The accomplishments of our Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ artists are always a delight to us at BF. So you can imagine how pleased we are tonight to hear that Danny Noble (whose debut long-form graphic memoir Shame Pudding was published by Street Noise Books this year) was the joint winner of this year’s ‘Humorous Graphic Novel’ category in the Comedy Women in Print Prize for Was it… Too Much for You?. Also winning the split category was Posy Simmonds for her graphic novel Cassandra Darke, a contemporary re-imagining of A Christmas Carol. Noble was also shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Future Awards this year.
Founded by comedian, actress and writer Helen Lederer, the CWIP Prize is described as “the first UK and Ireland comedy literary prize to shine a light on witty women authors.” This was the first year the prize included a ‘Humorous Graphic Novel’ category (in association with LDComics), with that section also covering self-published material. Work from the last five years was eligible for entry. You can read more about Comedy Women in Print Prize on the CWIP site here.
Was it… Too Much for You? follows the deliciously debauched misadventures of the perpetually naked Ollie and Alan, Danny Noble’s alternative universe versions of actors Oliver Reed and Alan Bates who retired to a small suburban flat after being overcome by the frisson of their nude wrestling scene in Ken Russell’s film Women in Love in the late ’60s. I described it at BF as “Bitingly witty, boundlessly inventive, perfectly paced and demonstrating the most profound fluency in the pure language of comics,” You can read a review of it here on the site and a review of the follow-up Ollie and Alan’s Big Move here.
This year Danny Noble’s graphic memoir Shame Pudding was published by Street Noise Books. We reviewed it here and interviewed Danny about it here. Congratulations to both winners!
You can order Was it… Too Much for You? from Danny Noble’s online store here and Cassandra Darke from Gosh! Comics here.
