LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorafor, Tana Ford and James Devlin has won the 2020 Hugo Award in the “Best Graphic Story or Comic” category.
This is the second major award for the comic in the past two weeks, as it follows the book’s Eisner win in the “Best Graphic Album”—Reprint category.
Set in an alternative world where aliens have come to Earth and integrated with society, LaGuardia features a pregnant Nigerian-American doctor who has just returned to New York with an illegal alien plant named ”Letme Live” through LaGuardia International and Interstellar Airport’s customs and security. There, she and Letme become part of a growing population of African and shape-shifting alien immigrants, battling against interrogation, discrimination and travel bans.
This is the second Hugo win for Okorafor, who won for her novella Binti in 2016. It’s also the first time in four years that Monstress did not receive the award in this category.
This year’s nominees included:
- Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Stephanie Hans (Image Comics)
- The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: Okay, Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie & Matt Wilson (Image Comics)
- Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
- LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin (Berger Books/Dark Horse) (WINNER)
- Paper Girls, Volume 6, Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang & Matt Wilson (Image Comics)
- Mooncakes, Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker (Oni Press; Lion Forge)
The 1945 “Retro Hugo Awards” were also awarded to nominees from 1945. The winner in the Best Graphic Story or Comic category was Superman: “The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk”, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, published by DC Comics.
Livestream controversy
This year’s Hugo Awards were presented via a livestream hosted by author George R.R. Martin. The awards were not without controversy, as the livestream included numerous mispronunciations of names and some off-color jokes. CoNZealnad, the host of the Hugo Awards, offered an apology on their site:
We acknowledge that we got some things wrong at the Hugo Awards Ceremony today, and through doing so have hurt members of our community.
We sincerely apologise for that hurt. We apologise for the mispronunciations of names, and any disrespect implied. Phonetic guidelines were made available to us, and we did not overcome the challenges we faced.
As Chairs, we accept full responsibility for this. The Chairs also made the decision to provide an agnostic platform for all the participants, and did not place restrictions on any speech or presentations.
The Chairs also extend our personal apology to Claire Rousseau for not including video in the introduction to the Best Fancast Award. Video is an important medium within the Fancast category and we regret its omission. It was not intentional, but it did cause hurt.
You can find a complete list of this year’s winners here.
2 thoughts on “‘LaGuardia’ wins the Hugo Award”