In January 2023, New York Times #1 Bestseller Tony Lee, through his imprint Hooded Man Media, announced the Caliburn Prize, a £2500 grant for unpublished UK comic creators, and the winner, Michael Lomon, has just been announced, for his long-running fantasy project, Palace of Tears.
The winner was announced after the Caliburn Prize long-List judges, – comic creators Kieron Gillen, David Leach and Rachael Smith, the Director of Publishing & Comics Outreach at Kickstarter Oriana Leckert, Bleeding Cool and comic writer Rich Johnston, Managing Director of Watson, Little Literary Agency James Wills, and Markosia publisher Harry Markos – worked their way through dozens of entries, before passing a “Top Ten” of submissions to the Short List Judges to review.
After a very tight contest with a list of incredible books and creators, the judges settled on one definite winner, The Palace of Tears, by Michael Lomon, who will collect his prize at London Film and Comic Con.
Michael Lomon is a London-based Motion Graphics Designer, illustrator and comic book artist, whose clients include Paypal, QVC, Adobe, Percy & Reed and Arrow Video.
Palace of Tears is set on the ravaged Earth of the far flung future, where pockets of humanity strive for survival and glory. Old tales are reborn, eternal hungers stirred and long forgotten creatures of chaos roam the soft places where dreams and madness collide…
Alongside the Palace of Tears, first published as a web comic on Tapas, developed over several years, Michael is also the creator of other fantastical fictions, along with being the designer, animator and, often, director of a whole host of animated shorts for broadcast, web and social.
“The quality of submissions was outstanding,” says Tony Lee. “I’m genuinely not exaggerating when I say there was only a handful of points between all entries, and no obvious leader until the last two judges results came in.”
As winner of the Caliburn Prize, in addition to a £2,500 grant to complete his project, he will also receive a year’s membership in both the Alliance of Independent Authors and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, an hour-long zoom call with Oriana Leckert, and a free Artists Alley table (and hotel) at the 2024 London Film and Comic Con.
The Caliburn Prize and Tony Lee would like to take this opportunity to thank all Long-List judges, and in particular our Short-List judges: Kieron Gillen, David Leach, Rachael Smith, Oriana Leckert, Rich Johnston, James Wills and Harry Markos for their sterling work.
• The 2024 Caliburn Prize will begin taking submissions on the 1st January 2024 at caliburnprize.com
• Michael Lomon is online at michaellomon.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
• Check out Palace of Tears on Tapas
Palace of Tears © 2023 Michael Lomon
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: British Comics, British Comics - Books, British Comics - Collections, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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