The British Comic Awards committee has announced the shortlist for this year’s Awards, a project now in its second year. The winners will be picked by a panel of judges including Graham Linehan and Lenny Henry.
The awards are designed to showcase all the nominees as accessible and accomplished works of visual storytelling.
The shortlisted titles for each category were decided by the committee of 9 comic industry professionals and academics from 100s of eligible titles submitted by the public as well as publishers and the creators themselves. This year’s nominees are:
Best Comic
The Absence #5 – Martin Stiff (self published)
The Listening Agent – Joe Decie (Blank Slate Books)
Mud Man #6 – Paul Grist (Image Comics)
Soppy – Philippa Rice (self published)
Winter’s Knight: Day One – Robert M Ball (Great Beast/self published)
Best Book
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil – Stephen Collins (Jonathan Cape)
Judge Dredd: Trifecta – Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Spurrier, Henry Flint, D’Israeli, Carl Critchlow and Simon Coleby (2000AD Graphic Novels)
The Man Who Laughs – David Hine and Mark Stafford (Self Made Hero)
Mrs. Weber’s Omnibus – Posy Simmons (Jonathan Cape)
The Nao of Brown – Glyn Dillon (Self Made Hero)
Emerging Talent
Isabel Greenberg (The River of Lost Souls)
Dilraj Mann (Frank Ocean VS Chris Brown, Make You Notice, Turning Point)
Will Morris (The Silver Darlings)
Jade Sarson (Cafe Suada)
Lizzy Stewart (Solo, Four Days In Brussels, Four Days in Iceland, Object Stories)
Young People’s Comic Award
Hilda & The Bird Parade – Luke Pearson (NoBrow)
The Sleepwalkers – Vivianne Schwarz (Walker Books)
Cindy & Biscuit #3 – Dan White (self published)
The Complete Rainbow Orchid – Garen Ewing (Egmont)
Playing Out – Jim Medway (Blank Slate Books)
And the second entrant to our Hall of Fame will be Leo Baxendale.
The nominated titles will now be passed over to our panel of judges who will decide the winner for each category except the Young People’s Comic Award which is chosen reading groups of young people from schools and libraries around the UK.
This year’s judges are: Gareth David (lyricist and singer in the band Los Campesinos!); Lenny Henry (actor, writer and comedian); Stephen L Holland (co-owner and manager of Page 45 comic shop); Jamillah Knowles (writer and broadcaster); Graham Linehan (comedy writer and director); Josie Long (comedian, writer and actress); and Sarah McIntyre (cartoonist and children’s book illustrator)
• British Comic Awards Official Site
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes Comics News
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