Image Comics took a number of key awards including “Best Continuing Series” for Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s Southern Bastards (with Aaron also winning the coveted “Best Writer” award), “Best Limited Series for The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and “Best New Series” for Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang. Plus Chiang won “Best Penciler” for Paper Girls, and Dustin Nguyen won “Best Painter” for his Image Comic Descender, while Jordie Bellaire won “Best Coloring”.
The Montreal-based Drawn & Quarterly garnered a number of awards for its publications including “Best Short Story” for Adrian Tomine’s “Killing and Dying,” “Best Publication for Teens 13-17” for Jillian Tamaki’s Supermutant Magic Academy, “Best Humor Publication” for Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant Collection: Step Aside Pops, “Best Anthology,” and “Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia,” for Showa, 1953-1989: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mitsuki.
Some major awards also went to Marvel Comics including “Best Single Issue” for Silver Surfer #11: “Never After” by Dan Slott and Michael Allred, and “Best Cover Artist,” which went to David Aja for his work on Hawkeye, Karnak, and Scarlet Witch.
Other key award winners include Over the Garden Wall (Boom), which won “Best Publication for Kids 9-12,” March: Book Two (Top Shelf/IDW), which earned “Best Reality-Based Work,” and Bill Griffith, who won “Best Writer/Artist” for My Mother’s Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist (Fantagraphics).
For a complete list of all the excellent work that was nominated for the 2016 Eisner Awards, see "The 2016 Eisner Award Nominees," Here is the complete list of the winners of the 2016 Eisners:
Best Short Story: “Killing and Dying,” by Adrian Tomine, in Optic Nerve #14 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Single Issue/One-Shot: Silver Surfer #11: “Never After,” by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (Marvel)
Best Continuing Series: Southern Bastards, by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour (Image)
Best Limited Series: The Fade Out, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
Best New Series: Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)
Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8): Little Robot, by Ben Hatke (First Second)
Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12): Over the Garden Wall, by Pat McHale, Amalia Levari, and Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios/KaBOOM!)
Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17): SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Humor Publication: Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection, by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Digital/Webcomic: Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain/comiXology)
Best Anthology:Drawn & Quarterly, Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary, Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels,edited by Tom Devlin (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Reality-Based Work: March: Book Two, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf/IDW)
Best Graphic Album—New: Ruins, by Peter Kuper (SelfMadeHero)
Best Graphic Album—Reprint: Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson (Harper Teen)
Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Two Brothers, by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material: The Realist, by Asaf Hanuka (BOOM! Studios/Archaia)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia: Showa, 1953–1989: A History of Japan, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips: The Eternaut, by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano Lòpez, edited by Gary Groth and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales, edited by Craig Yoe (IDW)
Best Writer: Jason Aaron, Southern Bastards (Image), Men of Wrath (Marvel Icon), Doctor Strange, Star Wars, Thor (Marvel)
Best Writer/Artist: Bill Griffith, Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist (Fantagraphics)
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Cliff Chiang, Paper Girls (Image)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist: Dustin Nguyen, Descender (Image)
Best Cover Artist: David Aja, Hawkeye, Karnak, Scarlet Witch (Marvel)
Best Coloring: Jordie Bellaire, The Autumnlands, Injection, Plutona, Pretty Deadly, The Surface, They’re Not Like Us, Zero (Image); The X-Files (IDW); The Massive (Dark Horse); Magneto, Vision (Marvel)
Best Lettering: Derf Backderf, Trashed (Abrams)
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: Hogan’s Alley, edited by Tom Heintjes (Hogan’s Alley)
Best Comics-Related Book: Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America, by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics)
Best Academic/Scholarly Work: The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, edited by Frances Gateward and John Jennings (Rutgers)
Best Publication Design: The Sandman Gallery Edition, designed by Josh Beatman/Brainchild Studios (Graphitti Designs/DC)
Hall of Fame: Judges’ Choices: Carl Burgos, Tove Jansson • Voters’ Choices: Lynda Barry, Rube Goldberg, Matt Groening, Jacques Tardi
Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award: Dan Mora
Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Matthew Inman
Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing: Richard E. Hughes, Elliot S! Maggin
Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award: Orbital Comics and Games, London, UK