The finalists for the Cartoonist Studio Prize, presented annually by Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies, have just been announced, and it’s a real comics greatest hits 2016 list, including blockbuster March Book Three, critical darlings Rosalie Lightning and Libby’s Dad, On a Sunbeam and so on.

The finalists are selected  in two categories, print and webcomics and winners in each category receive a $1000 prize. This year’s nominating committee  includes  Slate’s Jacob Brogan; the faculty and students at the Center for Cartoon Studies, represented by Jarad Greene; and  guest judge, Karen Green, curator for comics and cartoons at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

Last year’s winners were Carol Tyler’s Soldiers heart and Boulet’s “I Want to  Believe.”

The Cartoonist Studio Prize is one of three annual prizes for comics that I’d call “literary prizes; the other two are the LA Times Book Prize in the GN category and the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, presented annually by Penn State.

libbys_dad

And here are the 2017 nominees:

 

The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year: 2016 Shortlist

Burt’s Way Home by John Martz. Koyama Press.
Canopy by Karine Bernadou. Retrofit and Big Planet Comics.
Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson. Flying Eye Books.
Libby’s Dad by Eleanor Davis. Retrofit and Big Planet Comics.
March: Book 3 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. Top Shelf.
Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden. Drawn and Quarterly.
Rosalie Lightning by Tom Hart. St. Martin’s Press.
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew. Pantheon.
The Longest Day of the Future by Lucas Varela. Fantagraphics.
We All Wish for Deadly Force by Leela Corman. Retrofit and Big Planet Comics.

Lauren Weinstein_color_finish
Normel Person by Lauren Weinstein

The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Web Comic of the Year: 2016 Shortlist

 

Greek Diary by Glynnis Fawkes
I Trained to Fight the Enemy” by Jess Ruliffson
Normel Person by Lauren Weinstein
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
On Beauty” by Christina Tran
Rejected Anthology Submission” by Meghan Lands
Riverbound by Päivi Niinikangas
The Secrets in My Mother’s Nightstand” by Sophia Wiedeman
The Unofficial Cuckoo’s Nest by Luke Healy
Wonderlust by Diana Nock

prologi-2.png
Riverbound by Päivi Niinikangas