“trAPPed” by artist Anand RK and reporters Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson has won the Pulitzer Prize in the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category.
Published by Bloomberg, “trAPPed” highlighted the case of a neurologist in India who was trapped by cybercriminals through what’s described as “digital arrest,” which is when a scammer impersonates law enforcement and psychologically “trap” victims by keeping them under continuous phone surveillance. The comic uses vertical scroll to tell the story and was published by Bloomberg last year.
The other finalists in the category this year were Adolfo Arranz, Poppy McPherson, Devjyot Ghoshal and Han Huang of Reuters for “Scammed into Scamming;” Ivan Ehlers for his work at the L.A. Times; and Peter Kuper for “a portfolio of vibrant and wordless political cartoons on the climate crisis, politics and emerging technology rendered with a fresh perspective and a unique approach to visual storytelling.”
Anand RK, aka Anand Radhakrishnan, is an Eisner Award-winning (and now Pulitzer Prize-winning) illustrator and visual artist based in Mumbai. He broke into American comics with Grafity’s Wall, a graphic novel written by Ram V and published by Dark Horse Comics, before reuniting with Ram V on Blue in Green for Image Comics, which earned him the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist alongside colorist John Pearson. His art credits also include Radio Apocalypse for Vault Comics and Resurrection Man for DC Comics.
Awards | Sticking with the awards theme, the Cartoonist Cooperative has announced the nominees for the annual Minicomic Awards, which spotlight “unique, challenging and under-recognized work in this short form medium.” The awards recognize minicomics across seven categories, and this year’s nominees include R.D. Yoon, Skiles Roberts-Salvador, Athena Naylor and more.
Awards | The European Science Fiction Society has announced the nominees for their annual achievement awards, which includes a comics/graphic novel category.
Awards | The Center for Cartoon Studies has announced the winners of their annual Cartoonist Studio Prize, with Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me by Mimi Pond winning in the long-form category and Two Snakes by Suerynn Lee winning in the short-form category.
Awards | Cannon by Lee Lai has made the shortlist for this year’s Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.
Passings | The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Nicole Hollander, creator of the comic strip Sylvia, has passed away. She was 86 and ied of natural causes.
Passings | The Beat reports that Len Strazewski, writer of Prime, Justice Society of America and more in the 1990s, has passed away after battling an infection. He was 71. Strazewski was one of the primary architects of the Malibu Universe, working not only on Prime but also Prototype, and also co-created speedster Jesse Quick with Mike Parobeck. In addition to his comic work, he was a professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago and a member of the school’s Board of Trustees.
Passings | At The Comics Journal, John Kelly shares a lengthy obituary for underground comix creator Frank Stack, who passed away in April at the age of 88.
Creators | Best wishes to Adam Hughes, who recently revealed he has been diagnosed with Stage 3C colorectal cancer. The post on his blog from his wife, Allison, says his initial surgery was very successful, and the artist will start chemotherapy soon.
Creators | Here’s a few Substack posts that I enjoyed recently, starting with Marian Heretic writer Tini Howard talking about her experiences as a contestant on Jeopardy. My dad’s a dedicated Jeopardy watcher and I happened to be visiting him on the day this episode aired. “I had an amazing time – the peak of which was finding out Ken Jennings is a for-real Wednesday Warrior comics fan,” she writes.
Creators | Joe Casey, writer of Blood Squad Seven, has a fun post up where he talks about how The West Wing influenced his writing and, more interestingly, how he attempts to continue the continuity of the show in his comics by introducing characters and backstories that tie back to the show.
Creators | And then Jeff Lemire talks about how he helped recruit Denys Cowan to draw a variant cover for his new Firestorm series, and how nervous he was when he asked if he could ink it.
Small Press | The Shortbox Comics Fair is now accepting applications for their 2026 fair, which will occur in October. They are accepting digital comics that haven’t been previously published and are by a single creator. Check out the site for more info.
Reviews | Shelfdust has added content from the now-defunct website Gutter Reviews to their calendar, with plans to post their previous content every Monday. With their first post falling on May the 4th, it was of course Star Wars related.
Also, if you aren’t reading Shelfdust, add it to your RSS reader or social media account or whatever. Recent pieces have included David Brothers talking about Victor Santos’ Ginger’s Revenge and Rhi Daneel Olivaw talking about The Dark Knight Returns.