Myriad Editions have announced the shortlist for this year’s First Graphic Novel Competition and Paul Gravett will be hosting the Award Evening with the finalists and judges in the Conference Centre at the British Library on 23rd May, as part of the events programme for the Comics Unmasked exhibition.
The Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition is a biennial competition open to all previously unpublished cartoonists, writers and artists. Following the 2012 success of Gareth Brookes’ The Black Project, the winner of the latest competition is announced at this special event in the presence of the judges, who include novelist Meg Rosoff and cartoonist Woodrow Phoenix.
The biennial competition offers the winner the chance to develop their work with Myriad Editions with a view to contract and publication.As well as a £1000 top prize, the winner will be offered an odditional prize of a week-log retreat in a studio in France.
“The shortlist is on amazing reflection of what’s happening right now in graphic novels,” says Corinne Pearlman. “Four of the works are graphic memoir and two are fiction; five are by women; three involve health issues.”
The finalists are:
Panic Attacks by Francesca Cassavati
Moving from London to Paris sounded wonderful, with the promise of a new life and new friends. Within a few years that illusion would be shattered. What happens when a child grows up living a lie of the happy family?
For the Love of God, Marie by Jade Sarson
Marie is a girl with the gift of understanding, who is often misunderstood. This graphic novel follows her life and loves, as she tries to understand and love those few special people who need her help to be themselves.
Elsie Harris Picture Palace by Jessica Martin
A rags to riches romance that begins in the film industry of the Thirties, the story charts the fortunes of Londoner Elsie Harris from a ‘Nippy’ at the Lyons Corner House to international film director in the forties and fifties.
Hole in The Heart by Henny Beaumont
When the hospital registrar tells you that your new baby might have Down’s Syndrome, the diagnosis may change your life forever
Sack, Crack & Back (& Brain) by Robert Wells
Twenty-five years of chronic – and mostly very embarrassing – health problems may not be the easiest of tales to tell, but Robert Wells promises plenty of laughs as he gets to grips
Mumoirs by Wallis Eates
Wallis Eates grew up as the only child of a single mother, in an era when everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Madonna had something to say about single mothers and fatherless children…
• Check out the six finalists’ entries here
• You can book tickets here for £5/£4/£3
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics Competitions, downthetubes Comics News
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