Canada has a rich tradition of supporting our national arts communities with awards that recognize the achievements of our citizens like the Genie Awards for film and television and the Juno Awards for music –in 2004, a group of individuals gathered to establish the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association, a not-for-profit organization that would coordinate and present what would eventually become known as the JOE SHUSTER AWARDS, Canada’s national award that honours and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, publish and sell comics, 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 Jerry Siegel, that electrified the industry in 1938 and, almost overnight, transformed comic books into an enormous pop-cultural phenomenon. The name is used with the approval of the Estate of Joe Shuster (Michael Catron, Estate Agent. Special thanks must go those people that supported the efforts of the Association at it’s beginning, such as Joe’s sister Jean Shuster-Peavy, and legendary comics creators like Jerry Robinson, Neal Adams and Dave Sim.

Comics are a collaborative medium, there are writers, artists, cover artists, letterers, editors and publishers. Some individuals wear many hats, and for that reason Cartoonists, also referred to as writer/artists are given their own category. The “core” creative Joe Shuster Awards consist of Cartoonist (writer/artist), Artist, Writer, Colourist, Cover Artist and Publisher for works that were professional distributed during the previous calendar year. With the rise of webcomics as a popular medium, those that create them are honoured in the award category of Outstanding Webcomics Creator/Creative Team.

From time to time, the awards may choose to retire or put on hiatus certain categories with the exception of Writer, Artist and Cartoonist.

The awards were chosen initially by public vote, but the process changed in 2007 to jury decision to ensure every nominee is given adequate consideration.

SPECIALTY AWARDS

THE HARRY KREMER RETAILER AWARD

The late Harry Kremer, owner of Now & Then Books in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, was a true pioneer in the industry and a constant and tireless promoter and patron of the medium and owner one of the first comic book specialty stores in Canada. His memory is kept alive in the award that has been named after him – the Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer Award. Past winners include Strange Adventures (Halifax), Happy Harbor (Edmonton), Big B (Hamilton), Legends (Victoria) and the Beguiling (Toronto).

THE GENE DAY SELF-PUBLISHER AWARD

Named after the late comics artist and self-publisher Gene 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 distributor. The nominees are selected from publications submitted for review from across Canada. Please see the page for details on where to send your submissions.

THE DRAGON AWARD – COMICS FOR KIDS

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 that are targeted at readers 14 and under. Nominees 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.

THE T.M. MAPLE AWARD – COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

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. T.M. Maple was the pseudonym of Jim Burke (1956-1994), a fan who wrote more than 3,000 letters to comic book letter columns between 1977 and 1994 as well as self-published numerous comics related fanzines during that time period.

THE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR HALL OF FAME

A Hall of Fame for creators that have distinguished themselves in the creation of comic books. In order to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, the creator’s first work must have been published at least 25 years before the year they are inducted into Hall of Fame.

DEFINING OUR ROLE

When it comes to defining comics our job is to be as INCLUSIVE as possible when narrowing the selections down to an EXCLUSIVE number of annual nominees – there is only one winner in each category though! We strive to ensure that our nominates represent the entire country’s output – whether that output is in English or French (Canada’s two official languages) or in other languages – the central defining characteristic of our nominees are that they are Canadian. We don’t censure Canadian creators who work with non-Canadian publishing houses – while Canada is a large and diverse country, for the creative awards, there are a very limited number of Canadian publishers.

We are also comics-industry focused — creative awards are for specific roles in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and BD —- each of those end results are really the sum of their parts — in most cases people are brought in to play specific parts, very much in the same way that one might direct a movie – there is a writer, a director, a cinematographer, an editor, etc. With comics there are writers, artists (pencillers, inkers, colourists), cover artists, letterers, editors and publishers.

However, we do have a special distinction for Cartoonists — a cartoonist is someone who does the central job of both writing and illustrating. These are the comic industry’s auteurs.

WHY CANADA?

Canada has a rich tradition of supporting our national arts communities with awards that recognize the achievements of our citizens. Canadians are very proud and supportive of our national arts communities, and our position is that promoting Canadians in comics will help raise their profile within the country. Promoting retailers will help customers find the comics they are interested in reading, and promoting publishers will help support and encourage the continued development of Canadian publishing houses.

THE EXECUTIVE

The Association Executive (also known as Administrative) Committee exists to oversee and coordinate the efforts of the Nominating and Judging sub-Committees, as well as fundraising and promotion. Membership in this committee changes from year to year and follows an election process established in the organizational charter and by-laws.