The 2015 Joe Shuster Award Nominees / Les nominés pour le prix Joe Shuster 2015

BROUGHT TO YOU BY HAPPY HARBOR COMICSJune 15, 2015 – Canada has a rich tradition of supporting our national arts communities with awards that recognize the achievements of our citizens in books, music, stage, television and film – the JOE SHUSTER AWARD is Canada’s national award that honours and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, self-publish and sell comics books, graphic novels and webcomics.

They are named after pioneering Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster (1914-1992), whose clear, dynamic style and inventive visual flourishes set the standard for graphic storytelling during the infancy of the North American comic book industry. It was Superman, a co-creation of Shuster and his friend and neighbour Jerry Siegel that electrified the industry over 75 years ago in 1938 and, almost overnight, transformed comic books into an enormous pop-cultural phenomenon and spawned a legion of costume-clad adventure heroes and heroines.

It was the absence of Superman and his costumed peers from Canadian newsstands during World War II that would help spawn Canada’s first and last country-wide attempt at launching an indigenous, Canadian comic book industry and saw the rise of popular characters like Freelance, Nelvana and Johnny Canuck. The end of the war eliminated these restrictions and Canadian comic companies disappeared shortly afterwards. Since then Canadian creators have been part of a larger North America-wide comic-book industry and in some cases, international publishing efforts, which is why we recognize Canadians who work within the framework of the larger comics ‘industry’.

Nominees were selected this spring from lists of creators of original works published and distributed during the year 2014, as well as reviewing websites, retail stores and more. Qualifying creators must be Canadian citizens – living at home or abroad, or a recognized as a permanent resident of Canada and been living in Canada for at least three years. The award winners will be chosen by a jury vote to ensure every nominee is given adequate consideration.

The ceremony will take place in Fall 2015 at a venue to be announced.

And the nominees are:

Webcomics Creator / Créateur de Bandes Dessinées Web

SOPHIE BEDARD – Glorieux printemps
BOUM – Boumeries
NICOLE CHARTRAND – Fey Winds
MICHAEL DEFORGE – Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero
CANAAN GRALL – Max Overacts
KATE LETH – Little Ghost
TARA TALLAN – Galaxion
TY TEMPLETON – Bun Toons

Writer / Scénariste

ED BRISSON – 24, X-File/TMNT (IDW), The Field, Sheltered (image), Robocop: Beta, Robocop: Last Stand, Sons of Anarchy (Boom!)
BRENDAN FLETCHER – Gotham Academy (with BECKY CLOONAN), Batgirl (with CAMERON STEWART ) (DC)
ALEXANDRE FONTAINE-ROUSSEAU – Les cousines vampires (Pow Pow)
JEFF LEMIRE – Animal Man, Green Arrow, New 52: Future’s End, Teen Titans: Earth One (DC) The Valiant (with MATT KINDT) (Valiant)
RYAN NORTH – Adventure Time, Midas Touch (Boom!), Original Sins (Marvel)
YVES PELLETIER – Le pouvoir de l’amour (La Pastèque)
MARIKO TAMAKI – This One Summer (Groundwood Books)
KURTIS WIEBE – Peter Panzerfaust, Rat Queens (image)

Cover Artist / Dessinateur Couvertures

DARWYN COOKE
MIKE DEL MUNDO
KARL KERSCHL
KEN LASHLEY
FRANCIS MANAPUL
FRANCOIS MIVILLE-DESCHENES
JULIE ROCHELEAU
CAMERON STEWART

Artist / Dessinateur

ADRIAN ALPHONA – Ms. Marvel (Marvel)
NICK BRADSHAW – Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers (Marvel)
LEONARD KIRK – Fantastic Four (Marvel)
MIKAEL – Promise Tome 2 – L’Homme souffrance (Glénat BD)
JULIE ROCHELEAU – La colère de Fantômas -2- Tout l’or de Paris (Dargaud)
JILLIAN TAMAKI – This One Summer (Groundwood Books)
CHIP ZDARSKY – Sex Criminals (image)

