Panel Borders: First Graphic Novel Award 2025

By John Freeman on March 3, 2025

In this month’s Panel Borders radio show, on air on Wednesday, Alex Fitch hosts a launch event for the 2025 First Graphic Award.

2023 long listed and short listed artists Kelly Vassie and Myfanwy Tristram discuss how being nominated has had an impact on their work, while Alex and Dr. Ian Williams reflect on their experience of being judges.

The First Graphic Novel Award was established in 2012 by publisher Myriad and relaunched in 2023 in partnership with SelfMadeHero and The Cartoon Museum. It’s an award that’s been instrumental in launching the careers of several celebrated graphic novelists, including Gareth Brookes, Jade Sarson and Jenny Robins. This year’s winner will not only receive a cash prize but also a publishing contract with SelfMadeHero.

Submissions opened on 9th January 2025 and will be open until 22 April 2025. Entry and monitoring forms are available for download on this page.

Born in Devon in 1968 and now living in Brighton on the south coast of England, Myfanwy Tristram has drawn comics all her life. Myf fits her practice around a full time job at a digital democracy NGO; each side of her life inspiring and informing the other.

“I am interested in the power of comics to educate, enrage and create change in the world,” she says. “As well as the small inequities of everyday life, I tackle global systemic issues, always with some humour and the aim of also putting visually appealing artwork into the world.”

Kelly Vassie is a Brighton-based designer and researcher whose work spans spatial design, philosophy and illustration. Kelly is interested in the psychology of space, cognitive science of visual perception, and the interplay between art and science, text and image, experiment and knowledge.

• Panel Borders: 2025 First Graphic Award airs at 5.00pm, Wednesday 5th March 2025, repeat broadcast 11.00am, Sun 7th March, Resonance 104.4 FM + DAB (London) / more info and podcast after broadcast at panelborders.wordpress.com

• Submissions for the 2025 First Graphic Novel Award opened on 9th January 2025 and will be open until 22 April 2025. Entry and monitoring forms are available for download here

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.