UPDATE: Of course, we’re joking.

It’s with a mixture of emotions that I must announce that we are changing our name after Year Six. Named after the Toronto-born co-creator of Superman, the Joe Shuster Awards will become the Reginald “Spunky” MacPherson Awards in 2011.

Above: the famous “Spunky” Mountie

Reginald MacPherson aka “Spunky” MacPherson (1902-1971) was born in the highlands of Scotland near the turn of the last century and emigrated to Canada at the age of 35 to avoid the pending European conflict. The iconic Canadian comic book artist toiled for years in obscurity drawing stories of Mounties and hardy adventurers in the pages of Canadian Northern Boys Magazine in the 1950’s. He would later go on to redefine colouring books in Canada with his highly detailed illustrations of Canadian landmarks and Inuit children for publisher McDonald and Fraser. A ten-pack a day smoker in his later years, Spunky passed in 1971 from lung cancer. A book is planned.

More on this as we confirm the details.