Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work
Award for non-fictional US comics
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The Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work is an award for "creative achievement" in non-fiction American comic books.
Awarded forBest Reality-Based Work
CountryUnited States
First award2006
Most recent winner (2025)"Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S." by Caitlin Cass
| Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best Reality-Based Work |
| Country | United States |
| First award | 2006 |
| Most recent winner (2025) | "Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S." by Caitlin Cass |
| Website | www |
Winners and nominees
| Year | Title | Authors | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | |||
| 2006 | Nat Turner (Kyle Baker Publishing) | Kyle Baker | [1] |
| Embroideries (Pantheon Books) | Marjane Satrapi | [1] | |
| Epileptic (Pantheon Books) | David B. | ||
| Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (Drawn & Quarterly) | Guy Delisle | ||
| True Story, Swear to God (Clib's Boy Comics) and True Story, Swear to God: This One Goes to Eleven (AiT/Planet Lar) | Tom Beland | ||
| 2007 | Fun Home (Houghton Mifflin) | Alison Bechdel | [2] |
| I Love Led Zeppelin (Fantagraphics) | Ellen Forney | [2] | |
| Mom's Cancer (Abrams Books) | Brian Fies | ||
| Project X: Cup Noodle (Digital Manga, ISBN 9781569709597) | Tadashi Katoh (author) and Akira Imai (artist) | ||
| Stagger Lee (Image Comics) | Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix | ||
| 2008 | Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion Books for Children) | James Sturm and Rich Tommaso | [3] |
| Laika (First Second Books) | Nick Abadzis | ||
| The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group) | Ann Marie Fleming | ||
| Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) | Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly | ||
| White Rapids (Drawn & Quarterly) | Pascal Blanchet | ||
| 2009 | What It Is (Drawn & Quarterly) | Lynda Barry | [4][5] |
| Alan's War (First Second Books) | Emmanuel Guibert | ||
| Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story (Houghton Mifflin) | Frederik Peeters | ||
| Fishtown (IDW Publishing) | Kevin Colden | ||
| A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child (NBM Publishing) | Rick Geary | ||
| 2010s | |||
| 2010 | A Drifting Life (Drawn & Quarterly) | Yoshihiro Tatsumi | [6][7] |
| Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company) | Joe Sacco | ||
| The Impostor's Daughter: A True Memoir (Little, Brown) | Laurie Sandell | ||
| Monsters (Secret Acres) | Ken Dahl | ||
| The Photographer (First Second Books) | Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemercier | ||
| Stitches (W. W. Norton & Company) | David Small | ||
| 2011 | It Was the War of the Trenches (Fantagraphics) | Jacques Tardi | [8][9] |
| Picture This: The Nearsighted Monkey Book (Drawn & Quarterly) | Lynda Barry | ||
| Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir (Fantagraphics) | Joyce Farmer | ||
| Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Terrible Axe Man of New Orleans (NBM Publishing) | Rick Geary | ||
| Two Generals (McClelland & Stewart) | Scott Chantler | ||
| You'll Never Know Book 2: Collateral Damage (Fantagraphics) | Carol Tyler | ||
| 2012 | Green River Killer: A True Detective Story (Dark Horse Comics) | Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case | [10][9] |
| Around the World (Candlewick Press) | Matt Phelan | ||
| Marzi: A Memoir (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) | Marzena Sowa and Sylvain Savoia | ||
| Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (Drawn & Quarterly) | Shigeru Mizuki | ||
| Vietnamerica (Villard) | GB Tran | ||
| 2013 | Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion Books for Children) [note 1] | Joseph Lambert | [11][9] |
| The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song (Abrams ComicArts) [note 1] | Frank M. Young and David Lasky | ||
| A Chinese Life (SelfMadeHero) | Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié, translated by Edward Gauvin | ||
| The Infinite Wait and Other Stories (Koyama Press) | Julia Wertz | ||
| Marbles: Mania Depression Michelangelo & Me (Gotham Books) | Ellen Forney | ||
| You'll Never Know Book 3: A Soldier's Heart (Fantagraphics) | Carol Tyler | ||
| 2014 | The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story (M Press/Dark Horse Comics) | Vivek J. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinson, and Kyle Baker | [12][9] |
| A Bag of Marbles (Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group) | Joseph Joffo, Kris, and Vincent Bailly | ||
| Hip Hop Family Tree, Book 1: 1970s-1981 (Fantagraphics) | Ed Piskor | ||
| March: Book One (Top Shelf Productions) | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | ||
| Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life (Fantagraphics) | Ulli Lust | ||
| Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story[broken anchor] (Drawn & Quarterly) | Peter Bagge | ||
| 2015 | Hip Hop Family Tree, Book 2: 1981-1983 (Fantagraphics) | Ed Piskor | [13][9] |
| Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Bloomsbury Publishing) | Roz Chast | ||
| Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories (2d Cloud/Uncivilized Books) | MariNaomi | ||
| El Deafo (Amulet Books/Abrams Books) | Cece Bell | ||
| Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Treaties Trenches Mud and Blood (Abrams Books) | Nathan Hale | ||
| To End All Wars: The Graphic Anthology of The First World War (Soaring Penguin Press) | edited by Jonathan Clode and John Stuart Clark | ||
| 2016 | March: Book Two (Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing) | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | [14][9] |
