AWARD ROUNDUP: A lot of LICAFs – and more awards from around the world

The Lakes International Comics Art Festival (LICAF) which annually takes place in Bowness-on-Windermere, England, delivered a bevy of different awards last month. In this Award Roundup, we will go through the LICAFs before checking out the happenings further afield. 

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  Italian maestro Lorenzo Mattotti received the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art. While best known to the wider public for his illustration work in the likes of Vogue and The New Yorker, Mattotti has been firmly attached to comics, producing them since the start of his artistic career in the 1970s.

  Published in both France and Italy, his third longform work Fuochi (Fires) in 1984 is considered the point at which Lorenzo Mattotti achieved his signature approach: an expressionist style often using bold, moody colours. While he is largely kept busy with his illustration and gallery art, he remains active in comics – considering them his most difficult and personal work.

  His most recent comic available in English was 2018’s Garlandia (Fantagraphics) with frequent collaborator Fabrizio Ostani (aka Jerry Kramsky). Mattotti and Kramsky’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (NBM) received an Eisner Award in 2003. The Sergio Aragonés Award, done in partnership with the National Cartoonists Society, is bestowed to international cartoonists and illustrators annually.

Mattotti said on the night:

“I’m very surprised because I didn’t really know that my work was so known. I always work in my own direction, and sometimes I have the impression that my works were in little streets [away from view]. When I did the New Yorker cover, I knew that it was seen. But my comic books were, at that time, much more my private work. They are not so easy for me, so I’m very impressed with this prize. I thank you very much.”

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  Giant graphic novelist Molly Ray became the UK’s debut Youth Comics Laureate. One of LICAF’s initiatives is the biannual Comics Laureate position, where a member of the comics creative community is appointed ambassador for the medium to the general public. 2025 introduces the Youth Comics Laureate, an additional ambassador selected by and for teens – decided by creative community organisation Comics Youth.

  As for Comics Laureate incumbent Bobby Joseph, his tenure has been extended an additional year.

On becoming Youth Comics Laureate, Molly Ray said:

“Thank you so much to Comics Youth and to the Lakes Festival and to everyone that voted. This is such a huge privilege. I’ve spent the last few years working with lots of young people and sharing with them the therapeutic nature of making comics, but also the power of comics on the world stage. And I’m very excited to carry on doing that.” 

• The 2025 Sophie Castille Award for Comics in Translation went to Helge Dascher and Robin Lang, the translation team behind Boum‘s The Jellyfish (Pow Pow Press). On receiving the award, the pair also gave insight into their approach as co-translators.

Helge Dascher said,

“In our co-translations, we work out loud. We get to listen to the translations as we go. We sometimes act out the panels so that the text suits the facial expressions and body language of the characters. Working together, we push the translations further than we otherwise might. It’s a fun process. It’s also a time consuming one.”

Robin Lang added, 

“It’s one that we feel is well worth it. We’re grateful to the readers who are interested in hearing voices like the ones in this book at a time when a lot of these voices are being silenced by so many of the world.”

• LICAF gave a Special Award to Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah who has been producing diary comics of her ongoing experience of war and displacement in Gaza. Due to intermittent access to paper, Safaa has often used her tent to draw her work. She has also been running comics workshops for young Gazans.

  Safaa’s work has made an impact online and collections have been released in the Philippines, Italy and most recently a special limited print edition – collecting her cartoons from October 2023 to December 2024 – was published by LICAF, in collaboration with Mohammad Sabaaneh and translated by Nada Hodali, entitled Safaa and the Tent – with all profits and sales going toward Safaa.

• Türkish cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu received the Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award from the Cartoonist Rights Network. Ömeroğlu is a satirical cartoonist who has continued working despite an ongoing legal battle in Türkiye over a 2020 cartoon deemed by the authorities as “obscenity.” The judicial harassment significantly harmed her career prospects at home and led to the forced closure of Türkish humour magazine LeMan earlier this year.

  Currently living outside Türkiye, Ömeroğlu produces cartoons for international publications and is working on a graphic novel about her experience. Announced in May, the ceremony usually takes place in Washington, DC but political uncertainty had the prize-giving take place in the UK.

  

BEYOND LICAF

• Two graphic novels won prizes at the 37^th annual Lambda Literary Awards (aka the Lammys) on October 4. The recipient for LGBTQ+ Comics was Lonnie Garcia’s Putty Pygmalion (Silver Sprocket). Meanwhile Nino Bulling’s Firebugs (Drawn & Quarterly) received the 2025 Lammy for Transgender Fiction.

  The Lambda Literary Awards began in 1989 to bring greater visibility to LGBTQ+ fiction and comprises over twenty categories. Comics and cartooning have long been featured in the Lammys but a dedicated comics/graphic novel category was only introduced in 2014.

• The French edition of Guy Delisle graphic novel Muybridge (in English with Drawn & Quarterly) received the Rendez-vous de l’histoire Prix BD [‘Meeting with History comics prize’] last weekend. The Meeting With History festival is an accessible gathering of historians for discussion and presentations which are open to the public.

  There are numerous awards attached to the festival of which comics is one, introduced in 2004. The graphic biography about 19^th century English photographer and early motion-picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge was published in France by Delcourt under the title Pour une fraction de seconde [‘For a Fraction of a Second’]. It was one of 80 nominated albums from thirty publishing houses.

• Some familiar titles made the Fnac-France Inter Prix BD 2026 longlist. Of the twenty books, there are the French editions of Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (Ankama) and the James Sturm & Joe Sutphin adaptation of Richard Adams’ classic Watership Down (Monsieur Toussaint Louverture).

  Also in the selection are several titles by Label 619 which earlier this year announced a partnership with Magnetic Press to bring their work to the US. An English localisation of Mathieu Bablet & Guillaume Singelin’s Shin Zero was successfully funded last month on Kickstarter. Silent Jenny, written and drawn by Bablet, is not yet available in English but probably not far off. The eighth edition of the annual prize, it is organised annually by French retailer Fnac and main public radio station France Inter.

  Books are decided by a mix of professional and public juries. The shortlist will be announced December 5, and winner declared January 7.