Broken Frontier Awards 2020: Announcing the Winners – A Huge Year for Zoe Thorogood, Shazleen Khan and Avery Hill Publishing, and Gosh! Comics Are this Year’s Hall of Fame Entrants!

Broken Frontier proudly announces the winners of the 17th annual BF Awards, as voted for by you our readers and the BF team.

Last year in our BF Awards write-up we said that interest in the ballot was unprecedented. That was nothing, though, compared to this year which saw voting from a truly gobal audience including (draws a deep breath…) Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, USA, Virgin Islands and Wales.

Thank you to everyone who took part!

For the first year ever there were no Big Two super-hero comics on the shortlists but there was the usual eclectic mix of self-published comics, micropublished work, and high profile serial comics and graphic novels. It was a huge year for Zoe Thorogood whose debut graphic novel The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott has been not so much critically acclaimed as critically adored. Zoe won in all three categories she was nominated for. Similarly Shazleen Khan won in both categories she was nominated in for Buuza!!, her LGBTQ, slice-of-life, urban fantasy webcomic. Despite its considerable audience online Buuza!! is a comic that is due far wider recognition and that double win for Shazleen is much deserved. And we can’t go without mentioning Aditya Bidikar’s staggering fourth win a row in the category of Best Letterer, something unseen in the BF Awards since Jordie Bellaire’s run of Best Colorist wins a few years back.

Once again there are results you may have expected (a phenomenal year of books from Avery Hill sees them picking up multiple awards including Best Publisher) and there are some that may surprise you (a couple of small press books winning out over Big Five publishers, perhaps underlining the alt comics-centric interests of BF’s audience). And it’s also pleasing to see a debut graphic memoir from a new publishing endeavour take an award with original Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ creator Danny Noble’s Shame Pudding, a coming-of-age account of life with her Jewish grandmothers, giving both her and publisher Street Noise Books a fitting moment in the spotlight.

In this most difficult of all years for comics retail we decided that our choice for Hall of Fame entrant would be one that would recognise the vital importance of those comics shops that act as community hubs, bringing people together and playing their part in championing emerging voices. As I have said before at BF “stores that put themselves at the very heart of the creative community they serve, and are as much activists for the medium as they are retailers, are the way of the future.” Our Hall of Fame is designed to acknowledge individuals or institutions with a decade-plus of bringing talented creators to new audiences and elevating emerging artists, and for 2020 we wanted to pick a shop that represents the incredible work going on globally by comics retailers who acknowledge and push the broader potential of the form by promoting the grassroots side of the scene.

We’ve chosen London’s Gosh! Comics as being an excellent example of one of the many comics shops that go above and beyond the call in that regard. Many shops have well stocked small press sections that give aspiring creators an opportunity to see their work on the shelves of their favourite store but Gosh have exceeded that over the years. They’ve given self-publishers and small pressers launch nights for their work, run regular meet-up/reading/discussion groups (the Process group run by Steve Walsh bringing new creators together which spawned multiple anthology comics particularly stands out), and have hosted events designed to bring creators and publishers together (having sat on a small press symposium panel, chaired a panel on pitching to a publisher, and on various small press workshops at Gosh I can certainly attest to that). And, of course, there’s the Drink and Draw events that we have been collaborating on with Gosh since 2015.

In short, they’ve not simply fostered a sense of comics community they’ve created one; people have been brought together who would never have met otherwise, collaborative bonds have been forged that would not have occurred without them, and comics projects that would have gone unpublished have seen the light of day through creators finding each other via the welcoming environs of 1, Berwick Street. We don’t want to stop there though. We want to use this year’s Hall of Fame announcement as an opportunity to celebrate shops globally in this most trying time for them. So this week we’ll be using the hashtag #CelebrateYourLCS on social media and looking for stories about how your shop has played its part in supporting new creative voices and boosting their profiles. Look for a post on that later today at BF.

Congratulations then to all the winners but also, of course, to the nominees. The quality of the work below is incredible. Whatever else 2020 may have been it was an outstanding year for comics, especially for debut work. At some point soon we’ll run a list of BF review/interview links so you can check out some of these books in more detail but they wouldn’t be on the shortlists if they didn’t embody the unique storytelling possibilities of this wonderful medium we all love. Give them and their creators some support if you can. Thank you to everyone once again for your votes, your support for the Broken Frontier Awards and for sharing the ballot on social media!

Best Writer: Zoe Thorogood (The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott)

Other nominees:

• David F. Walker & Chuck Brown (Bitter Root)
• Jim Terry (Come Home, Indio)
• Mark Russell (Billionaire Island, Second Coming)
• Ram V (Blue in Green)

Best Artist: Owen D. Pomery (British Ice, Victory Point)

Other nominees:

• Anand RK (Blue in Green)
• Charlot Kristensen (What We Don’t Talk About)
• DaNi (Coffin Bound)
• Lucy Sullivan (Barking, IND-XED)

Best Colorist: Shazleen Khan (Buuza!!)

