The 2020 Prism Awards were held in a virtual ceremony on Saturday, October 17th, 2020 and Sunday, October 18th, 2020. The fourth time the ceremony has been held, the Prism Awards celebrate excellence and diversity in the field of queer comics.

Last year, the 3rd Annual Prism Awards, a joint venture of the Cartoon Art Museum, the Queer Comics Expo, and Prism comics, were held at SDCC19. And just like last year, The Beat’s fearless EIC Heidi MacDonald was one of the judges for the award. However, due to the realities of COVID-19, a lot of other things changed for the 2020 Prism Award ceremony.

Originally, the 4th Annual Prism Awards were to be held at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco in April 2020. However, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 4th annual Prism Awards were held online (and while it was sad that we couldn’t get together in person, it is nice that the ceremony was free to watch and available for everyone, including a stream of the event that was watchable without any kind of account).

Each of the five categories included three finalists. Magical Boy by The Kao was awarded the 2020 Prism Award for Best Webcomic, One Day Out by Ina Bestari was awarded the 2020 Prism Award for Best Short Form Comic, Trans Girls Hit the Town by Emma Jayne was awarded the 2020 Prism Award for Small to Midsize Press Comic, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell was awarded the 2020 Prism Award for Best Mainstream Comic, and Heartwood by Joamette Gil was awarded the 2020 Prism Award for Best Anthology.

The finalists and winners for each category are listed below, and if you’d like to watch the ceremony, it is currently available to view on YouTube.

Webcomic

Winner: Magical Boy by The Kao

Finalist: The Girl that Can’t Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi
Finalist: Cafe Suada by Jade Sarson

Short Form

Winner: One Day Out by Ina Bestari

Finalist: In Search of Absent Pigments by Alex Assan & Lin Darrow
Finalist: Pseudo Slut Transmission by Emma Jayne

Small to Midsize Press

Winner: Trans Girls Hit The Town by Emma Jayne

Finalist: Lemonade Summer by Gabi Mendez
Finalist: Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman

Mainstream

Winner: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Finalist: Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau
Finalist: Kiss Number #8 by Colleen AF Venable & Ellen T. Crenshaw

Anthology

Winner: Heartwood by Joamette Gil


Finalist: Come Together edited by Tab Kimpton and Alex Assan
Finalist: Shout Out edited by Steven Andrews