Category: Awards

Azim + Del Col + Adams + Hickey win the Pulitzer for ‘Illustrated Reporting and Commentary’

The winning comic details an Uyghur woman’s escape from a Chinese internment camp.

Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, Josh Adams and Walt Hickey of Insider have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Illustrated Reporting and Commentary,” for their comic “How I escaped a Chinese internment camp.”

The write-up by the Pulitzer committee says the creators received the award for “using the comics medium to tell a powerful yet intimate story of the Chinese oppression of the Uyghurs, making the issue accessible to a wider public.” The prestigious award comes with a $15,000 prize.

Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post and Zoe Si, a contributor to The New Yorker, were both finalists in the category.

This is a more expansive category for the Pulitzer, which previously recognized editorial cartoons for about 100 years — but not last year — and the new category widens the net to include the growing field of comics journalism.

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R. Kikuo Johnson’s ‘No One Else’ wins the 2022 L.A Times Book Prize

The graphic novel about a family on Maui dealing with grief was published by Fantagraphics last fall.

The Los Angeles Times has awarded R. Kikuo Johnson’s No One Else its annual Book Prize for 2022 in the Graphic Novel/Comics category.

“I once believed that awards were given mostly on merit, but obviously luck and other factors have just as much to do with it, and that makes me even more grateful that the dice rolled my way this time,” Johnson said on Instagram. “The five other finalists made beautiful books that make me proud to be a cartoonist and so thankful to the generation of artists before us who built the doorways that we get to walk through.”

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Mark Gruenwald, P. Craig Russell + four more inducted into Eisner Hall of Fame

Judges chose six individuals for automatic induction and 17 for voters to choose from.

Six individuals will automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame this summer, with four more to be chosen by voters before the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Those four will be chosen from a field of 17, which include many names that make you stop and think, “Wait, they’re not in the Hall of Fame yet?” It’s a loaded field, leading to some hard choices for voters: Howard Chaykin, Gerry Conway, Kevin Eastman, Steve Englehart, Moto Hagio, Larry Hama, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, David Mazzucchelli, Jean-Claude Mézières, Grant Morrison, Gaspar Saladino, Jim Shooter, Garry Trudeau, Ron Turner, George Tuska, Mark Waid and Cat Yronwode.

The judges chose the following six people for automatic induction into the HoF:

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Nominees announced for the 2022 Ignyte Awards

‘Count,’ ‘Abbott: 1973’ and more were nominated in the comics category this year.

The nominees have been announced for the third annual Ignyte Awards, which “celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.”

The awards are given out in conjunction with FIYAHCON, a virtual convention centering the perspectives and celebrating the contributions of BIPOC in speculative fiction.

The awards include a comics category. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which was adapted into a graphic novel by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, won the award last year.

The nominees for the comics category this year include:

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Nominees announced for the 2022 Hugo Awards

The winners will be announced in September.

The nominees have been announced for the 2022 Hugo Awards, which includes a “Best Graphic Story or Comic” category.

Image Comics and DC Comics each received two nominations, while BOOM! Studios and Del Ray each received one. Notably, the Del Ray nomination is for Lore Olympus, the popular Webtoon comic. True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman received a nomination in the “Best Related Work” category.

Presented annually since 1955, the Hugo Awards recognize the best science fiction in books, comics, movies, TV and more. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded since 2009, with previous winners including volumes of Saga, Ms. Marvel, Girl Genius, Sandman: Overture, LaGuardia and Monstress, which is up for the award again this year.

Here are the nominees for the “Best Graphic Story or Comic” category:

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2021 Joe Shuster Award winners announced

Jason Fabok, Kimiko Tobumatsu, Gillian Goerz and more received awards for their work from 2020.

The Joe Shuster Awards have announced the winners of their annual awards for 2021, which covers material released back in 2020. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics by Canadian creators.

In the post, they admit that “it took a lot longer than we would have liked” to put together the list of nominees and choose winners. Given everything that’s happened over the last couple years, I can’t find fault with anyone who has suffered delays like this. And it’s never too late to recognize good work.

The nominees and winners are:

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‘Crush & Lobo,’ ‘Cheer Up!’ win at the 2022 GLAAD Media Awards

GLAAD expands to two comics-related categories this year — comics and graphic novels — recognizing titles from DC Comics and Oni Press.

