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Ursula Vernon's Digger has won Best Graphic Story at the 2012 Hugo Awards, as decided by by members of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention (ChiCon 7). [tip: dronon; nomination story]

The series about a tunnelling wombat received more than twice the first-preference votes (p. 8) of the next-highest nominee, Fables Vol 15: Rose Red, with Locke & Key Volume 4, Keys to the Kingdom, Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication and The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan taking subsequent places.

Digger also won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Outstanding Black and White Art in 2005-6, and Outstanding Anthropomorphic Cartoon in 2006, and has been nominated for several other awards, including the 2005 Ursa Major Award.

The win was a turnaround from the Hugo's nomination phase, which saw Digger in third place with barely half the ballots of Schlock Mercenary.

Victory was elusive once again for eleven-time nominee Taral Wayne, who took sixth place in the tallying for Best Fan Artist. Of this year's 1922 final ballots, 1091 contained a vote for Best Graphic Story (with 344 nominators) and 932 for Best Fan Artist (217 nominators).

The Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953, have been called "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing".