[UPDATE] And the Eisner Winner is... Witch Hat Atelier!

Jul 25, 2020
[UPDATE] And the Eisner Winner is... Witch Hat Atelier!
[UPDATE]: After news of the Eisner Award win reached Kamome Shirahama, she drafted a special note she wanted to share with fans and supporters of Witch Hat Atelier:  

"I was surprised to hear the news! It is my great pleasure to receive this honorable award, and I can't express enough gratitude to the readers who always root for my work, and to the many people who support me.

Thanks to all of you, I am able to challenge myself and to express myself in a variety of ways with confidence. I'll continue to keep my original intentions in mind and devote myself to creation. I look forward to bringing more to you, and I hope you enjoy my work." 

Kamome Shirahama - Witch Hat Atelier mangaka.

 

Witch Hat Atelier Wins Prestigious Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards During Comic-Con International 2020

In its first nomination and win, Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama wins the 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia

July 25, 2020 – New York, NY / San Diego, CA – First announced during the online award ceremony for the The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards held Friday, July 24, 2020 during Comic-Con International San Diego, Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, and published by Kodansha USA Publishing, was awarded the 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia category! "Witnessing the spellbinding charm of this manga with universal appeal entrance the world has been enormously gratifying for us at Kodansha USA," said President & CEO Alvin Lu. "This special recognition by the Eisners committee and voters is a great honor. On behalf of the enormously talented Shirahama-sensei, thank you." Often considered by the comics, manga and graphic novel industry as “the Oscars of Comics,” the Eisner Awards are voted on by industry professionals and given out in more than two-dozen categories each year during Comic-Con International San Diego. This year, Witch Hat Atelier won a 2020 Eisner Award, joining other Kodansha USA Publishing titles who have also received this award in the past including, Tokyo Tarareba Girls by Akiko Higashimura in 2019, and AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo in 2018. Witch Hat Atelier is the beautifully illustrated, all-ages, story about a girl who longs for magic in her life and learns that, on the inside, she already is what she wishes she could be. In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem… Witch Hat Atelier has seen over 2.3 million copies published across 18 countries, and is available to English speaking fans digitally via Amazon Kindle, BookWalker, comiXology, Apple Books, Google Play, Rakuten Kobo, Nook, and izneo, and also available in print, distributed by Penguin Random House. For more information on this and other Kodansha USA Publishing series please visit: /.  About Kamome Shirahama: Kamome Shirahama debuted as a manga artist with Eniale & Dewiela. And as an illustrator, worked on covers for various DC Comics and Marvel’s Star Wars comics. In 2016, she began serialization of Witch Hat Atelier in the Monthly Morning Two manga magazine published by Kodansha Ltd. This series has been well received by a worldwide audience and has won a number of international awards such as the Japan Expo Award, in France.