The winner of the 2013 Doug Wright Award for Best Book is:

• The Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati (Conundrum Press)

The winner of the 2013 Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) which recognizes Canadian cartooning talents worthy of wider recognition is:

• Nina Bunjevac for Heartless (Conundrum Press)

And the winner of the 2013 Pigskin Peters Award, which recognizes the best in experimental or avant-garde comics is:

• Hamilton Illustrated by David Collier (Wolsak & Wynn)

Also, ALBERT CHARTIER was inducted into the Giants of the North (Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame).

Joe Shuster in 1975

What about the Joe Shuster Awards?

Well, they’ll be handed out in late August, and we’re almost finished with the selection process.

So far we’ve finalized the 2013 nomines for:

- Artist
– Cartoonist
– Cover Artist
– Writer
– The Harry Kremer Award for Comic Book Retailing
– The Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame (aka what I like to call the “Hinterland’s Who’s Who”)

There will be 3 inductees into the Hall of Fame in 2013.

Still pending:

- The Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing
– The  Dragon Award for Comics for Kids/Younger Readers
– Webcomics

The Nominating Committee for the Dragon Prize and for Webcomics have asked for a little extra time, while the Selection Committee for the Gene Day Award will be picking up some final books this weekend at TCAF to enlarge the pool of nominees.

We’ll be announcing the full list of nominees in a press release in late May, unfortunately we missed the Free Comic Book Day deadline I was shooting for.

The awards are going to be presented in Toronto this year, in late August – the specific date and venue will be announced later as well.

They’ve also recently been posting “9 for 9″ interviews with the 2013 nominees on the website.

The details:

Official Website

What: The 2013 Doug Wright Awards ceremony
Where: Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel, 90 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario
When: Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.
Admission: FREE!
The Poster: This year’s poster was drawn by 2012 Doug Wright Spotlight Award winner Ethan Rilly. Copies of the poster will be available for sale during TCAF and at the ceremony.

Recap of the 2013 Nominees:

The nominees for the 2013 Doug Wright Award for Best Book are:

• Lose #4 by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
• By This Shall You Know Him by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press)
• The Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati (Conundrum Press)
• Pope Hats #3 by Ethan Rilly (AdHouse Books)
• Wax Cross by Tin Can Forest (Koyama Press)

The nominees for the 2013 Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) which recognizes Canadian cartooning talents worthy of wider recognition are:

• Nina Bunjevac for Heartless (Conundrum Press)
• Brandon Graham for King City (Image Comics)
• Patrick Kyle for Black Mass, Distance Mover, Wowee Zonk #4
• George Walker for The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson (The Porcupine’s Quill)
• Eric Kostiuk Williams for Hungry Bottom Comics

And the nominees for the 2013 Pigskin Peters Award, which recognizes the best in experimental or avant-garde comics are:

• Hamilton Illustrated by David Collier (Wolsak & Wynn)
• Hellberta #2 and “Sir Softly” from š! #12, by Michael Comeau
• Michael DeForge, Larry Eisenstein, Jesse Jacobs, Mark Laliberte (editor), Marc Ngui, Ethan Rilly, Tin Can Forest and Magda Trzaski for 4PANEL, a special comics features in Carousel Magazine #28 and #29
• Ginette Lapalme for “So, what should we do with ourselves?…” from Wowee Zonk #4 and  “Little Stump” in š! #12

Also, ALBERT CHARTIER will be inducted into the Giants of the North (Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame).

Official Website

The Ottawa Comiccon will take place at the Ernst & Young Centre from May 10-12, 2013.

It also has many comic creator guests attending on top of a gaggle of tv actors and celebrities – please visit the official website for the full list of those attending.

First up: TORONTO — The Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TCAF is The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. It is a week long celebration of comics and graphic novels and their creators, which culminates in a two-day exhibition and vendor fair featuring hundreds of comics creators from around the world. Other Festival events include readings, interviews, panels, workshops, gallery shows, art installations, and much more. TCAF is held at Toronto Reference Library in Toronto, Canada.

