Wednesday, February 16, 2011

2011 Glyph Award nominees announced; Unknown Soldier seems pretty popular with us judge-types

The nominees for the 2011 Glyph Awards, which recognize "“the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color," were officially announced today. DC/Vertigo's recently canceled Unknown Soldier lead the field with six nominations (including Story of the Year and Best Writer), followed closely by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's original graphic novel Afrodisiac with five nominations. J.D. Arnold and Rich Koslowski's BB Wolf and The 3 LP's and Jamar Nicholas' adaptation of Geoffery Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun each earned four nominations.

The complete list of nominees in each category can be found below.

What's that? Why are you reading about it on EDILW instead of a comics news site? Well, I'm part of the five-person panel who nominated the nominees, along with Jennifer Contino, Martha Cornog, Joseph Phillip Illidge and Chad Nevett, so I figured I should post this here. (Not that I nominated everything here; everyone made their own nominations in each category, and the final nominees were determined through democracy and math).

Everything after the asterisks will be a press release from Glyph Awards top dog Rich Watson, although I threw in some images and links, in case you want to pursue some of these works...

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These are the nominees for the 2011 Glyph Comics Awards (GCA) for black comic books, to be presented in May at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia:


STORY OF THE YEAR:

Afrodisiac; Jim Rugg, co-writer and artist; Brian Maruca, co-writer

BB Wolf and the 3 LPs; JD Arnold, writer, Richard Koslowski, artist

Fist Stick Knife Gun; Geoffrey Canada, writer, Jamar Nicholas, artist

Unknown Soldier: Dry Season; Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty; G. Neri, writer, Randy DuBurke, artist


BEST WRITER:

JD Arnold, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

Geoffrey Canada, Fist Stick Knife Gun

Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier

Mat Johnson, Dark Rain

Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Afrodisiac



BEST ARTIST:

Denys Cowan, Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers

Christian Dibari, Pale Horse

Simone Gane, Dark Rain

Richard Koslowski, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

Jim Rugg, Afrodisiac


BEST MALE CHARACTER:

Afrodisiac, Afrodisiac; created by Jim Rugg, co-writer and artist, & Brian Maruca, co-writer

BB Wolf, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs; created by JD Arnold, writer, Richard Koslowski, artist

Cole, Pale Horse; created by Andrew Cosby & Michael Alan Nelson, writers, Christian Dibari, artist

Geoff, Fist Stick Knife Gun; Geoffrey Canada, writer, Jamar Nicholas, artist; based on the life of Geoffrey Canada

Moses Lwanga, Unknown Soldier; Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist; inspired by the character created by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert


BEST FEMALE CHARACTER:

Aloya Rose, Unknown Soldier; created by Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist

Nola Thomas, NOLA; created by Chris Gorak & Pierluigi Cothran, writers; Damian Couceiro, artist

Sarah, Dark Rain; created by Mat Johnson, writer, Simone Gane, artist

Scout Montana, Shadoweyes; created by Ross Campbell, writer and artist

Selena, 28 Days Later; Michael Alan Nelson, writer; Declan Shalvey & Marek Oleksicki, artists; based on the character created by Alex Garland for the motion picture 28 Days Later


RISING STAR AWARD:

Nicholas DaSilva, Dread & Alive

Carl Herring Jr. & Tod Smith, The Enforcers

Brandon Howard & Sean Mack; The Revolutionary Times

Jamar Nicholas, Fist Stick Knife Gun

Geoffrey Thorne & Todd Harris, Prodigal: Egg of First Light


BEST REPRINT PUBLICATION:

Cold Space TP, BOOM! Studios

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali Deluxe HC, DC Comics

Unknown Soldier: Dry Season TP, DC/Vertigo


BEST COVER:

28 Days Later #6, Tim Bradstreet, illustrator

Afrodisiac, Jim Rugg, illustrator

Cold Space #1, Jeffrey Spokes, artist; Juan Maruel Tumburus, colorist

Unknown Soldier #15, Dave Johnson, illustrator

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty; Randy Duburke, illustrator


BEST COMIC STRIP OR WEB COMIC:

The K Chronicles, Keith Knight, writer and artist

Marty’s Diner, Dmitri Jackson, writer and artist

The Revolutionary Times, Brandon Howard, writer, Sean Mack, artist

Solomon Azua; Jake Ekiss, writer and artist

World of Hurt, Jay Potts, writer and artist


FAN AWARD FOR BEST COMIC:

Azrael: Angel in the Dark; Fabian Nicieza, writer, Ramon Bachs & John Stanisci, artists

Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers; Reginald Hudlin, writer, Denys Cowan, artist

Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural; Rick Remender, writer; Jefte Palo, Gabriel Hardman & Alessandro Vitti, artists

New Avengers: Heroic Age – Possession; Brian Michael Bendis, writer, Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger & Art Adams, artists

New Avengers: Luke Cage – Town Without Pity; John Arcudi, writer; Eric Canete, artist


The poll for the Fan Award will go up next month at the ECBACC website (www.ecbacc.com/wordpress). Fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite black comics from the five nominees listed, or to submit their own with a write-in choice. All write-in ballots must be sent to rich.watson@gmail.com with “Fan Award” in the subject line. IMPORTANT: The write-in ballot is ONLY for choices NOT listed on the poll. ANY WRITE-IN BALLOTS WITH ANY OF THE FIVE NOMINEES ALREADY ON THE POLL WILL BE DISCARDED AND WILL NOT COUNT.

In addition, for the first time, the GCA Committee announces the creation of the Chairman’s Award, a new award given in special recognition of a work in any media outside of comics, including but not limited to books, television, film, or the Internet, that illuminates the black comics experience in an exceptional manner, and also broadens and deepens the growing body of knowledge about black comics worldwide.

This year, the GCA Committee bestows the award to the book Black Comix: African American Independent Comics Art and Culture, by Damian Duffy & John Jennings, a reference book spotlighting over fifty different independent black comics creators from the past quarter century. The release of this book was accompanied by a gallery exhibition in New York containing artwork from some of the book’s featured artists.

The GCA ceremony will be held May 20, 2011, in the Skyline Room of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Park Central branch, as part of ECBACC, which will take place at the Crown Plaza Hotel Center City, in Philadelphia, PA, May 21, 2011.

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