Yes! The Beat (also known as Comics Beat) won the Eisner award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism for 2025!

Here’s some pictures from the award ceremony and Heidi MacDonald’s speech. MacDonald is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Beat. For some reason it’s not allowing me to embed it on my website, so check it out on BlueSky here. And here‘s a great quote from MacDonald.

Anyway, this is a huge deal. I can’t believe I write for such an award-winning, prestigious publication. I shared my story about how I came to write for The Beat here. But to briefly summarize, I got the job by answering a Twitter/X call for writers from Deb Aoki asking for people to write about manga and anime for the site.

That’s what I call magic. I’ve never had anything fall into place like that before. It’s been since October 2023 since I joined as a writer, and while I had a lengthy break for my first year there, I’ve come back stronger and am head of the TOKYOPOP Beat now.

I don’t know if I can call myself an Eisner-winning writer because of this award–I think it’s supposed to be for the editors–but as a member of the staff I want to thank Heidi MacDonald and Deb Aoki for giving me a chance, to Masha Zhdanova who serves as the editor for all of my manga and anime reviews I type up, and Hayame (Beth) Kawachi who edits my PR and news announcements. I’ve worked with other members of The Beat, too, but those are the primary people I report to, and they’ve all helped me tremendously in one way or the other. Writing reviews of manga has not been easy for me–I tend to focus more on the plot instead of how the art works in service to it, plus characterization and craft choices–but with the feedback I get with every submission, I know I’m learning and improving.

This is just such a cool thing to be a part of. I’m so proud of The Beat!

If you want to see my articles for The Beat, click here.