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Earlier today the five nominees for the first ever Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity were announced, and they come from both independent and mainstream comics. The nominees are:

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• “Hex11” by Lisa K. Weber and Kelly Sue Milano (HexComics)

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• “M.F.K.” by Nilah Magruder (http://www.mfkcomic.com/)

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• “Ms. Marvel” by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona (Marvel Comics)

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• “The Shadow Hero” by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew (First Second Books)

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• “Shaft” by writer David F. Walker and artist Bilquis Evely (Dynamite)

The award is named after Dwayne McDuffie, a comic and television writer who co-founded Milestone Media with Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle. These men felt that minorities were extremely unrepresented in comics at the time, and they set out to change that .McDuffie is possibly most famously known for creating the African American super-hero Static Shock.

McDuffie McDuffie died in 2011 due to complications from heart surgery.

“Who gets to be the hero, and how readers get to see themselves reflected in the hero are complex matters that Dwayne thought about often. As editor in chief of Milestone Media’s original run of comics, he used terms like ‘multi-experiential’ to describe what we were doing,” said Matt Wayne, the director of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity.

Writer/producer Reginald Hudlin (Black Panther, House Party) has been announced as the keynote speaker for the ceremony, which will take place at the Long Beach Comic Expo Saturday February 28th at 2pm.

An award of this type could very easily seen its debut at larger events like San Diego Comic Con or New York Comic Con but Long Beach Comic Expo was exactly where the organization wanted this to begin.

“The Long Beach Comics Expo was our first choice for a venue. It’s a great show for fans, attracting lots of creators and celebrities, without the miasma of crowds and hype that some larger cons wallow in,” Matt Wayne said.

While it is great that there are awards like this to celebrate diversity in comics, it still shows how far we have to go in this industry, that we need to HAVE an award like this so that diversity even gets celebrated.