Absolute Batman Sweeps Best Series as the 2026 Ringo Awards Hand Out Their Hardware

The comics industry's fan-and-jury hybrid awards show handed out its hardware at Baltimore Comic Con this past weekend, and Absolute Batman walked away with Best Series - another notch for DC's line after its record-breaking Barbara-Gordon-as-Bat issue earlier this month. Deniz Camp took Best Writer, while Javier Rodriguez pulled a rare double, winning both Best Artist and Best Cover Artist. Dark Horse's Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown claimed Best Anthology, and DC's own Nothing Butt Nightwing took Best Humor Webcomic.

The fan-favorite side of the ballot skewed toward the unexpected: Doctor Doom edged out the usual suspects for Favorite Villain, while Batman took Favorite Hero over on the DC side of the ledger. Indie publisher Etan Comics was voted Favorite Publisher, and D4K Studios' Excavator picked up Favorite New Series honors. On the legacy side, the Hero Initiative handed its Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award to Jeffrey Brown and its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jim Lee, and keynote speaker Terry Moore used the stage to look back on 33 years of Strangers in Paradise ahead of a Dark Horse reissue deal launching next month.

It's a broad-strokes snapshot of where the industry's attention is right now - Absolute Universe momentum for DC, indie anthologies getting their due, and a wave of legacy-creator tributes alongside the newer names.

Source: The Beat