Official website

In past years, I’ve listed all of the guests — there are many — the full list can be found on the official website.

Please note: we do this for the purpose of transparency.

Currently underway is the nomination process for the annual Joe Shuster Awards. The 20 members of the nominating committees (there are 2) have tabled their initial selections.

We have two concurrent committees one for English language releases, and another for French. Ultimately we aim to have 7 nominees for each of these four categories – 5 English and 2 French. In the case of a tie, we may advance an additional nominee, increasing the final number of nominees in that category to no more than 8.

Results Round 1 – Having Received 2 or more nominations – therefore advancing to Round Two. Please note: this is not the final nominations list, the final nominations will come from within this list.

ENGLISH

The following creators were selected by more than one member of the 16 member English Language Nominating Committee and therefore advance to Round 2 (the overall rankings where all are considered by every member). Any creator appearing on 8 or more of the the NomCom short lists automatically bypasses Round 2 and is on the final ballot (but we won’t be sharing who they were until the final press release).

ARTIST – 18 advance for five spots
Bachalo
Bone
Bradshaw
Eaglesham
Fabok
Fowler
Hicks
Holmes
Immonen
Kirk
Nord
Paquette
Perez
Rossmo
Roy
Staples
To
Walsh

COVER ARTIST – 16 advance for five spots
Andrasofszky
Andrews
Bachalo
Bradshaw
Cooke
Del Mundo
Finch
Graham
Immonen
Jenkins
Lashley
Manapul
Paquette
Staples
Stokoe
Walsh

CARTOONIST – 14 advance for five spots
Bachalo
Bunjevic
Carroll
Chantler
Cooke
DeForge
Fawkes
Graham
Lemire
Manapul
Rilly
Rossmo
Stokoe
Tin Can Forest

WRITER – 11 advance for five spots
Brisson
Brouillettes
Cooke
Immonen
Kennedy
Lemire
North
Templeton
Torres
Wiebe
Zubkavich

FRENCH

The following creators were selected by more than one member of the 4 member French Language Nominating Committee and therefore advance to Round 2 (the overall rankings where all are considered by every member). Any creator appearing on 3 or more of the the NomCom short lists automatically bypasses Round 2 and is on the final ballot (but we won’t be sharing who they were until the final press release).

ARTIST – 2 advance for two spots
The nominees have been selected.

COVER ARTIST – 2 advance for two spots
The Nominees have been selected

CARTOONIST – 4 advance for two spots
Bédard
Bérubé
Castrée
Falardeau

WRITER – 3 advance for two spots
Britt
Desharnais
Fontaine-Rousseau

And that is where we stand. The French NomCom has finalized their selections for the ballot, while we are still in the midst of finalizing the selections from the English Language NomCom.

Watch for the final list in May.

We have two concurrent committees one for English language releases, and another for French. Ultimately we aim to have 7 nominees for each of these four categories – 5 English and 2 French. In the case of a tie, we may advance an additional nominee, increasing the final number of nominees in that category to no more than 8.

Results Round 1 – Having Received 1 or more nomination. Please note that this is not the final nominees list – the final nominees will come from within these lists.

ENGLISH

The following creators were on the combined short lists for the 16 English Language Nominating Committee members. In part 2 I’ll be listing the ones who were seconded and therefore advanced to the second round of voting. Any creator appearing on 8 or more of the the NomCom short lists automatically bypasses Round 2 and is on the final ballot.

