Today the comic industry's hotly-anticipated Eisner Award candidates were announced, with Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants, Jeff Lemire's Essex County, and Kevin Cannon's Far Arden receiving the honor of a nomination.

In his acclaimed career, Eddie Campbell has won multiple Eisners for the monumental From Hell (with Alan Moore) in addition to countless nominations for his solo work on the Alec and Bacchus stories. This year sees him nominated for Alec: The Years Have Pants, a "Life-Sized Omnibus" collection of his groundbreaking autobiographical comics, in the category of Best Reprint Graphic Album.

Jeff Lemire is nominated this year for The Complete Essex County, his sweeping portrait of the power of family in small-town Ontario, as Best Reprint Graphic Album. In previous years, the individual Essex County volumes earned nominations in the Best Writer/Artist and Best New Graphic Album categories. Jeff is also up this year for his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, which is nominated as Best New Series!

Kevin Cannon has got to be pleased to receive an Eisner nomination for his debut graphic novel Far Arden, a rip-roaring adventure on the Arctic high seas. He broke onto the scene drawing science-based nonfiction comics with studio mate Zander Cannon, but Far Arden, his first full-length solo graphic novel, has established him as a master storyteller and is now up for an Eisner in the category Best Publication for Teens.

Our proudest congratulations to Eddie, Jeff, and Kevin, as well as all the other fine nominees!