Popverse's coverage of Comic-Con International: San Diego 2026 is brought to you by Dark Horse Comics.

On Friday, July 24, in a bespoke ceremony that was for several hours the centerpiece of this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest gathering of comic creators and professionals in one room took place for a ceremony to honor the best comics in the world and find out who won the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards.

Spoilers, but the list of winners made its way online nearly two days before that.

According to a Reddit user under the name 'beginendbegin,' the 2026 Eisner Awards winners were posted prematurely and temporarily on the Comic-Con International: San Diego website sometime in the days of July 22 and July 23. The user then posted a list of what they say are the winners. While the list was later confirmed to be correct, Popverse has been unable to verify how the user came to have the list. The user has not responded to comments, but has been active on Reddit in making their profile more private.

On Thursday afternoon, I spoke with several individuals involved with the Eisner Awards, which is organized by San Diego Comic-Con itself. Longtime SDCC chief communication and strategy officer David Glanzer told me privately, and then again publicly, that while he wouldn't verify the list's accuracy, he said an investigation was underway and that he was worried such a leak could in some ways overshadow the winners themselves.

"Whether or not this is true, we will obviously investigate what happened, but more importantly, I would hope that no one would mar the spotlight for those deserving nominees and recipients," said Glanzer on Thursday evening. "Tomorrow evening is for them, and it would be awful if this took away from the meaningful and celebratory experience they richly deserve."

In the interim, the apparent Eisner Awards leak became the talk of the convention for fans, for creators, for SDCC staff, and even of the judges of this year's Eisner Awards themselves. As a former Eisner judge myself, I can say that the list of Eisner Award winners is usually kept a closely guarded secret, with not even the judges themselves knowing the complete list of winners until the awards ceremony itself. At the same time, the organizers of the SDCC website (overseen by longtime CTO Mark Yturralde) have been one of the few to have that list early so that they may publish it at the appropriate time.

As of Sunday, SDCC's investigation into the Eisner Awards leak remains underway.

For an institution the size of the Eisner Awards, it's had its fair share of controversy. In 1990, a widespread ballot mix-up led to then-Eisner Awards boss Dave Olbrich stepping down and the awards themselves being canceled for that year. In 2017, the DC Comics anthology Love is Love was falsely ruled eligible for an awards nomination, and was only added back in after public outcry - and then won its category. In 2020, some of those casting online votes were accidentally able to see others' ballots (and even change them). In 2023, the Eisner Awards were called out for nominating work by a creator who was found out to be accused of several emotional and workplace abuse accusations in his time as a comics art professor, with the creator (not the Eisners) ultimately deciding to remove himself from consideration. Earlier this year, Eisner judges were surprised to learn they nominated a comic containing AI-generated art, and struck the nomination after public outcry.

Speaking as a longtime website manager, there have been instances where websites have accidentally published major news prematurely before, including over at Marvel.com, IGN.com, and others... even here at ThePopverse.com once in a while (Hey, we're not perfect). But in all those cases, measures were taken to stymie the possibility of that happening again. Will it here? Will we ever know?

Popverse is asking.

Interested? Here's where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here's a guide to how (and where) to read comics online.