The inaugural Glyph Comics Awards (GCA) ceremony, honoring the best in black comic books and creators, was held during the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia this past May and was warmly received. Now, the GCA Committee has begun making preparations for the 2007 competition by holding an industry-wide call for submissions.
Nine of the ten awards are selected by a panel of judges, led by Committee Chair and awards founder Rich Watson. The tenth is voted on by the fans in a special online ballot. The rest of the judges are:
- Johanna Draper Carlson, founder of the review website ComicsWorthReading.com
- Pam Noles, professional writer and former Eisner Awards judge
- Calvin Reid, senior editor for Publishers Weekly and former Eisner Awards judge
- Hannibal Tabu, online comics reviewer and professional fiction writer
Any comics publisher - small, large, corporate, independent, self-published - as well as online comic creators and cartoonists for newspapers and other periodicals are invited to submit black-themed material released from January 1 to December 31, 2006 for consideration for award recognition. The Committee defines black-themed work as any comic with any combination of the following: a black protagonist(s), or at least a black character(s) pivotal to the direction of the story; a setting(s) or a theme(s) that explores the black experience within the United States and/or abroad, past, present, and/or future; and/or a comic of any kind written, illustrated, and/or published by a black creator(s).
Anyone wishing to submit their comic book or comic strip for consideration in the 2007 competition should e-mail Rich Watson at rich.watson@gmail.com for further information. Only completed works will be considered, not works in progress. Hard copies are preferred, though submissions of e-files will also be accepted. Online comics creators and newspaper/periodical cartoonists with websites should send a direct URL link to their site or page. Daily cartoonists must have a minimum of one month's work archived and available for viewing; weekly cartoonists a minimum of two months. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2007.
The 2007 Glyph Comics Awards ceremony will be held at ECBACC, May 18-19, 2007.
About the Glyph Comics Awards:
The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.
The awards are named for the blog Glyphs: The Language of the Black Comics Community (http://glyphs.popcultureshock.com), started in 2005 by comics journalist Rich Watson as a means to provide news and commentary of comics with black themes, as well as tangential topics in the fields of black science-fiction/fantasy and animation. The blog recently moved to its new home at the site PopCultureShock.com.
About ECBACC:
The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (www.ecbacc.com), in association with the Temple University Pan-African Studies Community Education Program, is an annual gathering of comic book creators and retailers who create and sell material that caters to black readers of all ages. In addition to selling their work, they also take part in panel discussions and self-publishing workshops for aspiring creators. The convention is held on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia each May. There is also a pre-show reception held at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. ECBACC is an outgrowth of the original Black Age of Comics Convention in Chicago, founded by Turtel Onli.
For more information about ECBACC, contact event coordinator Maurice Waters at maurice.waters@ecbacc.com.
This was a press release - I just realized it seems like I'm passing it off as my writing - Brian.