The nominations are in, and the judges have spoken! The 2015 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are now in the hands of professionals, who vote until June 1 (click here to see if you’re eligible(link is external)) to decide the winners. The judges met in San Diego in early April for a long weekend of reading, genteel arguing, minor cajoling, and finally deciding this year’s nominees. Here are their comments about their individual experiences as Eisner Award judges. Click here for a complete list of the 2015 nominations.

Carr D’Angelo

Comics Retailer (Earth-2 Comics, Los Angeles, CA)

Being on the judging committee for the Eisners this year was an incredible experience. As a retailer, I was superficially familiar with a lot of the material, as I have unpacked it from boxes and and stocked it on my shelves. The judging, however, gave me the opportunity to look at a lot of the current comics and graphic novels, and books about comics in a whole new light. It was great to read so many stories with so many different points of view and to be able to just really enjoy the art and design of the various submissions. It seems every year somebody runs a “death of the comics industry” piece, but when you really take the time to look at all the material being published and see it is of such wide variety and high quality, it’s pretty clear that comics have matured as a true artform and are getting better every year.