Award Winning Comics
Awards for comics have been running in America for many years, but the UK is now getting in on the act, with comics for children and teenagers receiving their fair share of the prizes. The BCA (British Comic Awards) include a Young People’s Comics Award, comics and graphic novels for 7-11 and 11-16 year olds. Hannah Sackett looks at these British awards and highlights some of the recent winners.
This year’s shortlist is as follows: Cindy and Biscuit Vol 1: We Love Trouble by Dan White Gary’s Garden Book 1 by Gary Northfield Ghost Cat’s Pedigree Chums by Craig Conlan Maleficium by EdieOP Star Cat Book 01 by James Turner
The British Comic Awards first ran in 2011-2012. These awards are specifically aimed at UK-based comics creators. The BCA committee creates a shortlist of comics from the nominated works, and the adult comics and books are then judged by a panel of professionals. The Young People’s Comic Award, however, is judged by selected reading groups in schools and public libraries (mostly in the Leeds area). This process is coordinated by Leeds Library, and the award is presented in a special ceremony, as part of the Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival.
Last year’s winner of the Young People’s Comic Award was Hilda and the Black Hound by Luke Pearson. The Hilda comics are set in a Moomin-like world, where people rub shoulders with giants and spirit-beings. In this story, Hilda meets a house spirit and investigates the sightings of a large black dog in and around the city of Trolberg. Pearson also won in 2012 award for Hilda and the Midnight Giant, while Garen Ewing’s The Complete Rainbow Orchid won in 2013. The Rainbow Orchid (whose main character Julius Chancer has also featured in The Phoenix) is a perfect read for fans of Tintin and lovers of a great adventure story.
The winner, announced on Friday 13th November, was Star Cat.
The Stan Lee Excelsior Award, given to graphic novels and manga aimed at 11-16 year olds, started in 2011. Set up by Paul
Register, while he was working as librarian at Ecclesfield School, it was originally designed to run in Sheffield secondary schools alongside the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. After its first year running with 17 local schools, the Award went national in 2012. In 2015, over 200 schools registered on the site and the Award also expanded, with the introduction of the Stan Lee Excelsior Award Junior, featuring comics for 8-11 year olds.
The Excelsior Awards are run by presenting school and public library reading groups with a shortlist of comics, graphic novels and manga suitable for their age-range. There are five books on the Junior Award list and eight on the list for 11-16 year olds. Reading groups are given 10 weeks to read all the shortlisted books, and to rate and review them using the award’s rating forms. The ratings forms are used to calculate the winners of the awards. Librarians and teachers get to vote for the best cover artwork and there is also a prize for the group that returns the most ratings forms. Registration for the 2016 awards starts in November. Visit the Excelsior Award and Excelsior Award Junior websites to find out more.
As well as having the endorsement of comics legend Stan Lee (creator of X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and many other iconic characters), the Excelsior Award is now associated with CLAw, a recently formed literacy charity, that seeks to ‘dramatically improve the literacy levels of UK children through the medium of comics and graphic novels’. Both The Excelsior Award and CLAw aim to raise the profile of comics and graphic novels in schools and libraries in the UK, and make more people aware of the artistic and literary worth of the form, as well as its potential for encouraging a love of reading. Talking about his reasons for starting the award, Paul Register told me:
14 Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015
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