Other nominees:

• Brad Simpson (Coffin Bound)
• Dave Stewart (Gideon Falls, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb)
• Jason Wordie (Protector/First Knife, The Autumnal)
• Sofie Dodgson (Bitter Root, Insider Art)

Best Letterer: Aditya Bidikar (Coffin Bound, Blue in Green, Giga)

Other nominees:

• Clayton Cowles (Bitter Root)
• Galen Showman (Norse Mythology)
• Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou (Protector/First Knife)
• Jim Campbell (Folklords, The Autumnal)

Breakout Talent: Zoe Thorogood (The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott)

Other nominees:

• Abs Bailey (Zebedee and the Valentines, Avery Hill Publishing)
• Anna Readman (‘Abelard Snazz: The Only Way is Up’, 2000 AD)
• Charlot Kristensen (What We Don’t Talk About, Avery Hill Publishing)
• Henry McCausland (Eight-Lane Runaways, Fantagraphics Books)

Best Periodical Series: Bitter Root (Chuck Brown, David F. Walker, Sanford Greene, Sofie Dodgson, Clayton Cowles, edited by Shelly Bond, Image Comics)

Other nominees:

• Coffin Bound (Dan Watters, DaNi, Brad Simpson, Aditya Bidikar, Emma Price, Image Comics)
• Fizzle (Whit Taylor, Radiator Comics)
• Ley Lines (Victor Martins, Simon Moreton, Czap Books/Grindstone Comics)
• š! (Anthology – various creators, edited by David Schilter and Sanita Muižniece, kuš! comics)

Best New Periodical Series: Biggol (Ioan Morris, Carp Publishing Endeavours)

Other nominees:

• Billionaire Island (Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Chris Chuckry, Rob Steen, Ahoy Comics)
• The Department of Truth (James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds, Aditya Bidikar, Dylan Todd, Image Comics )
• Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell, Mike Mignola Jerry Ordway, Lovern Kindzierski. Dave Stewart, Galen Showman, Piotr Kowalski)
• Protector/First Knife (Simon Roy, Daniel Bensen, Artyom Trakhanov, Jason Wordie, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Image Comics )

Bes One-Shot: So I Guess My Body Pretty Much Hates Me Now (John Miers, Self-published)

Other nominees:

• Escapades (Olivia Sullivan, Self-published)
• For Sarah (Peony Gent, Self-published)
• Hedra (Jesse Lonergan, Image Comics)
• Sports is Hell (Ben Passmore, Koyama Press)

Best One-Shot Anthology: Be Gay, Do Comics (Anthology – Various creators, The Nib/IDW Publishing)

Other nominees:

• Insider Art (Anthology – Various creators, Shelly Bond et al)
• The Nixie of the Mill Pond and Other European Stories (Anthology – Various creators, Iron Circus Comics)
• The Return of Sexton Blake (Anthology – Various creators, Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics)
• Success/Failure (Anthology – Various creators, WIP Comics)

Best Webcomic: Buuza!! (Shazleen Khan)

Other nominees:

• Crisis Zone (Simon Hanselmann)
• Genius Animals? (Vali Chandrasekaran & Jun-Pierre Shiozawa)
• Spacewarriors (Jasmin Garcia-Verdin)
• Webcomic Name (Alex Norris)

Best Graphic Novel: The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott (Zoe Thorogood, Avery Hill Publishing)

Other nominees:

• Breakwater (Katriona Chapman, Avery Hill Publishing)
• Don’t Go Without Me (Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Shortbox)
• Flake (Matthew Dooley, Jonathan Cape)
• Glass Town (Isabel Greenberg, Jonathan Cape)

Best Graphic Non-Fiction: Shame Pudding (Danny Noble, Street Noise Books)

Other nominees:

• Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence (Joel Christian Gill, Oni Press)
• There’s Only One Place this Road Ever Ends Up (David Biskup, ELCAF x WeTransfer Award winner)
• When Stars Are Scattered (Omar Mohamed, Victoria Jamieson & Iman Geddy, Faber and Faber)
• The Wolf of Baghdad: Memoir of a Lost Homeland (Carol Isaacs/The Surreal McCoy, Myriad Editions)

Best Collection of Classic Material: The Complete Hate (Peter Bagge. Fantagraphics Books)

Other nominees:

• EC Archives: Psychoanalysis (Robert Bernstein (W), Jack Kamen (A), Marie Severin, Dark Horse Comics)
• Fax from Sarajevo (Joe Kubert, Dark Horse Comics)
• The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire Vol. 1 (Mike Butterworth, Don Lawrence, Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics)
• Third World War Vol. 1 (Pat Mills, Angela Kincaid, Carlos Ezquerra & D’Israeli • Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics)

Best Book on Comics: UK Feminist Cartoons and Comics: A Critical Survey (Nicola Streeten, Palgrave Macmillan)

Other nominees:

• Critical Directions in Comics Studies (Thomas Giddens, University Press of Mississippi)
• Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia (edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, University Press of Mississippi)
• Masters of British Comic Art (David Roach, Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics)
• Webcomics (Sean Kleefeld, Bloomsbury)

Best Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing

Other nominees:

• Drawn & Quarterly
• Myriad Editions
• SelfMadeHero
• Street Noise Books

Broken Frontier Hall of Fame: Gosh! Comics

• 2020 – Gosh! Comics
• 2019 – David Schilter and Sanita Muižniece (kuš! comics)
• 2018 – Corinne Pearlman (Myriad Editions)
• 2017 – Annie Koyama (Koyama Press)