James Kochalka came full circle last weekend at Comic-Con as he accepted the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in Best Publication for Early Readers, honoring his book Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer. Seven years ago, he won the Eisner in the very same category for Dragon Puncher Island, the second volume in his Dragon Puncher series. Now, his long-running Johnny Boo series has earned its own Eisner with its 8th volume, in which Johnny Boo invents a machine that turns anything into ice cream.

"They're like Oscars for comics," Kochalka explained to his hometown paper Seven Days, "but cooler, because it's comics."

Kochalka and Johnny Boo show no sign of slowing down. Following The Ice Cream Computer, Johnny Boo Is King! was released in early 2019, and a 10th volume, Johnny Boo and the Midnight Monsters, will be out by the end of the year.