Cartoonist / Auteur
SPONSORED BY THE STORY ATTIC

BLONK – 23h72 (Pow Pow)
NINA BUNJEVAC – Fatherland (Jonathan Cape)
EMILY CARROLL – Through the Woods (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
MICHAEL CHO – Shoplifter (Pantheon)
MEAGS FITZGERALD – Photobooth: A Biography (Conundrum Press)
JESSE JACOBS – Safari Honeymoon (Koyama Press)
BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY – Seconds : A Graphic Novel (Ballantine)
RICHARD SUICIDE – Chroniques du centre-sud (Pow Pow)

The Dragon Award (Comics for Kids) / Le Prix Dragon (Bandes Dessinées pour Enfants)
SPONSORED BY THE DRAGON

This award recognizes the works which capture the attention and fascination of young readers, and help to create a passion for life-long reading. Works considered for this award are comic books and graphic novels by Canadian creators that are targeted at readers 14 and under. Nominees for this award are selected by a team of educators led by Jennifer Haines, MA, B.Ed., who is also the proprietor of Guelph, Ontario’s The Dragon comic book shop.

AGENT JEAN TOMES 6 ET 7 (Presses Aventure) – ALEX A.
THREE THIEVES BOOKS 4 AND 5 (Kids Can Press) – SCOTT CHANTLER
A CAT NAMED TIM AND OTHER STORIES (Koyama Press) – JOHN MARTZ
MIDAS FLESH (Boom!) – RYAN NORTH
MADDY KETTLE: THE ADVENTURE OF THE THIMBLEWITCH (Top Shelf) – ERIC ORCHARD
ARIANE ET NICOLAS TOME 8 (Vents d’Ouest /Premières Lignes) – PAUL ROUX
THIS ONE SUMMER (Groundwood Books) – MARIKO TAMAKI, JILLIAN TAMAKI

Gene Day Award (Self-Publishers) / Prix Gene Day (Auto-éditeurs)

Named after the late Howard Eugene Day (1951-1982), this award honours Canadian comic book creators or creative teams who self-published their work but did not have the books distributed by a third party such as Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. The nominees were selected from individual publications submitted for review before the deadline of May 30th, 2015.

Nominees for the Gene Day Award will be announced in early July 2015 along with the date and location of the award ceremony.

Harry Kremer Award (Retailers) / Prix Harry Kremer (Détaillants)

Named after the Harry Kremer, the original owner of Now & Then Books (in Kitchener, Ontario). The CCBCAA maintains a list of active comic book stores and a database of recommendations, referrals and secret shopper reports. A separate Retailer Award Committee overseen by Scott VanderPloeg and Anthony Falcone from Comic Book Daily reviews the data and selects a short list of stores that have shown merit in a variety of categories. For inquiries please contact them at: kremerretailer@comicbookdaily.com

AMAZING STORIES (Saskatoon, SK)
ANOTHER DIMENSION (Calgary, AB)
THE COMIC HUNTER (Moncton, NC)
COMIC READERS (Regina, SK)
CONSPIRACY COMICS (Burlington, ON)
EXPERT COMICS (Montreal, QC)
GALAXY COMICS AND COLLECTIBLES (Winnipeg, MB)
IMAGINAIRE (Quebec City, QC)
PARADISE COMICS (Toronto, ON)
STADIUM COMICS (Brampton, ON)

The T.M. Maple Award / Prix T.M. Maple
SPONSORED BY ALL NEW COMICS, INC.

The T.M. Maple Award will go to someone (living or deceased) selected from the Canadian comics community for achievements made outside of the creative and retail categories who have had a positive impact on the community.

