Ever since I began reading comics again my sophomore year of college, I've limited myself exclusively to trade paperbacks, mostly because I like to read a complete story, but also because my town has no comic book store. As a result, I always feel far behind the comics scene. Even if I order a book as soon as it's released, I'm reading a story everyone else read 3-12 months before me. So it's a little hard for me to really say with any certainty what comics deserve to win Eisner awards (it's like the Oscars of comic books for all you non-geeks). Still, there are a few of the nominees I do hope will win.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Promethea #32: "Wrap Party" by Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III (ABC)
Yes, I'm biased as a huge fan of Alan Moore. Yes, this is the only one of the nominated stories I've ever read. Still, I think I can say with great confidence that this is one of the most ambitious single issues ever written, much less in the past year. Promethea #32 is the finale of Moore's amazing series, and while it isn't actually a part of the overall storyline, it's an astonishing exercise in format, design, and storytelling structure. Each page is a full-page spread of Moore (through Promethea) expounding on the link between language, magic, myth, history, art, literature, and pretty much everything else in existence. It can be read one page after another in the comic book form, or the individual pages can be disassembled and rearranged on your floor to create two giant posters (front and back). Because of the way comics are printed, the pages end up in a different order if you do this. Somehow, Moore managed to write the comic in such a way that it makes sense in whichever order you choose to read it in. The result is a transcendent maze of an essay that's downright (dare I say it?) Joycean*.

Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Strips
The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
This is a tough choice. There seems to be a great fascination with older comic strips now, and some beautiful books have been published as a result. Krazy Kat, Peanuts, and Little Nemo in Slumberland, three of the most important comics works of the 20th century, have all been given nice treatment in archival form. For completeness' sake, though, I have to say Calvin & Hobbes is the most deserving of an award. Every single installment of that strip is worth owning, and it's wonderful that Andrews and McMeel have made them all available in one package.

Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books
The Contract with God Trilogy, by Will Eisner (Norton)
This is another very difficult decision. I haven't yet had the chance to read Osamu Tezuka's epic Buddha series, but I hear it's fantastic. Then we have Absolute Watchmen, one of my personal favorite purchases of the year. However, most of the material in that book was previously available in a hardcover collection that's merely been out of print for the last 20 years. Instead, I choose Eisner's Contract with God Trilogy. The collection features his three original graphic novels (starting with the one for which Eisner invented the term "graphic novel"), plus additional new illustrations. These illustrations just happen to be the last ones Will Eisner created for publication before passing away last year. The collection is a nice farewell to the man who redefined comics.

Best Writer
Alan Moore, Promethea, Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (ABC)
Not much to say here. I know he wins this about every other year, but Promethea is one of Moore's crowning achievements, and from what I've heard, The Forty-Niners ain't half bad either.

Best Publication Design
Acme Novelty Library Annual Report to Shareholders, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
I know I raved about what a feat of design Promethea #32 is, but I really think Chris Ware deserves this award. His books are art objects in themselves, packed with little self-deprecating jokes and surprises for the reader. It's even fun to read the publication information, when you eventually find it (Jimmy Corrigan's copyright information is on page 14, and reads: "The majority of this enterprise was aboriginally permitted to soil the pages of Chicago's 'NewCity' and 'The ACME Novelty Library,' a trade newsletter, amongst various other prurient periodicals. Impossible as it may seem, this is, unbelievably, the fifth printing. Doesn't everybody already have a copy? Please recycle in appropriate container"). Last year's ACME Novelty Library Collection does even more than his past books. Every inch of it is designed with meticulous detail. Even the edge of the cover (the part that faces the rear of the bookshelf) contains "The World's Smallest Comic Strip," a tiny series of drawing that manages to capture the essence of the human drama. There are also all of the fake advertisements and paper cut-outs Ware has been doing all along. And then there's the book's oversized cover, a gorgeous antique-looking gold-embossed design on red and black, with a wraparound paper strip for the title (which naturally has a comic strip on the back). Of course, this is all in addition to the actual content of the book. The extra work Chris Ware puts into the look of his books really adds to their charm, which is particularly true of this volume.

*I laughed out loud when I saw that Wikipedia's definition of Joycean reads: "...and whatever portion of Finnegans Wake the person using the word has actually read." Just last week I read the first fifty pages before quitting.