Comics Lowdown | TCAF is back

Plus: Angoulême comics awards, Adam Ellis accuses filmmakers of plagiarism, and a look at the world of back-issue collectors and dealers

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which was canceled last year due to the pandemic, will return in May as a virtual event. The past year has been a difficult one; in June, TCAF co-founder and artistic director Christopher Butcher stepped down for both professional and personal reasons. This year’s festival will be online only, and it’s being run in partnership with the zine festival Canzine and the Toronto Hand Eye Society.

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Nominees announced for the 32nd GLAAD Media Awards

Nominees include ‘Empyre,’ ‘The Magic Fish,’ ‘Far Sector’ and more.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, have announced the nominees for their 32nd annual 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.

10 comics and graphic novels have been nominated in the “Outstanding Comic Book” category, including four from DC Comics, three from Marvel, two from BOOM! Studios and one from Random House Graphic. Doctor Aphra, the Marvel comic featuring the character from the Star Wars universe, won the award last year.

The nominees for “Outstanding Comic Book” are:

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Comics Lowdown | Youth Media Awards announced

Plus: Egyptian cartoonist arrested; columnist proposes banning MAGA wear at conventions.

Library Talk: The American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting just ended, and the big event, as always, is the Youth Media Awards—this is when the Newbery and Caldecott medals, and a host of other awards, are announced. For over 10 years, graphic novels have won some of these awards; last year, Jerry Craft’s Class Act won the Newbery Medal, the first graphic novel to be so honored. This year’s awards:

  • Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, with color by Lark Pien, was a Printz Honor Book (runner-up for the Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults);
  • When Stars are Scattered, by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, illustrated by Victoria Jamieson, color by Iman Geddy, was a Schneider Family Book Award honor book (for “books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience”);
  • Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf and Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh were among the ten winners of the Alex Award for adult books that appeal to teen audiences;
  • Catherine’s War, by Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel, and translated from French by Ivanka Hahnenberger, was an honor book for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for translated books.

On Twitter, librarian Matthew Noe took a tour of the virtual booths of all the comics publishers at the show, with a word or two about each one. If you are interested in learning more about comics publishing and who does what, this is a great place to start!

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Tamaki, Campbell and more win 2020 Joe Shuster Awards

Seth, Bernie Mireault inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

The winners of the 2020 Joe Shuster Awards were announced this weekend, recognizing outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics by Canadian creators.

Joe Shuster, drawn by Tom Grummett

Established in 2004, The Joe Shuster Awards are named in honor of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. Nominees must be either Canadian citizens or permanent residents in Canada. The winners were chosen by a jury.

Congratulations to this year’s winners, whose names are in bold below:

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Comics Lowdown | Paul Rainey wins Jonathan Cape Prize

Plus: New manga licenses, minicomics reviews, and more!

Paul Rainey has won the 2020 Observer Jonathan Cape Comica Graphic Short Story Prize for his story Similar To But Not, a memoir of a chance encounter with a celebrity in a local pub in 1975. Rainey’s story and the runner-up, Ellen Durkin’s The Worm, are both available to read online.

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Shortlist announced for the 2020 British Fantasy Awards

‘Die,’ ‘DCeased,’ ‘Basketful of Heads’ and more among the nominees for this year.

The British Fantasy Society has announced the shortlist for the 2020 British Fantasy Awards.

The awards recognize fantasy and horror literature across a range of categories, including the “Best Comic/Graphic Novel” category. Their site says winners will be announced “in due course.”

Here’s a rundown of the “Best Comic / Graphic Novel” category:

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Ringo Awards winners announced

Annual awards ceremony recognizes ‘the creativity, skill and fun of comics.’

The winners for the 2020 Ringo Awards were announced today, marking the fourth year for the awards program named for artist Mike Wieringo, who passed away in 2007.

The awards were presented virtually as part of the Baltimore Comic Con‘s online programming, and started with an introduction and keynote from Kevin Smith and Geoff Johns. It was also live, which led to some logistical/technical issues as they tried to “cut over” to winners for their acceptance speeches.

Here are the winners, in the order they were presented during the ceremony. They include the “fan favorite” awards, which have a different process than the rest of the awards. You can find more details on the process here.

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2020 Prism Award winners announced

The awards recognize, promote and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics.

The winners of the fourth annual Prism Awards were announced over the weekend as part of the virtual Queer Comics Expo hosted by the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. The awards ceremony and other content from the expo can be found on the CAM’s YouTube channel.

The awards are presented to comic works by queer authors and stories that promote the growing body of diverse, powerful, innovative, positive or challenging representations of LGBTQAI+ characters in fiction or nonfiction comics. The goal is to recognize, promote and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics. Finalists and recipients were voted on by diverse panels of comics professionals, educators, librarians, journalists and writers, which can be found here.

Congratulations to all the winners, who are in bold below:

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Gene Yang, The Nib and more win 2020 Harvey Awards

Awards ceremony will be held this Friday.

The Harvey Awards have announced their 2020 award recipients through their outlet of choice, The Hollywood Reporter. The awards announcement comes several days before a virtual ceremony that’s supposed to be part of New York Comic Con and MCM Comic Con’s Metaverse event.

So why are they announcing them now? Who knows — 2020 is weird. But hey, here are the winners:

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Lynda Barry wins the Reuben Award

‘Usagi Yojimbo,’ ‘They Called Us Enemy’ recognized in the NCS divisional awards.

This has been a very busy weekend for comics, from DC FanDome to the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards to the National Cartoonist Society‘s virtual NCSFest, their annual event where the winner of the Reuben Award is announced (as well as other awards).

As announced during NCSFest, cartoonist Lynda Barry has won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The award has been presented annually since 1954 and was named for Rube Goldberg.

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Ariel Ries, Eleanor Davis and more win 2020 Ignatz Awards

Annual awards typically presented at the Small Press Expo honor excellence in independent comics, graphic novels and minicomics.

The 2020 Ignatz Awards were presented tonight during a livestream on the Small Press Expo YouTube channel

The Ignatz Awards, which have been handed out since 1997, celebrate the outstanding achievements of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons. Typically the awards are voted on by SPX attendees and then given out at the event, but given the COVID-19 crisis, this year they opened voting up to anyone and went virtual with the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find in bold below:

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‘Avengers,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica Counterstrike’ win at the 2020 Dragon Awards

Congratulations to this year’s winners.

The 2020 Dragon Awards were announced this past weekend, recognizing science fiction and fantasy books, movies, video games and comics. The awards are typically given out during Dragon Con, which was held virtually this year.

The awards, which have been presented annually since 2016, recognize comics in two categories — “Best Comic Book” and “Best Graphic Novel.” Winners were selected in an open vote from the general public.

The winners are:

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