As the year begins winding down, we begin the finalizing of the list of eligible publications and creators for the 2013 nominating committee to make their selections from.

In early November we had some meetings to discuss the direction the awards will take in 2013, the positions needing to be filled, and a number of new folks have joined the CCBCAA team.

We’ll have some news on the various fronts in early 2013 as well as the city, date and convention that we plan to coincide the award presentations with.

As we near the holidays, now is a great time to consider buying comics or graphic novels for your friends and loved ones as Christmas gifts. We hope you’ll consider the many great works by Canadian creators… some recent arrivals that would make great gifts: The Flash New 52 Vol. 1 hardcover (by Francis Manapul), Parker – The Hunter softcover edition (by Darwyn Cooke), and the X-O Manowar Vol. 1 trade paperback (art by Cary Nord). Recently, All New X-Men 1-3 (4 is out next week) has been a bona fide smash hit (art by Stuart Immonen).

Congratulations also to Jim Zubkavich and Ray Fawkes for their recently announced gigs writing for DC Comics (Birds of Prey and Batgirl respectively), and Jeff Lemire will be moving over to write Green Arrow in February, and as Sweet Tooth concludes in early January comes word that he will have a new Vertigo series to be released sometime in 2013. J. Bone will be drawing a new Rocketeer mini-series in February, and Kill Shakespeare will be returning that month as well, as the original creative team reunites to continue the tale.