| The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East 1978–1984 (Metropolitan Books) | Riad Sattouf | ||
| Displacement: A Travelogue (Fantagraphics) | Lucy Knisley | ||
| Hip Hop Family Tree Book 3: 1983–1984 (Fantagraphics) | Ed Piskor | ||
| Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist (Fantagraphics) | Bill Griffith | ||
| The Story of My Tits (Top Shelf Productions/IDW Publishing) | Jennifer Hayden | ||
| 2017 | March: Book Three (Top Shelf Productions) | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | [15][9] |
| Dark Night: A True Batman Story (Vertigo Comics/DC Comics) | Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso | ||
| Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo (NBM Publishing) | Sandrine Revel | ||
| Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir (St. Martin's Press) | Tom Hart | ||
| Tetris: The Games People Play (First Second Books) | Box Brown | ||
| 2018 | Spinning (First Second Books) | Tillie Walden | [16][9] |
| Audubon: On the Wings of the World (Nobrow Press) | Fabien Grolleau and Jerémie Royer, translated by Etienne Gilfillan | ||
| The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts) | Thi Bui | ||
| Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary 1852–1903 (IDW Publishing) | Christian Perrissin and Matthieu Blanchin, translated by Diana Schutz and Brandon Kander | ||
| Lennon: The New York Years (IDW Publishing) | David Foenkinos, Éric Corbeyran, and Horne Perreard, translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger | ||
| 2019 | Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman (First Second Books) | Box Brown | [17][18] |
| All the Answers: A Graphic Memoir (Gallery 13) | Michael Kupperman | ||
| All the Sad Songs (Retrofit Comics/Big Planet Comics) | Summer Pierre | ||
| Monk! (First Second Books) | Youssef Daoudi | ||
| One Dirty Tree (Uncivilized Books) | Noah Van Sciver | ||
| 2020s | |||
| 2020 | They Called Us Enemy (Top Shelf Productions) | George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker | [19][20] |
| Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations (One World/Random House) | Mira Jacob | ||
| Grass (Drawn & Quarterly) | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong | ||
| Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos (First Second Books/Macmillan) | Lucy Knisley | ||
| Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight (Hill & Wang) | Jonathan Fetter-Vorm | ||
| My Solo Exchange Diary, vol. 2 (Seven Seas Entertainment) | Nagata Kabi, translation Jocelyne Allen | ||
| 2021 | Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio (Abrams Books) | Derf Backderf | [21][22] |
| Big Black: Stand at Attica (Archaia Entertainment/Boom! Studios) | Frank “Big Black” Smith, Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane | ||
| Dragon Hoops (First Second Books/Macmillan Publishers) | Gene Luen Yang | ||
| Invisible Differences: A Story of Asperger’s, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color (Oni Press) | Mademoiselle Caroline and Julie Dachez, translation by Edward Gauvin | ||
| Paying the Land (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company) | Joe Sacco | ||
| Year of the Rabbit (Drawn & Quarterly) | Tian Veasna, translation by Helge Dascher | ||
| 2023 | Flung Out of Space (Abrams ComicArts) | Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer | [23] |
| Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense (HBM) | Noël Simsolo and Dominique Hé, translation by Montana Kane | [23] | |
| Alice Guy: First Lady of Film (Self Made Hero) | José-Louis Bocquet and Catel Muller, translation by Edward Gauvin | ||
| But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust (University of Toronto Press) | edited by Charlotte Schallié | ||
| Invisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism (Fantagraphics) | Jess Ruliffson | ||
| Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball (First Second/Macmillan) | Jon Chad | ||
| 2024 | Three Rocks: The story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy (Abrams ComicArts) | Bill Griffith | [24] |
| Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? (Drawn and Quarterly) | Chris Oliveros | [24] | |
| Last on His Feet: Jack Jackson and the Battle of the Century (Liveright) | Adrian Matejka and Youssef Daoudi | ||
| Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali (First Second/Macmillan) | Marc Bernardin and Ron Salas | ||
| Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood (Island Press) | Samuel Machado and Cynthia Sousa Machado with Steven M. Wise | ||
| 2025 | Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S. (Fantagraphics) | Caitlin Cass | [25] |
| The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War (Gallery 13) | Carl Sciacchitano | [25] | |
| The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien (Abrams Fanfare) | John Hendrix | ||
| Djuna (Street Noise Books) | Jon Macy | ||
| The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History (Union Square) | John Vasquez Mejias | ||
| 2026 | Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance (Pantheon) | Ben Passmore | [26] |
| Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me (Drawn & Quarterly) | Mimi Pond | ||
| Fela: Music is the Weapon (Amistad) | Jibola Fagbamiye, Conor McCreery | ||
| Globetrotters: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s World Tour (Abrams ComicArts) | |||
| Muybridge (Drawn & Quarterly) | Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Daschert, Rob Aspinal | ||
| Surrounded: America's First School for Black Girls, 1832 (Ablaze) | Wilfrid Lupano, Stéphane Fert, translated by Montana Kane | ||
Notes
- There was a tie between Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller and The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song.