BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - July 26, 2017 - The 2017  Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards are to be presented on the evening of Saturday, September 23, 2017 as part of the fan- and pro-favorite convention, The Baltimore Comic-Con.  The Ringo Awards has completed the 2017 nomination process, which was inclusive of fans and comic book professionals alike, and both communities showed strong support, both in talking about us on their websites, blogs, and social media feeds, and by submitting their nominations.

With the nomination deadline looming, we continued to see significant volume each day, and determined we needed to extend our original voting deadline to accommodate as many interested participants as we reasonably could without adversely impacting our ability to release and provide sufficient voting time for the final ballot. The augmentation in participation during the nomination extension ended up being significant.

Voting on the 2017 Final Ballot is restricted to comic book industry creative community -- anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally. We now present the inaugural Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards Final Ballot.

* Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)

• Daniel Clowes
• Steve Conley
• Hernandez Brothers
• Aydin Anh Huynh (Snailords)
• Kaitlyn Narvaza (instantmiso)
• Skottie Young

* Best Writer

* Best Artist or Penciller

* Best Inker

* Best Letterer

* Best Colorist

* Best Cover Artist

* Best Series

* Best Single Issue or Story

* Best Original Graphic Novel

* Best Anthology

* Best Humor Comic

* Best Comic Strip or Panel

* Best Webcomic

* Best Non-fiction Comic Work

* Best Presentation in Design

In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiave Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and  The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of September 23, 2017.

Companies, organizations, or individuals interested in sponsorship of the 2017 Ringo Awards may discuss opportunities to do so by emailing us at  [email protected].

"This process has been so gratifying," said Marc Nathan, Baltimore Comic-Con promoter. "We were optimistic that the Ringos would be well-received, because we knew how people felt (and still feel) about Mike, and we thought we did a good job of structuring the awards overall, but it has exceeded our wildest expectations for our first year. We hope every comic book writer and editor and penciller and letterer and plotter and colorist and painter and inker and cartoonist and scripter who has worked in our industry will take a few minutes to cast a ballot. It will be really interesting to see the results come September!"

About Mike Wieringo

Michael Lance "Mike" Wieringo was known to fans and friends as "Ringo", which is how he signed his artwork. His comics artist graced the pages of DC Comics' The Flash, Adventures of Superman, Batman, and  Robin, Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, and  Rogue, and his co-creation Tellos. He passed away on August 12, 2007 at the young age of 44 from an apparent heart attack.

About the Ringo Awards

The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards is an annual celebration of the creativity, skill and fun of comics. The Ringo Awards recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories, and are the only industry awards nominated by fans and pros alike, with final voting by the comic professional community. Launched in 2017, the awards ceremony is held annually at the Baltimore Comic-Con. Further details are available at www.ringoawards.com.

About the Baltimore Comic-Con

The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 18th year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com