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ComicsPRO Industry Awards Announce Nominees, and Honour Dave Hawksworth

ComicsPRO, the trade association for comics speciality retailers, proudly announces the nominees for its annual Comic Industry Awards. The awards honour those people who are or have been the best at what they do, making a significant difference in the business of the comic-book speciality market.

There are two categories for the ComicsPRO Awards, the Industry Appreciation Award for active professionals in the industry and the Memorial Award to recognize giants of the comics business who are no longer with us. The 2018 ComicsPRO Industry Award nominees are:

Industry Appreciation Award

• Raina Telgemeier. Her blockbuster best-selling graphic novels, including Smile, Sisters, Drama and Ghosts are leading the way in exciting and igniting new and younger comics readers.
• Gene Luen Yang. The first graphic novelist to be named The Library of Congress' Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Gene is also a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant and is the creative force of many graphic novels including American Born Chinese and the Secret Coders series, as well as the co-creator of DC Comics' New Super-Man.
• DC Comics Retail Support Team. The DC Comics Retail Support Team work tirelessly to give comics retailers the information and tools to build their DC business.
• Adam Freeman. As Director of Sales at Valiant Entertainment, Adam has been instrumental in helping spread the word to retailers and the public about the Valiant Universe.   Freeman is a former retailer and has worked for various other publishers in his career

Memorial Award

• Steve Dillon (Deadline, Preacher, Punisher)
• Len Wein (Writer/editor, co-creator Wolverine, Swamp Thing)
• Carl Barks (Scrooge McDuck creator, the "Good Duck Artist"
• Bernie Wrightson (Frankenstein, co-creator Swamp Thing, seminal horror artist)

"The ComicsPRO Industry Awards are packed with nominees who have done so much for comics and for comics retailers," said Peter Dolan, ComicsPRO's President. "ComicsPRO and its member retailers are all filled with gratitude for the important work of these creatives and business professionals."

ComicsPRO members will vote on the nominees with the results announced at the 2018 ComicsPRO Comic Industry Conference in Portland OR February 22-24.

At the annual meeting, the ComicsPRO Board Of Directors will also posthumously present the first ever ComicsPRO Unsung Hero Award to Diamond's Outside Sales Manager Dave Hawskworth.  Hawksworth's career spanned 30 years, initially working at Capital City Distribution's Columbus OH warehouse, before moving to Diamond Comic Distributors' outside sales manager position when Diamond bought Capital City in 1996. Dave passed away unexpectedly on January 9, 2018. ComicsPRO is honored to have Dave's wife Patti attend the Portland event to accept the award.

The ComicsPRO Unsung Hero Award is given at the discretion of the ComicsPRO Board of Directors to those in the comics industry the Board deems worthy of special recognition beyond mere praise as a result of their tireless efforts to improve the comics industry.

ComicsPRO's Industry Awards were instituted in 2010. Previous recipients and nominees can be seen here. 

The ComicsPRO Annual Comic Industry Conference, the industry's only retailer directed trade event, is recognized as one of the most important annual comics' business gathering in the industry. Retailers, publishers, distributors and vendors gather to discuss major industry issues and to chart a course for improving the comic book specialty market. All retailers and vendors are invited.

Retailers who wish to register can do so at ComicsPRO.org.

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