The Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing is an American award for excellence in

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

writing. The awards committee, chaired by

Mark Evanier Mark Stephen Evanier (; born March 2, 1952) is an American comic book and television writer, known for his work on the animated TV series ''Garfield and Friends'' and on the comic book ''Groo the Wanderer''. He is also known for his columns and bl ...

, is charged each year with selecting two recipients, one living and one deceased. In 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

there were six deceased honorees and no living ones (and makeup plans for two living recipients in 2021)."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," hairman MarkEvanier 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
/ref> 2021 saw the same formula as the previous year, with six deceased recipients."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," hairman MarkEvanier 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
/ref> The award, along with the

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

s, is presented in July of each year at the annual

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

. It was established by

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, signatu ...

's colleague and fellow writer

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011), known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and ...

. 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

*2005 –

Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...

(deceased),

Arnold Drake Arnold Drake (March 1, 1924 – March 12, 2007) was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, amo ...

*2006 –

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...

(deceased), Alvin Schwartz *2007 –

Gardner Fox Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20, 1911 – December 24, 1986) was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC ...

(deceased),

George Gladir George Gladir (September 27, 1925 – April 3, 2013) was an American writer for comic books. Primarily known as a scripter for Archie Comics, he co-created that publisher's character Sabrina Spellman, with artist Dan DeCarlo. Biography George G ...

*2008 – Archie Goodwin (deceased),

Larry Lieber Lawrence D. Lieber (; born October 26, 1931) (Scroll down) is an American comic book artist and writer best known as co-creator of the Marvel Comics superheroes Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man; for his long stint both writing and drawing the Marvel ...

*2009 – John Broome (deceased),

Frank Jacobs Franklin Jacobs (May 30, 1929 – April 5, 2021) was an American author of satires, known primarily for his work in '' Mad'', to which he contributed from 1957 to 2014. Jacobs wrote a wide variety of lampoons and spoof, but was best known as a ve ...

*2010 –

Otto Binder Otto Oscar Binder (; August 26, 1911 – October 13, 1974) was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books. He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for '' Captain Ma ...

(deceased),

Gary Friedrich Gary Friedrich (; August 21, 1943 – August 29, 2018) was an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' ''Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos'', and, in the following era, for the series '' The Monster of ...

*2011 –

Bob Haney Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. (March 15, 1926 – November 25, 2004) was an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons ...

(deceased), *2012 – Frank Doyle (deceased),

Steve Skeates Steve Skeates (; born 1943) is an American comic book creator known for his work on such titles as ''Aquaman'', ''Hawk and Dove'', ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', and ''Plop!'' He has also written under the pseudonyms Chester P. Hazel and Warren Savin. ...

*2013 –

Steve Gerber Stephen Ross Gerber (; September 20, 1947 – February 10, 2008) was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include ''Man-Thing'', ''Omega the Unknown,'' ''Marvel Spotlight:' ...

(deceased),

Don Rosa Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created fo ...

*2014 –

Robert Kanigher Robert "Bob" Kanigher (; June 18, 1915 – May 7, 2002)Social Security Death Index, social security #116-07-5117. was an American comic book writer and editor whose career spanned five decades. He was involved with the Wonder Woman franchise for ...

(deceased),

Bill Mantlo William Timothy Mantlo (born November 9, 1951) is an American comic book writer, primarily at Marvel Comics. He is best known for his work on two licensed toy properties whose adventures occurred in the Marvel Universe: ''Micronauts'' and ''Ro ...

Jack Mendelsohn Jack Mendelsohn (November 8, 1926 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer-artist who worked in animation, comic strips and comic books. An Emmy-nominated television comedy writer and story editor, he had numerous credits as a TV scripter, ...

*2015 –

Don McGregor Donald Francis McGregor (born June 15, 1945) is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics; he is the author of one of the first graphic novels. Early life Don McGregor was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he w ...

, John Stanley (deceased) *2016 –

Elliot S! Maggin Elliot S. Maggin, also spelled Elliot S! Maggin (born 1950), is an American writer of comic books, film, television, and novels. He was a main writer for DC Comics during the Bronze and early Modern ages of comics in the 1970s and 1980s. He is ...

, Richard E. Hughes (deceased) *2017 –

William Messner-Loebs William Francis Messner-Loebs (; born William Francis Loebs, Jr., February 19, 1949) is an American comics artist and writer from Michigan, also known as Bill Loebs and Bill Messner-Loebs. His hyphenated surname is a combination of his and his wif ...

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...

(deceased) *2018 – Joye Hummel Murchison Kelly, Dorothy Roubicek Woolfolk (deceased) *2019 –

Mike Friedrich Mike Friedrich (; born March 27, 1949) is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series '' Star*Reach'', one of the first independent comics. He is also an a ...

, E. Nelson Bridwell (deceased) *2020 – Virginia Hubbell (deceased),

Nicola Cuti Nicola Cuti (October 29, 1944 – February 21, 2020), known as Nick Cuti, was an American artist and comic book writer-editor, science-fiction novelist; he was the co-creator of ''E-Man'' (with artist Joe Staton) and Moonchild, Captain Cosmos, a ...

(deceased),

Leo Dorfman Leo Dorfman (February 17, 1914 – July 9, 1974) (also credited as Geoff Brown and David George) was an American writer of comic books throughout the Silver Age. Although the majority of his work was for DC Comics, he also wrote for Dell Comics a ...

(deceased),

Gaylord DuBois Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (sometimes written DuBois) (August 24, 1899 – October 20, 1993) was an American writer of comic book stories and comic strips, as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels. Du Bois wrote ''Tarzan'' for De ...

(deceased),

Joe Gill Joseph P. Gill (July 13, 1919 – December 17, 2006)Social Security Death Inde ...

(deceased),

France Herron Francis Edward Herron (July 23, 1917 – September 2, 1966) was an Americans, American comic book writer and editor active in the 1940s–1960s, mainly for DC Comics. He is credited with co-creating Captain Marvel Jr. and the Red Skull, as well a ...

(deceased) *2021 - Robert Bernstein (deceased), Audrey "Toni" Blum (deceased),

Vic Lockman Vic Lockman ( October 19, 1927 – June 1, 2017) was an American Christian cartoonist and comic strip writer. He started cartooning from a young age, taught by his father. He was once head of the art department for the School of Aviation Medic ...

(deceased),

Robert Morales Robert Morales (1958 - 2013) was an American comic book writer, editor, and journalist known for creating '' Truth: Red, White & Black'', which featured his original character Isaiah Bradley. In addition to creating comics for Marvel Comics, Mora ...

(deceased),

Paul S. Newman Paul S. Newman (April 29, 1924 – May 30, 1999) was an American writer of comic books, comic strips, and books, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s. Credited in the '' Guinness Book of World Records'' as the most prolific comic-book wr ...

(deceased), Robert "Bob" White (deceased) *2022 – Bob Bolling,

Don Rico Donato Francisco Rico II (September 26, 1912 – March 27, 1985) was an American paperback novelist, screenwriter, wood engraver and comic book writer-artist, who co-created the Marvel Comics characters the Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) with plot ...

(deceased)

References

Comics awards * Awards established in 2005 {{comics-stub