Broken Frontier proudly announces the winners of the 22nd annual BF Awards, as voted for by you, our readers, and the BF team.
Socio-political reportage, comics for the 7-14 years old age group, newspapers strips from a century ago, and meta commentary on super-hero crossover events… the Broken Frontier Award winners certainly have something for everyone this time round.
When we announced the winners of the BF Awards last year on the site I spoke about how the nominations and winners reflected yet another year of global turmoil. Unsurprisingly, given our continuing descent into dystopian nightmare, that seems an even more obvious observation this year. No less than four of our fifteen categories – nearly a third of the awards – went to work centring on the genocide in Gaza. Some of it, like Safaa Odah’s Safaa and the Tent, came directly from those affected. Others – like the Cartoonists for Gaza initiative – was observational commentary from outside the direct conflict. All of it was worthy work deserving of your attention and deserving of the accolades they got.
For the second year in a row one category was decided by just one vote out of thousands. Quite astonishing to watch from behind the scenes as lead nominees continued to displace each other on a daily basis. After years of nominations the time was right for acclaimed British kids weekly The Phoenix to take its place as Best Periodical Series, and Avery Hill returned as Best Publisher after a few years gap, having won the category multiple times before. A special mention for one of the nominees who didn’t win but was nonetheless nominated in three separate sections for her book Mother. Seriously, some publisher out there needs to sweep in and pick up Abs Bailey’s self-published graphic novella. It would be a crime if this story wasn’t brought to a much wider audience.
This year’s Broken Frontier Hall of Fame entrants also get their moment in the spotlight today. So here’s our criteria for that recognition: We look to honour individuals or organisations who have made significant contributions not just to comics publishing but also to comics community over the course of more than a decade. Of the two names one is selected from the UK scene and will be somebody who has in some sense collaborated or worked with BF to push the medium. The other choice is an international voice who similarly works to champion the form and its practitioners.
This year we are firstly very excited to announce that London’s Cartoon Museum are the UK entrant to the Hall of Fame. From panels to presentations to cartoonist conferences, BF has worked with the museum on numerous occasions in the past. Its mission to “champion cartoon and comic art, highlighting its value to culture and society” would be enough on its own to qualify it for inclusion, especially given the indie/small press publishers who have had their work on show in recent years. But initiatives like their young artist residencies and promotion of awards for young cartoonists seal the deal.
Internationally, we want to recognise the work of Canadian publisher Conundrum Press. In making my notes for this introduction I was quite shocked to realise how little space we have given them over the last year. Something we will have to remedy in the next few months. Their socially conscious publishing output, minicomic bursaries for Black and indigenous creators, and their established commitments to marginalised voices all deserve this recognition. You can discover more about their history and ethos in this interview from three years ago with Conundrum’s Andy Brown here at BF.
Once again, thank you for voting, for your support for the BF Awards and for all your sharing on social media. Congratulations to all the winners and to the nominees! And if there’s work below unfamiliar to you please check it out. This is an eclectic list of comics magic that encompasses all areas of the form, and you just may discover a new favourite or seven among the names below.
Best Writer: Mariko Tamaki (This Place Kills Me, Abrams)
Other nominees:
- Darryl Cunningham (Elon Musk: American Oligarch, Seven Stories Press)
- Deniz Camp (Assorted Crisis Events, Image Comics, Absolute Martian Manhunter, DC)
- Marjorie Liu (Monstress, Image Comics)
- Paul Cornell (Who Killed Nessie?, Avery Hill Publishing)
Best Artist: Keezy Young (Hello Sunshine, Little, Brown)
Other nominees:
- Abs Bailey (Mother, Self-published)
- Anna Readman (Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion, Macabre Valley #1, Comics Bookcase)
- Donya Todd (The Witch’s Egg, Avery Hill Publishing)
- Linnea Sterte (A Garden of Spheres, Peow Studio)
Best Colorist: Joe Latham (Haru: Book 3: Fall, Andrews McMeel)
Other nominees:
- Abs Bailey (Mother, Self-published)
- Bex Glendining (On Starlit Shores, Abrams)
- Dave Stewart (Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown, Dark Horse)
- Javier Rodríguez (Absolute Martian Manhunter, DC Comics)
Best Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Assorted Crisis Events, Image, Absolute Martian Manhunter, DC)
