As part of the First Fictions literary festival at the University of Sussex this weekend Myriad Editions (publishers of Rumble Strip among others good graphic works) had the First Graphic Novel competition. As we mentioned previously on the blog the nominees had been willowed down to a final shortlist of seven candidates, all of such high calibre that one of the judges, author Ian Rankin, told us that his fellow judge Bryan Talbot reckoned they were all worthy of publication, which is as high a compliment as I can imagine for the artists involved, very well done, all of them. But there can be only one, as the Highlander reminds us, and Ian (thanks, Ian) was kind enough to let us know that the winner is Gareth Brookes (no stranger to blog readers) for The Black Project, so big congrats to Gareth and to all involved for creating an award which highlights and encourages good, new comics talent in the UK. As we mentioned in previous posts the winning book will be published by Myriad in 2013, so there’s something else to look forward to. We’ve been talking to Myriad and, fingers crossed, we’re hoping to bring you a bit more on the competition in the near future.
The final seven nominees were:
Adam Blackman & Dylan Shipley: A Rat’s Tale
Gareth Brookes: The Black Project
Konstantinos Chrisoulis: Dryland
Hannah Eaton: Naming Monsters
Tom Eglington: Amber Sands
Thom Ferrier: The Enlightenment of Iwan James
Paula Knight: The Facts of Life
And the judging panel consisted of Ian Rankin, Steve Bell, Myriad’s Corinne Pearlman, Hannah Berry, Bryan Talbot and Ed Hillyer; the award was announced yesterday afternoon on the exotic south coast of England.
Sun, Jan 22, 2012
Awards, Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events