The British Comic Awards (in association with Page 45) 2015 shortlist was announced on Friday with an eclectic selection of books, styles and approaches to the form making up the names in each category. In the Best Book, Best Comic and Young People’s Comic Award Category no less than 40% of the nominations were self-published; a sure sign indeed of the strength of the UK small press scene at the moment. The Hall of Fame entrant this year is the legendary Dudley D. Watkins, creator of Desperate Dan, Oor Wullie and The Broons.
As one of the awards committee this year I’m going to forego our usual commentary on the shortlists and, instead, provide a list of links to any Broken Frontier review/interview coverage of the nominees that we may have run over the last year. The 4th Annual British Comic Awards Ceremony will take place at 6pm on Friday 13th November in The Carriageworks’ Millennium Room in Central Leeds as part of the Thought Bubble festival.
Best Comic
- Beast Wagon – Owen Michael Johnson, John Pearson and Colin Bell (Self-published) Review here
- Grey Area: From the City to the Sea – Tim Bird (Avery Hill Publishing) Review here
- Hand Me Down – Kristyna Baczynski (Self-published)
- Lost Property – Andy Poyiadgi (Nobrow Press) Review here
- Strip – Sarah Gordon (Self-published)
Best Book
- Comic Book Slumber Party: Fairytales for Bad Bitches – Hannah Chapman (Editor); Stephanie Ayres, Sarah Burgess, Emma Carlisle, Lucie Ebrey, Enoki, Lize Meddings, Becca Tobin, Donya Todd, Alice Urbino and Jenn Woodall (Self-published) Review here
- Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy – Darryl Cunningham (Myriad Editions) Interview here
- The Motherless Oven – Rob Davis (SelfMadeHero) Review here, Interview here
- The Rabbit – Rachael Smith (Avery Hill Publishing) Review here, Creator commentary here
- Tim Ginger – Julian Hanshaw (Top Shelf) Review here
Young People’s Comic Award
- Cindy and Biscuit Vol 1: We Love Trouble – Dan White (Self-published/Milk the Cat Comics) Review here
- Gary’s Garden Book 1 – Gary Northfield (David Fickling Books) Review here
- Ghost Cat’s Pedigree Chums – Craig Conlan (Self-published) Review here
- Maleficium – EdieOP (Avery Hill Publishing) Review here, Interview here
- Star Cat Book 01 – James Turner (David Fickling Books)
Emerging Talent
- Sarah Graley (Our Super Adventure, Pizza Witch, Rent Quest)
- Rachael Stott (Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #3, Star Trek #46 and #47, Star Trek/Planet of the Apes #1-5)
- Matt Taylor (The Great Salt Lake, Wolf #1 and #2)
- Adam Vian (Long Lost Lempi, Snippets: Extracts from 4 Comics that Don’t Exist) Interview here, Review here
- Christian Ward (ODY-C Volume 1, ODY-C #6)
Hall of Fame
The fourth entrant to the BCA Hall of Fame will be Scottish comics legend and creator of Desperate Dan, Oor Wullie and The Broons, Dudley D. Watkins.
