The Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC), a US-based not-for-profit organisation with a mission to guide and support the uses of comics in health, has opened the submission process for its 2025 awards.
These awards are meant to recognise and honour outstanding health-related comic projects published in 2024. They are made possible by supporter donations and a generous matching gift in honour of artist and administrator Nancy Wolf and consulting actuary Herbert Wolf.
As we previously reported, the Graphic Medicine International Collective has announced the addition of a new “Educational” award category to the annual GMIC Awards for outstanding health-related comic projects.
Here’s a guide to the Awards, including changes for 2025. The deadline for submissions is Friday 31st January, 2025.
PLEASE NOTE: Comics generated using artificial intelligence (AI) will not be considered for any of the three GMIC Awards
Graphic Medicine Award FAQ
Q: What qualifies as a work of graphic medicine for this award?
A: Comics of any length that emphasise one or more health-related topics and were completed or published in 2024 are eligible for this award. Graphic medicine comics take as their theme (or meaningfully include) topics that impact health. The Graphic Medicine International Collective define the term “health” here broadly, based on the World Health Organisation definition: a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Comics can be fiction or nonfiction, memoir or biography, educational and/or entertaining. Both print and web-based comics are eligible for this award.
Q: Is there only one award?
No, there will be three awards in 2025. This is a change from last year. There will be one award for short-form comics (28 pages or less) and one award for long-form comics (greater than 28 pages) and one award for educational comics.This new third award category, launching this year, is meant to promote excellence in educational graphic medicine. It is intended to celebrate comics with a primarily instructional aim: comics that emphasize one or more medical topics, treatments, diseases, devices, and biological functions to teach medical professionals, medical students, patients, caregivers, or the general public. Submissions in this new category can be of any length.
Q: How will educational comics be evaluated?
A: Submitted educational comics will be evaluated on:
· Innovation and creativity
· Potential for impact on learning outcomes
· Community engagement and collaboration
· Medical accuracy (required, but conventional medical illustrations are not)
· Accessibility and ease of understanding
· Effective use of the comics medium
Q: Must eligible comics be published in English?
A: No, but all incorporated text must be translated into English for judging purposes and the original text must have been published in the preceding five years (i.e., 2019 or later).
Q: I used AI to help generate my comic. Can I submit it for a GMIC Award?
A: Comics generated using artificial intelligence (AI) will not be considered for any of the three GMIC Awards.
Q: Who can submit a work for consideration?
A: Each comic for consideration must be submitted by the creator of the comic or their publisher. Due to the nature of the award process, we will not be able to accept anonymous submissions, but we will respect pseudonyms.
Q: How should works be submitted?
All works should be submitted as a PDF here:
Q: May I submit more than one comic for the award?
A: Yes, but you must do a separate entry form for each.
Q: May I submit a webcomic?
A: Yes, but the comic you want judged must have been completed in 2024 and be submitted as a PDF. You may also provide a link to the online comic to demonstrate interactivity if necessary. Each title may only be submitted once.
Q: Is there a deadline for making submissions for the 2025 GMIC award?
A: Yes. All submissions must be made by Friday, January 31st, 2025.
Q: How will the award winners be selected?
A: Three shortlists of awards (long form, short form, and educational ) will be generated from all submitted works. These lists will be announced to the public by April 30, 2025. The GMIC Award Judges will then meet to choose the winners. Both shortlisting and final judges are a diverse group consisting of at least five persons, each representing one or more of these categories: cartoonist, academic, clinician, librarian, person with lived experience of illness, caregiving, and/or disability, and comics critic/reviewer.
Q: When will the award be presented?
A: The winners of the 2025 GMIC Awards will be announced in a special online event in July 2025, details to come.
Q: What will the award winner receive?
A: The winning comics will be awarded $600 (U.S. dollars) and a keepsake suitable for display. Please note that the monetary award may be subject to taxes for which the winner will be responsible.
Q: You said this was a matching grant – how can we contribute?
Please note: donations are not expected or required from applicants for the award.
EXCELLENT QUESTION! Receipt of this generous gift is contingent on raising matching funds! To help make this award possible, you can donate here. Your support is essential to ensure the future of this award! We thank you for your generosity in advance.
If you live in the US and would prefer to mail a physical check, please send it to: ATTN: Graphic Medicine Award Committee, Graphic Medicine International Collective, PO Box 2267, Worcester, MA 01613 United States
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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.
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