Crush & Lobo from DC Comics and Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms from Oni Press both took home awards in the 33rd annual GLAAD Media Awards, which recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ+ community and the issues that affect their lives.

This year GLAAD doubled their recognition of the comic industry by expanding to two categories — one for comics books and one for graphic novels.

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‘Stone Fruit,’ ‘Thirsty Mermaids’ among the nominees for the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards

The annual awards recognize LGBTQ books, poetry, comics and more.

The nominees for the 34th annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced, celebrating “the very best in LGBTQ literature.” The awards include an “LGBTQ Comics” category.

According to the press release, this year was the “most competitive yet,” with the highest ever submission volume in Lammy Award history. “We are particularly inspired by such amazing numbers in the LGBTQ Young Adult and Children’s/Middle Grade categories,” the unnamed awards manager said. “The modern movement to ban access to LGBTQ books for young people is horrendous, but we hope the publishing industry continues backing these remarkable works in volume to meet that resistance.”

The nominees in the “LGBTQ Comics” category include:

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Nominees announced for the Bram Stoker Awards

Comics by Grant Morrison, Dan Panosian, Marianna Ignazzi, Mico Suayan, Kami Garcia and more have been nominated for the annual awards for horror fiction.

Following the reveal of the preliminary ballot earlier this year, the Horror Writers Association has announced the final nominees for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards.

The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror/dark fiction. This year BOOM! Studios dominates the list with three nominees, while DC and Independent Legion Publishing each garnered one nomination.

Winners will be announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon 2022 in Denver. Here are the nominees in the graphic novel category: 

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Three women nominated for Grand Prix d’Angouleme

Penelope Bagieu, Julie Doucet, and Catherine Meurisse are on the shortlist for the prestigious lifetime award.

For the first time ever, the final nominees for the Grand Prix d’Angouleme are all women. Pénélope Bagieu, Julie Doucet, and Catherine Meurisse were chosen by a jury of their peers—literally: All comics creators whose work is published in France are eligible to vote for the nominees.

The winner will be announced on March 16.

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LA Times Graphic Novel Shortlist

Works by Michael DeForge, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu, R. Kikuo Johnson, and Lee Lai made the shortlist.

The Los Angeles Times has announced the shortlists for its annual book prizes, and the finalists in the Graphic Novel category are

  • Heaven No Hell, by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • The Waiting, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)
  • Shadow Life, by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu (First Second)
  • No One Else, by R. Kikuo Johnson (Fantagraphics)
  • Stone Fruit, by Lee Lai (Fantagraphics)

All these titles will likely be familiar to Smash Pages readers. Stone Fruit won two Ignatz Awards last year, as did DeForge’s Birds of Maine, and Gendry-Kim’s earlier graphic novel, Grass, made the 2020 LA Times shortlist, as did DeForge’s Leaving Richard’s Valley.

The judges for the Graphic Novel section were Sloane Leong, Joel Christian Gill, and Cathy G. Johnson.

ALA reveals the lists of best graphic novels for kids + adults

The American Library Association reveals their second annual list aimed at adults, and their first-ever list aimed at kids 5-12.

The Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table, a subcommittee of the American Library Association, announced earlier this week their annual “Best Graphic Novels” lists — one aimed at children aged 5-12, and the other aimed at adults.

The ALA has released a list aimed at teens for years, and last year they added one for adults. This is the first year they’ve created a list aimed specifically at kids under 12. Both lists aim “to increase awareness of the graphic novel medium, raise voices of diverse comics creators and aid library staff in the development of graphic novel collections.”

“Launching a new, carefully curated list of the best comics for children would have been a daunting task even during the best of times – and we have certainly not been in those over the last two years,” said Matthew Noe, president of The Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table. “But thanks to the expertise, attention and passion of this year’s committee, we can now present to you GNCRT’s addition to the recognition of children’s comics: our inaugural Best Graphic Novels for Children Reading List! There’s a comic here for every reader, from PreK to Grade 6, and in the Top 10 alone we’ve got witchcraft, friendly animals and a story of finding the courage to be one’s true self that will leave even adult readers teary-eyed.”

The selection committees for both lists include GNCRT members with a background in graphic novel selection and their use in adult programming and services.

Here’s the top 10 list for kids:

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