The 2025 Minicomic Awards took place on May 1, 2025, at the Nib & Ink Fest via livestream. You can watch the ceremony here.
The Nib & Ink Fest is a month-long online comics fest hosted by the Cartoonist Cooperative. The judges for the 2025 Minicomic Awards were Barbara Benas, Ashanti Fortson, Gigi Murakami, Cam Marshall, Evan Dahm, Arpad Okay, and Madeline McGrane.
“The Minicomic Awards is an annual virtual showcase founded by cartoonists Leslie Hung and Sloane Leong that spotlights the unique, challenging, and under-recognized work in this short form medium.”
A minicomic is a short comic, 32 pages or less, that stands as an original creation and isn’t part of a larger narrative. Over 300 submissions were brought down to 30 finalists.
The ceremony was hosted by Starfishface, who mentioned, “I feel like minicomics are cool because its so short and easier to finish, it’s a great way to be experimental in the different ways that the medium can be expressed and it’s really cool to see what folks put together.”
For most cartoonists, minicomics are the form in which they begin to develop their storytelling skills and also the place they return to experiment and push their techniques, voices, and the medium further. Their accessibility also means we get a bounty of incredibly unique work across a wide range of genres and from a variety of marginalized perspectives. The Cartoonist Cooperative is excited to continue spotlighting groundbreaking, under-the-radar work and hopefully encourage more people to make minicomics!
Below are all the winners with quotes from the judges:
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner – Fiction
Ratgrl Volume 2 – STC019
Judge Barbara Benas said “[Ratgrl] does everything the award is looking for in spades. Wonderful excellently executed comic that has experimentation as it’s foundation, but beyond that it’s not just an experiment that goes array. it’s a stellar work on it’s own. I had so much fun reading it several times.”
You can check it out here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Nonfiction
Scoot – Cameron McCafferty
“More than memoir. We witness the telling of the story by the artist, we relive their memories with them as they retell it, and we drift out of panels and into illustrated sensory fantasy sequences as they explore memories of feelings as well as events.” said judge Arpad Okay.
Check it out here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Horror
The Pool – Leda Zawacki
“I’ve been pulling for copper etching to have a bigger place in the indie comics world and [The Pool] is a really considered, beautiful textural thing. It’s using reproduction textures and these different computer interface textures to tell this really weird, cascading but clear to read story. I was personally very impressed,” said judge Evan Dahm.
Read it here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Sci-fi
Diaphanoids – Anna Bow & Hagai Palevsky
“The use of watercolor and its natural, partial absorption by the page gives the emotions the colors represent a raw, flawed consistency that reads authentic and real. Makes it sadder,” said judge Arpad Okay.
Check it out here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Fantasy
Ballad for Black Cassandra – Olivia Stephens
“Powerful and beautiful comic, it’s interesting because it starts as a metaphor but the metaphor sort of dovetails into the story and becomes it’s own story. The color is this select pallet that brings a moodiness that is essential to the read. The text in it is gorgeous, it has this character to it and what is color and what is semi-transparent. It’s got a lot of directness to it, a lot of mystery to it. It’s a very powerful piece and it’s beautiful and sad and angry but gorgeous,” said judge Arpad Okay.
“I’d describe it as a modern folk tale, which i think also perfectly fits the fantasy category. The pacing, the emotional through line of it, everything about it is excellent and stunning,” added Barbara Benas
Read it here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Romance
Wisteria House – Daniela Viçoso
“The narrative layers demand stills from a show that doesn’t exist, to make the reader dream of other episodes, placed in a visually robust setting that conveys the beauty of the novel it’s adapted from that doesn’t exist, told as a found fan comic that doesn’t exist.” said judge Arpad Okay.
Get a copy here.
2025 Minicomic Awards Winner– Humor
Alas – Sajan Rai
“To treat Shakespeare as just a type of guy is basically a generational innovation in my mind, hilarious and flawlessly executed comic. The visual texture is so beautiful without ever being distracting. I love this comic!” said judge Evan Dahm.
Here is Rai’s website.
Congratulations to all the finalist and winners! Thank you to all the folks at Cartoonist Cooperative for all their work.
Also, don’t forget that the Nib and Ink Fest will be ongoing for the month of May, so check out the events here.
