That’s “Wright”, The Doug Wright Awards celebrating and honouring Canadian cartoonists have been introduced on the Toronto Comedian Arts Pageant (or extra generally referred to as TCAF) in Toronto on Saturday, April 29 2023. The present introduced 4 awards and added a brand new inductee the Big of the North Corridor of Fame.
This yr’s Giants of the North inductee is Henriette Valium (1959–2021), a comic book e-book artist and painter, and the winner of the 2017 Pigskin Peters award, for his e-book The Palace of Champions and the winner of the 2018 Albert-Chartier award, for his contribution to the sector of comedian e-book in Quebec. Valium was a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal whose eclectic different comics work was a pillar of the Montreal Comix scene who sadly handed a lot too younger. In the event you haven’t already, I might extremely suggest you learn the function Marc Tessier wrote about Valium over at The Comics Journal. It’s a near-perfect abstract of Valium and his work.
The primary award of the ceremony, the Egghead, honouring the perfect youngsters e-book, went to Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth for You Know, Intercourse, revealed by Triangle Sq..
The second award of the ceremony, the Pigskin Peters Award, honouring the perfect small-press or micro-press e-book, went to Ivana Filipovich for her self-published comedian The place Have You Been?
The following award of the ceremony, the Nipper, the award for rising expertise, went to Shelterbelts by Jonathan Dyck (revealed by Conundrum Press).
The Awards took a while to supply a touching tribute to 2 cartoonists, Scott Carruthers & Mandy Kujawa, throughout an in memoriam section earlier than transferring on to inducting Henriette Valium within the Giants of the North corridor of fame.
And eventually, the Doug Wright Award for finest e-book went to Geese: Two Years within the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (revealed by Drawn & Quarterly). This e-book has been making a number of waves and just lately gained this yr’s version of Canada Reads, the primary time a comic book e-book gained this because the occasion’s begin in 2001.
This yr’s Doug Wright Awards mark one other event to replicate on the colourful and numerous ecosystem of Canadian comics. We’d encourage you to hunt out the comics of every nominees. They’re all distinctive, difficult, distinctive and fascinating work that’s well-worth your time.