MICHAEL HIRSH (1948-) AND PATRICK LOUBERT (1947-)
– Authors of the book The Great Canadian Comic Books, published in 1971, which looked primarily at the Canadian Whites, comics published in Canada during World War II. Hirsh and Loubert acquired the Bell Features archives and reprint rights for the comics, which included Nelvana of the Northern Lights and Johnny Canuck, from Bell’s capital investor John Ezrin. The archives included copies of the comics, original artwork and more which were used as the foundation for the book. It was followed by a two-year touring gallery exhibit ‘Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941-45.’ They would go on to form animation studio Nelvana, Ltd. (named after Adrian Dingle’s character) with Clive Smith and would later donate the material from Bell Features to the National Archives where they reside to this day, preserving part of our national comics heritage. Without their efforts, recent collections of Adrian Dingle’s Nelvana and Leo Bachle’s Johnny Canuck would not have been possible.

ROBERT CHARPENTIER (1960-2014)
– Rob or Bob as he was known to his friends and customers, was a long-time fixture on the Toronto comics scene as a comics retailer and fan. At his Danforth Avenue store Shining Knight Comics, later rebranded Comics & More, Bob believed strongly that the local comics shop should be active in, and support the local community. He sponsored many local teams, schools and young people’s organizations. In the summer of 2014 he was diagnosed with brain cancer and began treatment, but succumbed to the disease in late 2014, he was 54 years old.

Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame / Temple de la renommée Créateur Canadien de Bandes Dessinées

DORIS SLATER (1918-1964)
Doris Slater of Chatham and later Toronto, Ontario attended the Ontario College of art in the late 1930’s, and was hired by brother-in-law Ted McCall at Anglo-American Comics to work on the first issues of Grand Slam Comics and Three Aces Comics for which she drew characters like Pat the Air Cadet and Martin Blake, The Animal King. In the fall of 1944 Doris made arrangements to draw scripts from Pat Joudry’s popular CBC radio show “Penny’s Diary” for Bell Features’ Active Comics 29-26. Around this time she also married popular Canadian crooner Russ Titus and soon had two children Robin and Patricia. The marriage did not last long as Titus moved to England to pursue an entertainment career under the name Larry Cross. After the decline of the Canadian comics industry, Doris drew commercially for magazines and children’s books and did murals. She would move to teaching, and taught art in Brantford and later Ottawa. In 1964, Doris Titus was killed in head on collision. Her daughter Patti, who was in the back seat, survived the accident. Doris Slater/Titus was 56, and is recognized as Canada’s first female comic book creator.

JAMES WALEY (1951-)
James Waley was the publisher, editor-in-chief, and sometimes writer, artist and colourist of Orb Magazine, a quality black and white magazine-sized anthology, which could be found on Canadian newsstands between 1974 and 1976. Orb lasted six issues. With it, Jim provided readers with some of the most sophisticated comic book stories available anywhere while giving a start to many young creators, many of whom would become the finest Canadian comic artists and writers of their generation. He also co-created Canadian superhero the Northern Light, who debuted in Orb and would later appear in the American publication Power Comics. Waley’s many other subsequent accomplishments include writing for Heavy Metal, creating a comic from scratch for Charlton, filling the Propeller Gallery with art by prominent Toronto comic book artists, running the monthly one-day convention “Supershow” for many years at the Ontario College of Art, and being instrumental in developing the Joe Shuster Award as co-founder and instigator of the idea of a Canadian comic book award.

2015 Sponsors

Primary Sponsor: HAPPY HARBOR COMICS

Award Sponsors: ALL NEW COMICS, INC., THE DRAGON, THE STORY ATTIC

General Sponsors: BIG B COMICS, STRANGE ADVENTURES, VISIONS OF UTOPIA, COMIC BOOK LOUNGE

About The Joe Shuster Awards

Established in 2004, The Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s national award recognizing outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics. The awards are named after pioneering Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, created the iconic super-powered hero, Superman. The name is used with the approval of the Estate of Joe Shuster – Michael Catron, Estate Agent.

For more information please contact Awards Director Kevin A. Boyd at kevin@joeshusterawards.com