Congratulations to all the Hugo Award winners for 2010 (just announced at this year’s Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne, Australia).

The complete list of winners is at the Hugo site, but let’s pick and choose and look only at what really matters to us: the comics. That’s right, a couple of winners with comic book connections have walked off with their own statue, named after sci-fi pioneer and legendary cheapskate Hugo Gernsback.

In the category of Best Graphic Story the winner was Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm. It’s written by Kaja and Phil Foglio, illustrated by Phil and published by Airship Entertainment. (Volume 8 won last year which should tell you that if you’re not reading GG, you really should.)

Doctor Who, because all comic book fans love the Doctor, picked up the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for “The Waters of Mars,” written by Russell T. Davies & Phil Ford.

The Hugo for Best Professional Artist went to Shaun Tan (and anyone who’s read his books like The Arrival or Tales From Outer Suburbia knows why).

And the big award, Best Novel, was a tie between The City & The City by China Miéville and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I haven’t read Bacigalupi’s book, but funnybook fans should know Mieville. He’s the author whose upcoming Swamp Thing mini-series got drained following DC’s decision to move the swampy beast out of its Vertigo imprint and back into the DC Universe. I think China will recover from the heartbreak quite nicely.

Congrats to all the winners and for all those to whom “just being nominated” was a thrill.

[Artwork: Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio, © Studio Foglio, LLC]