The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories told in graphic form and published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. It has been awarded annually since 2009. The

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". In the 17 nomination years, 94 works from 58 series have been nominated, including Retro Hugos. Works from 12 different series have won the award, including Retro Hugos. '' Girl Genius'', written by Kaja and Phil Foglio, drawn by Phil Foglio, and colored by Cheyenne Wright, won the first three awards. After their third straight win in 2011, the Girl Genius team announced that, in order to show the category was a "viable award", they were refusing nomination for the following year (after which the award was up for re-ratification); ''Girl Genius'' was nominated a fourth time in 2014. For the following five years, the award was taken by a different series or work every year, and included both webcomics and installments of published series. The 2017–2019 awards saw the second series to win three times, Marjorie Liu and

Sana Takeda Sana Takeda (born 1977) is a Japanese illustrator and comic book artist known for her work on the Hugo Award winning series '' Monstress''. Takeda was born in Niigata, and now resides in Tokyo, Japan. At age 20 Takeda started working as a 3D C ...

's '' Monstress'', and has been followed since by different works each year. The three Retro Hugos were won by early comic books such as

Bill Finger Milton "Bill" Finger (February 8, 1914 – January 18, 1974) was an American comic strip, comic book, film and television writer who was the co-creator (with Bob Kane) of the DC Comics character Batman. Despite making major (sometimes, signature ...

and

Bob Kane Robert Kane (born Robert Kahn ; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998) was an American comic book writer, animator and artist who co-created Batman (with Bill Finger) and most early related characters for DC comics. He was inducted into the com ...

's '' Batman #1'', William Moulton Marsden and

H. G. Peter Harry George Peter (March 8, 1880 – January 2, 1958) was an American newspaper illustrator and cartoonist known for his work on the ''Wonder Woman'' comic book and for Bud Fisher of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Biography Harry George Peter ...

's '' Wonder Woman'' #5: "Battle for Womanhood", and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's '' Superman'': "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyzptlk". ''Monstress'' and

Brian K. Vaughan Brian K. Vaughan (born July 17, 1976) is an American comic book and television writer, best known for the comic book series '' Y: The Last Man'', '' Ex Machina'', '' Runaways'', ''Pride of Baghdad'', '' Saga'', and '' Paper Girls''. Vaughan was ...

and Fiona Staples's '' Saga'' have the most nominations at six, followed by

Howard Tayler Howard V. Tayler (born February 29, 1968 in Florida) is the creator of the webcomic '' Schlock Mercenary''. He worked as a volunteer missionary for the LDS Church, then graduated from Brigham Young University. Using his degree in music compositi ...

's ''

Schlock Mercenary ''Schlock Mercenary'' is a comedic webcomic written and drawn by Howard Tayler. It follows the tribulations of a star-travelling mercenary company in a satiric, mildly dystopian 31st-century space opera setting. After its debut on June 12, 2000, ...

'' at five, while

Bill Willingham William Willingham (born 1956) is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series '' Elementals'' and ''Fables''. Career William Willingham was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During his father's military career the fam ...

's '' Fables'',

and Cliff Chiang's '' Paper Girls'', and

Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist who was best known for creating the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many ...

's ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'' have been nominated four times. Nine other works have at least two nominations.

Selection

Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual

World Science Fiction Convention Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the U ...

with six nominees, except in the case of a tie as happened in 2009. The graphic stories on the ballot are the six most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of stories that can be nominated. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works; it was changed that year to six, with each initial nominator limited to five nominations. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may be awarded only for years in which a

, or Worldcon, was hosted but no awards were originally given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have been given for graphic stories only for 1941 and 1944.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the story was first published. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominated works. * Winners and joint winners

Retro Hugos

Beginning with the 1996 Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Society created the concept of "Retro Hugos", in which the Hugo award could be retroactively awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may be awarded only for years after 1939 in which no awards were originally given. The only times the Graphic Story category has both existed and received enough nominations to support a Retro Hugo category was in 2016 for 1941, 2019 for 1944, and 2020 for 1945.

References

External links

* {{featured list Comics awards Graphic Story