posted on by Adriana Hazra
©Akino Kondoh, Seirinkogeisha
The 2026 Ignatz Awards has nominated Akino Kondoh‘s Box Garden Beetle (Hako Niwa Mushi) manga in the “Outstanding Collection” category.
Glacier Bay Books describes its story:
Unfurling fields of morning glories and buttony polka dots. Wormholes of childhood memories and cabinets of magical curiosities. Balletic bands of laughter and creeping stippled shadows.
Seirinkogeisha published the manga short story collection in Japan in 2004.
Glacier Bay Books first announced its release of the manga in May 2025. It launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for it along with several other titles in August 2025. The company announced in April that printing was nearly finished, before publishing the collection in English in May.
Ryan Holmberg translated the collection. Tim Sun did the lettering, and Emuh Ruh and Ryan Holmberg were the editors.
The Ignatz Awards, which are named after the character in George Herriman’s seminal comic Krazy Kat, recognize “outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.” A jury of cartoonists create a ballot every year, and then the attendees of Small Press Expo vote on the nominees.
The 2024 Ignatz Awards nominated Offshore Lightning, a collection of short manga by author Nazuna Saitō, for “Outstanding Collection.”
Glacier Bay Books‘ Glaeolia 2 collection of indie manga won the award for the “Outstanding Anthology” category in the 2021 Ignatz Awards.
Sources: Ignatz Awards’ website, ComicsBeat (Heidi MacDonald)
