Meanwhile Observer columnist and judge on the prize Rachel Cooke has an article online talking about how she was won over to the comics medium and why non comics readers should be paying more attention to it: “All of a sudden, a whole slew of books came my way that made me think graphic novels could be as satisfying, and even as literary, in their way, as a regular novel. First, I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a brilliant book about growing up in post-revolutionary Iran that has become an international hit and an Oscar-nominated movie. Then, even better, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. This book, too, tells the story of a childhood (an annoying thing about the term “graphic novel” is that it is so rarely accurate: many of the best ones are memoirs).” (via Ian Culbard)

(a frame from last year’s Observer winner, Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms by and (c) Julian Hanshaw)