It’s a milestone year for the annual Festival de la bande dessinée francophone de Québec (which roughly translates as the Quebec Festival of Francophone Comics)  which is scheduled to run from April 11th through to April 15th in Quebec City. The details on the event have yet to be released, but given the star power the event has drawn in the past from Quebec and the European comics scene, one would expect to see a lot of the stars of the BD community there.

The Prix Bédéis Causa, for the best Francophone comics from Quebec and abroad will be presented at the FBDFQ. If they follow the normal pattern, the nominees will be announced in early March. The nominees are selected from new releases published between March 2011 and February 2012.

Here’s a list of notable BD releases by Quebec creators in 2011, most of which are eligible for consideration. All of the list below are eligible for consideration for a Joe Shuster Award in various categories (Artist, Writer, Cartoonist, Cover Artist, and Comics for Kids). They cover the gamut from serious, artistic comics, to humour publications for children. In between there are autobiographical, historical, action-adventure, crime, horror, science fiction, and much, much more: expect to see many of these mentioned on this site as the nominations for the Bédéis Causa, Bédélys and Joe Shusters are announced this spring.