The recipient of this year’s Tom Spurgeon Award has been announced: comics publisher and philanthropist Annie Koyama.
It’s hard to imagine a more worthy recipient of the award, which honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of comics, but are not primarily cartoonists. Koyama is a beloved figure in the industry, first as publisher of Koyama Press, and now as the person behind Koyama Provides, a grant for cartoonists. She is truly one of the people who has made the comics industry a better place.
The Tom Spurgeon Award is named after the late comics historian and journalist, who died in 2019, and is presented annually at CXC in Columbus. This year’s show will be held September 26-29.
More on Koyama from the PR:
Annie Koyama is the founder-publisher of the alternative comics powerhouse, Koyama Press, established in 2007 in Toronto. Koyama Press supported more than just its own slate of creators as a positive voice in the community for comics and cartoon art.
Annie’s personal story is no less inspiring. After surviving a terminal brain aneurysm diagnosis, Annie chose to leave a successful career in film and advertising to pursue her passion for supporting and publishing emerging artists by creating Koyama Press in 2007. Titles from Koyama Press have been nominated for or won every major award in comics. In 2011, Koyama Press was presented with the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Publisher. CXC finds itself in good company as Annie has been honored with the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, Broken Frontier’s first Hall of Fame Award and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ontario College of Art & Design University.
“Annie Koyama is a beacon in the world of independent comics,” comments Caitlin McGurk, CXC Awards Committee Chair. “Through her unwavering efforts to uplift the voices of a diverse network of cartoonists, she quickly established herself as a fairy godmother-like figure in the community—and one with impeccable taste. Koyama serves as a model of excellence for how to make a lasting impact in the lives of creators, and we are thrilled to honor her with this award.”
Although Koyama Press ceased operations in 2021, Annie Koyama has continued to support artists with the creation of a grant initiative, Koyama Provides. These mini-grants support the projects of independent artists, often providing them with enough funding to allow creators to complete projects, or start new ones.
“I’m thrilled to have been chosen as the 2024 recipient of the Tom Spurgeon Award,” stated Annie Koyama by email, “I’m thankful to have found a way to stay connected to a community that I love, by directly supporting artists, especially cartoonists. Tom reached out to me in the early days of the press, when I had seemingly come out of nowhere and he continued to support the press and my plans beyond the press, for which I’ll always be grateful.”
Koyama is the third recipient of the Spurgeon Award. Calvin Reid won last year, and Frederik Schodt won the first award in 2023. In addition, there have been three posthumous honorees: Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News syndicate vice-president and director Mollie Slott; All-Negro Comics founder and publisher Orrin Evans; and Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson.
