Jasper Simpkins
James Simpkins

More awards! This time for Canadian comics. The nominations for The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning, have just announced their finalists and they are:

2016 Doug Wright Award for Best Book

Dressing by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
Melody by Sylvie Rancourt (Drawn & Quarterly)
Palookaville #22 by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)
Stroppy by Marc Bell (Drawn & Quarterly)

SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

2016 Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) which recognizes Canadian cartoonists deserving of wider recognition:

Ted Gudlat for Funny Ha-Has (Roads Publishing)
Dakota McFadzean for Don’t Get Eaten By Anything (Conundrum Press)
Rebecca Roher for Mom Body (The Nib)
Sabrina Scott for Witchbody

Kat Verhoeven for Towerkind (Conundrum Press)

2016 Pigskin Peters Award which recognizes experimental, unconventional, and avant-garde Canadian comics are:

Leather Vest by Michael Comeau
New Comics # 6 & 7 by Patrick Kyle
Intelligent Sentient? by Luke Ramsey (Drawn & Quarterly)
We Are Going To Bremen To Be Musicians by Tin Can Forest and Geoff Berner

Agalma by Stanley Wany (Éditions Trip)

simpkins_james_1971

In addition the Giants of the North Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame will induct James Simpkins,  creator of Jasper the Bear. According to the PR:

Born in Winnipeg in 1910, Simpkins was a filmmaker, illustrator and artist who is best known for his hugely popular comic strip and gag cartoonJasper the Bear, which ran from 1948 to 1971 in Maclean’s and in syndication across Europe and Mexico. Jasper was an affable and anthropomorphic bear/family man whose humourous adventures among mankind gained him a unique place in Canadian society.   

Over the years Jasper’s comics were collected in five books and he became a virtual industry with his likeness appearing on dolls, toys, t-shirts, postcards, hats, colouring books, souvenir spoons, salt-and-pepper shakers and a Canadian two-dollar coin. In 1962 he became the official mascot for Jasper National Park in Alberta, which is home to a life-size replica of him. Simpkins passed away in 2004.

Finalists were selected by a jury consisting of Jerry Ciccoritti, Sean Rogers, Betty Liang, and Alex Hoffman. The winners will be selected by a jury consisting of Maurice Vellekoop, Nathalie Atkinson, and Emily Donaldson and announced at the always amazing ceremony at TCAF on Saturday May 14, 2016. More info here.

 

1 COMMENT

  1. Jasper by Simpkins is definitely a classic, unfortunately the millenials will not be familiar with his work…

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