These are what stand the test of time.

Stand alone issues, eh? Mr. Williams, we have a new invention called the “graphic novel” which you may want to explore.

Bonus; Rich Johnston didn’t like this list either:

This isn’t a best comics of the decade list, this is a library recommended reading list for newbies with an incredibly limited taste range. It shows no sense of exploration, examination or comprehensivity.

Amazon has its nominations for Best Book Cover of the Year up and there are a few familiar friends in the nominees — graphic novels get a category but it’s shared with art books, and the only comics nominee is ASTERIOS POLYP. Readers can vote for their favorites while entering a sweepstakes, so good deal.

He may still be on his Dollhouse cancellation-induced drinking binge, but Joss Whedon will need to clean up and dry out to get the Vanguard Award from the Producers Guild at their annual awards in January. The award recognizes big thinks in new media and technology, such as previous winners George Lucas, James Cameron and John Lasseter.

Whedon was typically humorous even in a press release:

“This is an honor I didn’t expect and probably don’t deserve,” said Whedon. “The truth is, I’ve never actually guarded a van. But I am a super-total visionary, so that fits. I’m ready to take my place next to the guys who made ‘THX 1138′ and ‘Tin Toy’ (Did they ever do anything else, btw? They showed such promise.). This is a time of radical change in media delivery and content, and I’m honestly proud the PGA has singled me out as someone who sort of knows what’s going on.”

Via PR, this year’s Eisner Award judges have been announced:
Comic-Con International is proud to announce that the judging panel has been named for the 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. This blue-ribbon committee will be choosing the nominations to appear on the Eisner Awards ballot. This year’s judges are: 

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The winners of the 2009 Friends of Lulu Awards have been announced. Nominees were chosen by a panel, while the finalists were voted for online. Due to the various logistical problems surrounding this year’s awards, there will be no awards ceremony, but individualized awards are being sent out to the winners. And the winners are:

Kim Yale Award For Best New Talent: Kate Beaton for Hark, a Vagrant

Lulu of the Year: Danielle Corsetto for Girls with Slingshots

Woman of Distinction: Joanne Carter Siegel

Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work: Rapunzel’s Revenge, by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale

Female Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame: Gail Simone

Best Female Character: Monica Villarreal, from Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor

Volunteer of The Year: Marion Vitus

Publishers Weekly has published its Best Books of 2009 list and David Small’s STITCHES was named one of the Top Ten books OVERALL. There is also a Best 11 graphic novels:

Parker: The Hunter, Darwyn Cooke and Richard Stark (IDW)
Driven by Lemons, Josh Cotter (AdHouse)
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth,Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou with art by Alecos Papdatos and Annie Di Donna (Bloomsbury)
The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders, Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefèvre (First Second)
Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
Footnotes in Gaza, Joe Sacco (Metropolitan)
A Drifting Life, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (D&Q)
You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)
Pluto, Naoki Urasawa (Viz Media)

Amazon has also listed its Best of 2009:

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Last year, blogger Dick Hyacinth presented the world with a time-consuming project — compiling the 2007 best comics of the year lists into a critical consensus — much in the manner of the Village Voice’s old Pazz and Jop critics poll. He started doing the same for 2008 but suddenly, right in the middle…he disappeared, full on Edwin Drood style.

Now, in the manner of Steven Spielberg’s reconstruction of Stanley Kubrick’s A.I., , Sandy Bilus has gathered together Hyacinth’s notes and compiled a Best Comics of 2008 Meta-List:

Methodology: I gave each critic 550 points. Critics who wrote unnumbered lists distributed their points evenly among the books on their lists, while critics with numbered lists distributed their points according to a formula created by Chad Nevett. I only counted lists that had five or more books; for numbered lists with more than 20 books, I only counted the top 20. I also only counted general “best of” lists, not lists limited to a certain genre or type of comic book.

We’ll direct you to the post for the entire list, but the #1 book won’t be a surprise, and the top 20 are a warm reminder that comics are fucking awesome these days.

[Right, the cover to the final book on the list.]