The Word Best...

...and the Nebula Award! Yes, We Won!

Something out of a dream happened on Saturday. I won a Nebula Award. My whole team did. I would argue, indie comics did, too.

I’m not really one for the word best when it comes to art or people, not at all. I don’t think there can be a best comic, novel, film, T.V. show, poem, short story, video game, and so on. This last week only affirms that point of view. There are too many amazing and diverse stories in the world for a best, but I am one for recognizing good work.

I am so proud of the work the entire team has done and continues to do on the Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters series. I am stoked that it won the first ever Nebula Award for Comics.

Jessica Maison holding the Nebula Award for Comics

I share this award with Anna Wieszczyk who brought my words to life with her amazing illustrations and visual storytelling talents!

And Matt Krotzer whose lettering and design adds that extra magic to every page.

Plus Mike Judd as editor who keeps me on the right path.

Shout out to our proofreader Katrina Roets and the crew over at MNS including Cristian Docolomansky and Joel Rodriguez. And Blake Morgan who did a ton of behind the scenes work on this book!

The Killing Stone is book two in the series, Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters, where Shel, a supernatural spellcaster inspired by the mother of science fiction, rescues other misunderstood and mistreated monsters. In this volume, Shel and her monster squad team-up with a new student, an onyrō, to confront the infamous nine-tailed fox of Japanese folklore to correct past wrongs and resolve deadly grudges.

We are in good company with the fellow nominees in the comics category - Carmilla: The Eternal, The Flipside, Fishflies, Second Shift, Helen of Wyndhorn, Strange Bedfelllows, and The Stoneshore Register. I read and admire every one of these comics! They are all amazing and need to be experienced.

Do I think Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone is the best comic made in 2025? As I said, I don’t believe in bests. I believe in communities of amazing creative lifting up all kinds of quality comics. I believe there are many titles that deserve this award, definitely all of our fellow Nebula nominees.

I do think The Killing Stone is a pretty darn great graphic novel that should be enjoyed by those who love Mary Shelley, monsters, friendship, and working through anger before it works through you. I am so honored that it was recognized in a room of professional SFF writers. I will cherish the memory of that night always.

I was able to share the night with the absolute legendary writer, N.K. Jemisin, recipient of The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, the talented Toastmaster, Tananarive Due (who won a Bram Stoker Award while doing her Nebula duties), the winner of the first poetry Nebula, Jennifer Hudak, and so many of the other talented Nebula nominees and winners. The room was not only full of thoughtful writers doing provocative work but also exceptional human beings trying to make this world better, encouraging each other to do the same, profoundly displayed by the winner of best novella, Amal El-Mohtar, in her acceptance speech that challenged the room to use their voices to stand up against genocide and war crimes. God, I love SFF!

There will be plenty of people, maybe some of my peers, who will say a different comic creator should have won this Nebula. I know they will say it because I can hear my own internal demon saying it in my head. But who should that creator be? There are at least 20 SFF comics that I adored this year (probably 10 more I haven’t read yet), and I think they are all worthy of all the awards. So, of course, there are many alternate outcomes with a different winner… but we are on this timeline, and on this timeline, Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone has the Nebula. A historic one at that, the first Nebula for Comics.

Our book was definitely the nominee published by the smallest indie press. It was the underdog in this category. The series is completely independent and funded by readers who wanted to see the story brought to life, readers who believed in it when it was only a pitch and a few pages of art. Each page was made with love for SFF, comics, and monsters.

Currently, the team is working on book three, When the Sirens Cry. We are able to do that because our amazing supporters pre-order our books before we’ve finished them because they also believe in our monster school. This Nebula belongs to them, too!

Finally, because I got super overwhelmed and emotional giving my speech, I didn’t get the chance to talk about what is most important to me—how my husband Michael Judd and my daughters, Eva and Iris, are not only my daily inspiration but I could absolutely not write the stories that I write without their constant love and support. I wrote this middle grade series for my daughters. It would not exist without them. They are everything that makes writing joyful for me.

To more joy and comics this year!