The Eisner Award for Best Short Story is an award for "creative achievement" in American comic books that has been awarded every year since its creation in 1993. The Eisner Award rules state that "A short story must be within an anthology of bigger work or else appear online."
Winners and nominees
+Eisner Award for Best Short Story winners and nomineesYearTitleAuthorsResult1990s1993 in Xenozoic Tales #12 (Kitchen Sink Press)Winner in Eightball #9 (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Naughty Bits #6 (Fantagraphics) chapter of From Hell in Taboo #6 (Spiderbaby Graphix/Tundra Publishing) and Eddie Campbell chapter of Through the Habitrails in Taboo #7 (Spiderbaby Graphix/Tundra Publishing) in Tantalizing Stores Presents Frank in The River (Tundra Publishing)1994 in Simpsons Comics #1 (Bongo Comics), Cindy Vance, and Bill MorrisonWinner in Rubber Blanket #3 (Rubber Blanket Press)Nominee in Concrete Eclectica #2 (Dark Horse Comics) in Eightball #12 (Fantagraphics) in Vertigo Jam (DC Comics/Vertigo Comics) and Steve Dillon1995 in Sin City: The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories (Dark Horse Comics/Legend Comics)Winner in Drawn & Quarterly Vol. 2 #2 (Drawn & Quarterly)Nominee in The Batman Adventures Annual #1 (DC Comics) and John Byrne in Vertigo Rave (DC Comics/Vertigo Comics) and Gary Amaro in Wild Life #1 (Fantagraphics) in Negative Burn #11 (Caliber Press), adapted by Joe Pruett and Ken Meyer Jr.1996 in Instant Piano #3 (Dark Horse Comics)Winner in Eightball #15 (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #33 (Gladstone Publishing) and William Van Horn in BLAB! #8 (Kitchen Sink Press) in Confessions of a Cereal Eater (NBM Publishing) and Scott Hampton in Optic Nerve #2 (Drawn & Quarterly)1997 in Batman Black and White #4 (DC Comics) and Gary GianniWinner in Frank #1 (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Joy Ride and Other Stories (Kitchen Sink Press) in Wizard Presents Kurt Busiek's Astro City vol. 2 #1/2 (Homage Comics/Wizard Press) in The Batman Chronicles #5 (DC Comics), Kim Yale, Brian Stelfreeze, and Karl Story in Batman Black and White #1 (DC Comics)1998 in Dork! #4 (Slave Labor Graphics)Winner in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #610 (Gladstone Publishing)Nominee in Vampirella/Dracula: The Centennial (Harris Publications), Gary Frank, and Cam Smith in Penny Century #1 (Fantagraphics) in Weird War Tales #1 (DC Comics) and Eric Shanower in Sin City: Sex & Violence (Dark Horse Comics)1999 in Grendel: Black, White, and Red #1 (Dark Horse Comics) and Tim SaleWinner in Gangland #4 (DC Comics/Vertigo Comics) and Mark ChiarelloNominee in Treehouse of Horror #4 (Bongo Comics), Julius Priete and Tim Bavington in Flaming Carrot's Greatest Hits vol. 3 (Dark Horse Comics) in The 3 Geeks #4 (3 Finger Prints)2000s2000 in Elseworlds 80-Page Giant (DC Comics) and Elizabeth GlassWinner in Naughty Bits #28 (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Dork! #7 (Slave Labor Graphics) in Tomorrow Stories #2 (America's Best Comics) and Rick Veitch in Jetlag (Actus Tragicus) and Yirmi Pinkus in Dark Horse Presents Annual 1999 (Dark Horse Comics) in Tomorrow Stories #2 (America's Best Comics) and Kevin Nowlan2001 in Streetwise (TwoMorrows Publishing)Winner in Little Lit (HarperCollins)Nominee in Drawn & Quarterly vol. 3 (Drawn & Quarterly) and Charles Berberian in Weird War Tales Special (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and Darko Macan in Little Lit (HarperCollins)2002 in Dork! #9 (Slave Labor Graphics)Winner in Drawn & Quarterly vol. 4 (Drawn & Quarterly), Jean-Luc Fromental, and Stanislas BarthélémyNominee in Bento #1 and Pictures That Tick (Hourglass Studios/Allen Spiegel Fine Arts) in Cicada vol. 4 no. 1 (Carus Publishing) and Steve Lieber in Drawn & Quarterly vol. 4 (Drawn & Quarterly) in Expo 2001 (The Expo) and Bo Hampton2003 in Dark Horse Maverick: Happy Endings (Dark Horse Comics) and Mike MignolaWinner in The Comics Journal Summer Special 2002 (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Orchid (Sparkplug Comics), adapted by Kevin Huizenga in Sshhhh! (Fantagraphics) in Bipolar #3 (Alternative Comics)2004 in The Sandman: Endless Nights (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and P. Craig RussellWinner in Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night (HarperCollins) and Richard SalaNominee in Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night (HarperCollins) in Drawn & Quarterly vol. 5 (Drawn & Quarterly) and Charles Berberian in Same Difference and Other Stories (Small Stories) in The Matrix Comics (Burlyman Entertainment)2005 in The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft (Dark Horse Comics) and Jill ThompsonWinner in Rosetta 2 (Alternative Comics)Nominee in Kramers Ergot 5 (Gingko Press) in McSweeney's Quarterly #13 (McSweeney's) in Creatures of the Night (Dark Horse Comics) and Michael Zulli in Common Grounds #5 (Top Cow Productions/Image Comics), Angel Medina, and Jon Holdredge2006 in Solo #3 (DC Comics)Winner in Doomed #1 (IDW Publishing), adapted by Chris Ryall and Ashley WoodNominee in Flight vol. 2 (Image Comics) in The Goon #14 (Dark Horse Comics) in The Recidivist #3 (La Mano)2007 in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and James JeanWinner in Uncle Scrooge #354 (Gemstone Publishing)Nominee in Drawn & Quarterly Showcase 4 (Drawn & Quarterly) in Flight vol. 3 (Ballantine Books) in Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man (Marvel Comics), Olivier Coipel, and Mark Morales in Bart Simpsons's Treehouse of Horror #12 (Bongo Comics)2008 in New York Times Sunday Magazine (The New York Times)Winner in New Engineering (PictureBox)Nominee in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics) in Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Last Gasp) in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (Fantagraphics) in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)2009 in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #14 (Bongo Comics), Nina Matsumoto, and Andrew PepoyWinner in Kramers Ergot 7 (Buenaventura Press)Nominee in I Live Here (Pantheon Books) in Superior Showcase #3 (AdHouse Books) in Ganges #2 (Fantagraphics)2010s2010 in The Eternal Smile (First Second Books) and Derek Kirk KimWinner in From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics the 3rd Millennium (Fantagraphics/Aben malen)Nominee in What Is Torch Tiger? (Torch Tiger) in Syncopated (Villard Books) in Bob Dylan Revisited (W. W. Norton & Company)2011 in I Am an Avenger #2 (Marvel Comics) and Michael LarkWinner in Bart Simpson #54 (Bongo Comics)Nominee in DCU Halloween Special 2010 (DC Comics) in Fractured Fables (Silverline Books/Image Comics) and Rodin Esquejo in Popgun vol. 4 (Image Comics) in Fractured Fables (Silverline Books/Image Comics) and Camilla d'Errico2012 in Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition (IDW Publishing)Winner in Optic Nerve #12 (Drawn & Quarterly)Nominee in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #17 (Bongo Comics) in Metal Hurlant vol. 2 (Humanoids Publishing) in Dark Horse Presents #7 (Dark Horse Comics)2013 in Tales Designed to Thrizzle#8 (Fantagraphics)Winner in Injury #4 (Ted May/Alternative Comics) and Ted MayNominee in Dockwood (Nobrow Press) in Monsters Miracles & Mayonnaise (Epigram Books) in Heads or Tails (Fantagraphics)2014 in Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 (Fantagraphics)Winner in Optic Nerve #13 (Drawn & Quarterly)Nominee in The Witching Hour (DC Comics) and Cliff Chiang in Habit #1 (Oily Comics) in The Oatmeal2015Winner in Mutha MagazineNominee in Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World (Simon & Schuster) in Batman Black and White #3 (DC Comics) in Adventures of Superman #14 (DC Comics) and Jock2016 in Optic Nerve #14 (Drawn & Quarterly)Winner in Vertigo Quarterly CMYK #4: Black (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) and John Paul LeonNominee in 24 x 7 (Fanfare) in The Oatmeal (theoatmeal.com/comics/plane in Fable Comics (First Second Books)2017 in Batman Annual #1 (DC Comics) and David FinchWinner in We Told You So: Comics as Art (Fantagraphics)Nominee in Uptight #5 (Fantagraphics) in One Week in The Library (Image Comics) and John Amor in Island #8 (Image Comics) in Kramers Ergot 9 (Fantagraphics)2018 in Columbia Magazine, Summer 2017 (Columbia University)Winner in Mine: A Celebration of Liberty and Freedom for All Benefiting Planned Parenthood (ComicMix) and Scott ChantlerNominee in Adventure Time #13 (KaBOOM!) and Antonio Sandoval in Comics for Choice (Hazel Newlevant) in Enough Space for Everyone Else (Bedside Press)2019 in Swamp Thing Winter Special (DC Comics) and Jason FabokWinner in Get Naked (Image Comics) and Emei Olivia BurrellNominee in Mad #4 (DC Comics) and Marc Palm in I Feel Machine (SelfMadeHero) in The Nib in Coin-Op #7 (Coin-Op Books) and Maria Hoey2020s2020 in Hot Comb (Drawn & Quarterly)Winner in The New YorkerNominee in The Believer in The Nib in The Oatmeal2021 in Menopause: A Comic Treatment (Graphic Medicine/Penn State University Press)Winner in Now #8 (Fantagraphics) Nominee in The New York Times in Elements: Earth A Comic Anthology by Creators of Color (Ascend Press) in Detective Comics #1027 (DC Comics) and Eduardo Risso2022 in You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife (Iron Circus) and Raina TelgemeierWinner in Superman: Red and Blue #5 (DC Comics)Nominee in Too Tough to Die (Birdcage Bottom Books) and Michael Kamison in Green Arrow 80th Anniversary (DC Comics) and Jorge Fornés in The Nib Vol 9: Secrets (The Nib)Triple Dream (Mel Hilario, Katie Longua, and Lauren Davis) 2023"Finding Batman" in DC Pride 2022 (DC Comics)Kevin Conroy and J. BoneWinner"Good Morning," in Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #4 (Marvel)Christopher Cantwell and Alex LinsNominee"The Beekeeper's Due" in Scott Snyder Presents: Tales from the Cloakroom (Cloakroom Comics)Jimmy Stamp and Débora Santos"Silent All These Years," in Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes (Z2)Margaret Atwood and David Mack "You Get It," in Amazing Fantasy #1000 (Marvel)Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto2024"The Kelpie" in Four Gathered on Christmas Eve (Dark Horse Comics)Becky CloonanWinner"The Lady of the Lake" in BUMP: A Horror Anthology #3 (BUMP)Joe S. Farrar and Guilherme GrandizolliNominee"Talking to a Hill" in Comics for Ukraine (Zoop)Larry Hancock and Michael Cherkas"World's Finest, Part 1" in Wonder Woman #3 (DC Comics)Tom King and Belen Ortega"Friendship is Forever" in My Little Pony 40th Celebration (IDW)Sam Maggs and Keisha Okafor2025"Spaces" in DC Pride 2024 (DC Comics)Phil JimenezWinner"You Cannot Live on Bread Alone" in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)Kayla E.Nominee"Pig" in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)Stacy Gougoulis"Anything Sinister" in NOW #13 (Fantagraphics)Ross Murray"Day 1703" in Smoke Signal #43 (Desert Island Comics)Chris Ware"Water I've Loved: Moving Day" in MUTHA MagazinePam Wye2026"Blood Harvest" in Brain Damage (Fantagraphics)Shintaro Kago, translated by Zack DavissonWinner "The Curse Room" in Brain Damage (Fantagraphics)Shintaro Kago, translated by Zack DavissonNominee"Football is Not War" in Come Out and Play: The Queer Sports Project (Stacked Deck Press)R.K. Russell, Wilfred Santiago"Red Snapper in the Rea" in Milk White Steed (Drawn & Quarterly)Michael D. Kennedy"trAPPed" (Bloomberg News)Anand RK, Suparna Sharma, Natalie Obiko Pearson
References