ARTIST – 31 nominated for five spots
Bachalo, Chris
Bone, J.
Bradshaw, Nick
Chang, Bernard
Churchland, Marian
Del Mundo, Mike
Eaglesham, Dale
Fabok, Jason
Finch, David
Fowler, Tom
Hepburn, Scott
Hicks, Faith Erin
Holmes, Mike
Immonen, Stuart
Jenkins, Tyler
Kirk, Leonard
Matsumota, Nina
Molnar, Steve
Nord, Cary
Paquette, Yanick
Perez, Ramon
Rossmo, Riley
Roy, Simon
Schoening, Dan
Staples, Fiona
Stewart, Cameron
Templeton, Ty
To, Marcus
Walsh, Michael
Wheatley, Doug
Yeung, Craig

COVER ARTIST – 32 nominated for five spots
Alphona, Adrian
Andrasofszky, Kalman
Andrews, Kaare
Bachalo, Chris
Bradshaw, Nick
Bunjevic, Nina
Chantler, Scott
Cooke, Darwyn
Craig, Wes
De Forge, Michael
Del Mundo, Mike
Fabok, Jason
Finch, David
Graham, Brandon
Holmes, Mike
Immonen, Stuart
Jacobs, Jesse
Jenkins, Tyler
Keown, Dale
Lashley, Ken
Manapul, Francis
McFarlane, Todd
Nord, Cary
Paquette, Yanick
Roy, Simon
St. Aubin, Claude
Staples, Fiona
Stewart, Cameron
Stokoe, James
Templeton, Ty
Tin Can Forest
Walsh, Michael

CARTOONIST – 21 nominated for five spots
Agro, Sam
Andrews, Kaare
Bachalo, Chris
Bunjevic, Nina
Carroll, Emily
Chantler, Scott
Cooke, Darwyn
Davila, Claudia
DeForge, Michael
Fawkes, Ray
Graham, Brandon
Lemire, Jeff
Manapul, Francis
Rilly, Ethan
Rioux, Jo
Rossmo, Riley
Sim, Dave
Stokoe, James
Templeton, Ty
Tin Can Forest
Wilson, Britt

WRITER – 14 nominated for five spots
Brisson, Ed
Brouillette, Yann and Michel
Cooke, Darwyn
Immonen, Kathryn
Kennedy, Fred
Lemire, Jeff
Manapul, Francis
McClorey, Phil
McCulloch, Derek
McFarlane, Todd
North, Ryan
Templeton, Ty
Torres, J.
Wiebe, Kurtis
Wong, Howard
Zubjavich, Jim

FRENCH

The following creators were on the combined short lists for the 4 French Language Nominating Committee members. In part 2 I’ll be listing the ones who were seconded and therefore advanced to the second round of voting. Any creator appearing on 3 or more of the the NomCom short lists automatically bypasses Round 2 and is on the final ballot.

ARTIST – 7 nominated for two spots
Arsenault, Isabelle
Boutin-Gagne, Patrick
Giard, Luc
Henrichon, Niko
Labrosse, Thierry
Lamontagne, Jacques
MiniKim

COVER ARTIST – 10 nominated for two spots
Arsenault, Isabelle
Boloney
Castrée, Geneviève
Doisneau, Cyril
Falardeau, Michel
Labrosse, Thierry
Lamontagne, Jacques
Loisel, Régis / Tripp, Jean-Louis
Mikaël
Samson-Dunlop, Francois

CARTOONIST – 8 nominated for two spots
A, Alex
Bédard, Sophie
Bérubé, Jean-Sébastien
Boloney
Castrée, Geneviève
Denommé, Ariane
Falardeau, Michel
Girard, Philippe

WRITER – 5 nominated for two spots
Britt, Fanny
Desharnais, Francis
Desjardins, India
Fontaine-Rousseau, Alexandre
Lamontagne, Jacques

Jerry Siegel (left), Superman, Joe Shuster (right). Drawing by Shuster.

75 years ago today on April 18, 1938: Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938), featuring Canadian-born Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel’s Superman debuts on newsstands. They were each paid $130 for the work (about $10 a page each), but National retained the rights to the Superman character as part of the deal.

Happening this weekend in Vancouver, the 2nd Fan Expo Vancouver brought to you by the people at Hobbystar Marketing. Comics people and celebrities abound. I had a good time at this event last year, let’s hope that things are just as good or even better this year. Make sure you say hello to Leonard Wong at the Comics Legends Legal Defense Fund booth.