A pair of comics that address the subject of motherhood have been announced as the winners of the 2019 Cartoonist Studio Prize, which awards $1,000 to the year’s best print comic and webcomic.
This year’s winner in the print category is Chlorine Gardens by Keiler Roberts, which was published by Koyama Press. Slate described it as “Roberts’ autobiographical comic skitters through stories of parenting, family life, and illness with deadpan wit and narrative ingenuity. “
The winner of the webcomics prize goes to “Being an Artist and a Mother” by Lauren Weinstein, which appeared on the New Yorker website. “Weinstein’s comic takes a gimlet-eyed look at the challenge of making art about motherhood while actually being a mother,” Slate wrote.
Slate began the program in 2012 in conjunction with the Center for Cartoon Studies. Previous winners include Noelle Stevenson for Nimona, Chris Ware for Building Stories, Taiyo Matsumoto for Sunny, Winston Rowntree for Watching, Eleanor Davis for Libby’s Dad, Michael DeForge for Leaving Richard’s Valley and Carol Tyler for Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father. This year’s jury included Slate’sDan Kois; the faculty and students at the Center for Cartoon Studies, represented by last year’s winner in the print actegory, Keren Katz; and this year’s guest judge, Gil Roth, host of the podcast The Virtual Memories Show.