Meet six Eisner winners from Oregon — five comic book artists and one comics retailer — who took home awards last Friday evening during a ceremony at San Diego Comic Con.
This year’s group of artists includes industry veterans Scott McCloud, Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Jordie Bellaire and Mike Royer, who has been inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, as well as the bookstore Books With Pictures in Eugene.
Books With Pictures owners Andréa Gilroy and Katie Pryde on stage at the Eisner’s ceremony.
Andréa Gilroy
Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber are the writer-illustrator team behind “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen” (2019-2020), winner of Best Graphic Album-Reprint for its 2025 deluxe edition.
Fraction is a writer of comic books, television and video games who moved to Portland in 2009 with his wife, comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.
“There’s so many great people and stories in this town,” Fraction told OPB, “it’s a great place to love comics.”
He attended last week’s convention with his family, describing Comic Con as “a big, ruckus mardi gras of all things comic books.”
Though he’s known Steve Lieber for years from working in Portland, Fraction first met Lieber at a convention as a fan coming up to Lieber’s booth. “Superman’s Pal” is their second artistic collaboration, a comedic and action-packed adventure featuring jokes inspired by after-school chats with his son.
Steve Lieber came to Portland in 1997 when his wife Sara started a job at the Multnomah County Library. In 2002, he helped to found the collective workspace comics studio Hellioscope, which he still runs while continuing his career as a comic illustrator.
This is his fourth Eisner award across decades of consistent nominations. Lieber describes Portland as “a marvelous community… Every good thing you’ve heard about this place is absolutely true.”
Lieber stands with a 6ft wide reproduction illustration from Superman’s Pal, an homage to a Superman cover from the 1970s.
Steve Lieber
Scott McCloud previously received an Eisner for “Understanding Comics” in 1994 and was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2021.
His latest award is shared with co-author Raina Telgemeier of San Francisco for “The Cartoonists Club”, a book for middle-grade readers which won Best Publication for Kids. Throughout his career, he has attended San Diego Comic Con nearly forty times, where he got to know Telgemeier.
After she suggested the two of them create a book like “Understanding Comics" but for kids, “The Cartoonists Club” was born. McCloud spent much of 2025 on tour with Telgemeier, meeting kids and parents at bookstores across the country, and even stopping at the Library of Congress to share the joy of the book.
McCloud moved to Portland to be closer to his two children after the death of his wife in 2022. Portland was always where he and his wife hoped to end up, McCloud told OPB, “It felt like coming home.”
He lives within walking distance of his children, Books With Pictures Portland, and Helioscope studios: “I’m very lucky to be living in the place I most want to live with the people I most want to live with.”
McCloud (left) and his co-author, Telgemire, holding their awards.
Scott McCloud
Colorist and writer Jordie Bellaire has won the Best Coloring Award five times for work on publications across DC, Marvel, Image, and more, in addition to assorted nominations for comics writing. She lives in Portland with her husband, dogs, and cats.
Mike Royer was born in Lebanon, Oregon, in 1941 and inducted into the Eisners Hall of Fame this year, both for his time as an inker/letterer for comics artist Jack Kirby and other comics credits that include everything from “Tarzan,” “Star Wars,” and “Spider-Man” to “Winnie the Pooh” later while working at Disney.
After a decades-long career in comics, Royer returned to his birth state and retired in Medford, where he lives with his wife Laurie.
Gilroy (right) with Katie Pryde, owner of Books With Pictures Portland.
Andréa Gilroy
Books With Pictures in Eugene took home the Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, following the store’s sister branch in Portland, which won the same award two years ago.
Store owner Andréa Gilroy moved to Oregon for graduate school in 2008 and opened Books With Pictures in 2020 with support from the Portland store and the Eugene community after years of teaching comics studies at the University of Oregon.
“I’ve lived in Oregon longer than I’ve lived anywhere else,” Gilroy told OPB, “this is home.”
There are many “little moments” that remind her of the importance of her work, like every summer during graduation season, when University of Oregon students come to the store in their graduation gowns with their parents to say, “‘This is my comic shop. I wanted to show it to you,’ you know, before they graduate and leave on their next journey.”
The full list of Eisner nominees and winners can be found on the San Diego Comic Con Website.
