It's award season, and columnist Rob Salkowitz takes a look at the Hugo Awards controversy, along with awards developments at Angouleme, the Oscars, and the Eisners.

A handful of series dominate the December charts with multiple volumes of each.

Abstract: Sales of the Top 20 Superhero titles rose year over year; the top Manga were up in dollars despite unit declines; but top Author titles were down.

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American graphic novels (and manga) around the world.

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics around the world.

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American graphic novels (and manga) around the world.

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American graphic novels (and manga) around the world.

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics around the world.

A wide variety of different types of stories characterized both the Author and Superhero charts, but Manga shoppers stuck with familiar titles.

Sales were down on the Author and Manga charts, but the Superhero category was up.