Other nominees:
- Becca Carey (Exquisite Corpses, Image Comics)
- Lucas Gattoni (Young Men in Love: New Romance, AWBW, Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton, DC)
- Rob Jones (Who Are the Power Pals?, Dark Horse Comics)
- Rus Wooton (Escape, Image Comics)
Breakout Talent: Bex Glendining (On Starlit Shores, Abrams)
Other nominees:
- Alex Taylor (Bone Broth, SelfMadeHero)
- Kay Sohini (This Beautiful, Ridiculous City, Jonathan Cape/Ten Speed Press)
- Kayla E. (Precious Rubbish, Fantagraphics Books)
- Paige Hender (The Confessional, Silver Sprocket)
Best Periodical Series: The Phoenix (Anthology series – multiple creators, David Fickling Comics)
Other nominees:
- Colossive Cartographies (Anthology series – multiple creators, Colossive Press)
- Fizzle (Whit Taylor, Radiator Comics)
- mini kuš! (Anthology series – multiple creators, kuš! comics)
- Wedding Juice and Other Melodramas (Sanika Phawde, Self-published)
Best New Periodical Series: Assorted Crisis Events (Deniz Camp, Eric Zawadzki, Jordie Bellaire, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou & Tom Muller, Image Comics)
Other nominees:
- Absolute Martian Manhunter (Deniz Camp, Javier Rodriguez & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, DC)
- Pleasure Beach (Josh Pettinger, Self-published)
- Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum (W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, et al. DC Comics)
- Who Are the Power Pals? (Duane Murray, Ahmed Raafat & Rob Jones, Dark Horse Comics)
Best One-Shot: Safaa and the Tent: Diary of a Cartoonist from Gaza Oct 2023-Dec 2024 (Safaa Odah, LICAF)
Other nominees:
- Diary of a Detainee (R. E. Burke, Self-published)
- Free for All #1 (Patrick Horvath, Oni Press)
- The Keluarga Cable Ship Company (Mereida Fajardo, LDComics Online Fair)
- Mother (Abs Bailey, Self-published)
Best One-Shot Anthology: Samidoon: Comics for a Free Palestine (Edited by David Mariotte & Anas Abdulhak, multiple creators)
Other nominees:
- ∞: The new WIP Comics Anthology (Edited by Mike Armstrong, multiple creators, WIP Comics)
- Brain Damage (Shintaro Kago, translated by Zack Davisson, Fantagraphics Books)
- World Within the World (Julia Gfrörer, Fantagraphics Books)
- Young Men in Love: New Romance (Edited by Joe Glass & Matt Miner, multiple creators, A Wave Blue World)
Best Webcomic: Cartoonists for Gaza (Organised by Krent Able and Rachael Ball, multiple creators)
Other nominees:
- Nap Comix (Rachael Smith)
- Ruin of the House of the Divine Visage (Eve & Spire Greenwood)
- Safaa and the Tent (Safaa Odah’s Instagram reportage from Gaza) (Safaa Odah)
- Schroeder’s Ahoy (Paul Schroeder)
Best Graphic Novel: The Witch’s Egg (Donya Todd, Avery Hill Publishing)
Other nominees:
- Cannon (Lee Lai, Drawn & Quarterly)
- Drome (Jesse Lonergan, Macmillan)
- Hello Sunshine (Keezy Young, Little, Brown)
- Precious Rubbish (Kayla E., Fantagraphics Books)
Best Graphic Non-Fiction: 30 Seconds from Gaza: Diary of Genocide (Mohammad Sabaaneh, Olive Branch Press)
Other nominees:
- Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me (Mimi Pond, Drawn & Quarterly)
- Elon Musk: American Oligarch (Darryl Cunningham, Seven Stories Press)
- Gaza in My Phone (Mazen Kerbaj, OR Books)
- Gesticulating Gentrification (Rick Trembles, Conundrum Press)
Best Collection of Classic Material: The Smythes (Rea Irvin, edited by R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw, New York Review Comics)
- Brooklyn Dreams (J.M. DeMatteis & Glen Barr, Dark Horse)
- The Cabbie: Definitive Edition (Martí Riera Ferrer, translated by Andrea Rosenberg Fantagraphics Books)
- Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist (Diane DiMassa, New York Review Comics)
- Saga de Xam (Nicolas Devil and Jean Rollin, Anthology Editions)
Best Book on Comics: Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund (Caitlin McGurk, Fantagraphics Books)
Other nominees:
- American Comic Book Chronicles 1945-1949 (Keith Dallas, John Wells & Richard J. Arndt, TwoMorrows Publishing)
- Marvel Age of Comics: The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s (Paul Cornell, Bloomsbury)
- Conversations with Denis Kitchen (Edited by Kim A. Munson, University Press of Mississippi)
- Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics (Eike Exner, Yale University Press)
Best Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing
Other nominees:
- Drawn & Quarterly
- Fantagraphics Books
- New York Review Comics
- SelfMadeHero
Broken Frontier Hall of Fame
- 2017 – Annie Koyama (Koyama Press)
- 2018 – Corinne Pearlman (Myriad Editions)
- 2019 – David Schilter and Sanita Muižniece (kuš! comics)
- 2020 – Gosh! Comics
- 2021 – Steve Walsh (Gosh! Comics, Avery Hill Publishing)
- 2022 – Avery Hill Publishing and C. Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics)
- 2023 – Thought Bubble and Toronto Comic Art Festival (TCAF)
- 2024 – Emma Hayley (SelfMadeHero) and Silver Sprocket
- 2025 – The Cartoon Museum (London) and Conundrum Press
Thank you for voting in the Broken Frontier Awards for 2025!
