Awards

In light of yesterday's announcement of James Kochalka being appointed "country's first ever" Cartoonist Laureate in Vermont, it appears that one other state has previously named a cartoonist laureate, Chad Carpenter. And what state would that be? Alaska. That's right, the 50th state in terms of population density per square mile named a Cartoonist Laureate before states like Oregon, Washington, California, New York and the ever-burgeoning Vermont. These states are pregnant with cartoonists, illustrators, animators and graphic novelists. When asked about the erroneous credit The Center For Cartoon Studies co-founder, James Sturm, stated, "I should have known. Alaska is the only state in the country that has a longer cartooning season than Vermont." For those down south, cartooning season lasts as long as there is snow on the ground and whiskey in your mug.

Last week the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the winners of the 4th Annual International Manga Award. The International Manga Award - the...

Last night's Golden Globes held no wins for any comics-themed material, but lots of stars of comic book movies were out, providing a stunning parade of nerdlebrity pulchritude.

This year in addition to our usual questions for the Year-End Survey – sent to a mix of creators, publishers, journalists and marketing personal—we added a new category: Person of the Year, the person who, we we put it, was "the most important person, someone who had an impact, someone who set the pace, or had a banner year." We were very curious to see what kind of responses this question would get – while a lot of people are doing some of the best work of their careers, or emerging as critical favorites, it was a very mixed year business-wise and we were wondering who would be seen as the most visionary and decisive person. Well, we needn't have worried that this would be a hard question to answer.

The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, and comics turned up in two categories. RED, based on the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner comic, was tagged in the Picture, Musical or Comedy category and The Walking Dead got a nom for Best Series, Drama.

The judges for the 2011 Eisner Awards have been announced. They are Comic-Con board of Directors member Ned Cato, Jr., librarian/curator Karen Green, writer/editor Andrew Helfer, publishing executive (and BEAT contributor) Rich Johnson and retailer Chris Powell. The five will convene in late March to deliberate on the nominations, and the awards will be presented at next year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The 2011 Angoulême comics festival fast approaches, and they have just announced their official selections. Rather than nominate various books in different categories, these selections are a pool from which the Gran Prix and other prizes are given. A jury -- led this time by Baru -- will make final selections.

Via email from Jeff Lemire, the exciting news that "ESSEX COUNTY BECOMES THE FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL TO BE NAMED ONE OF THE TOP TEN ESSENTIAL CANADIAN BOOKS OF THE DECADE!" The selection comes as part of Canada Reads, a yearly literacy campaign aimed at spotlighting the best in Canadian literature. Voting was open to the public, and comics types have supported a vote for ESSEX COUNTY as a vote for comics legitimacy, but it's certainly a deserved honor. Lemire's bleak, spare tales of rural Canadian life and coming of age are timeless and powerfully told.

Continuing on with the end of year announcements, PW's annual Best Books issues is out, and it includes 10 graphic novels, as follows:

It's starting! PW's Best Books will be out on Monday, but here's the Amazon editors' choices for the year:

Presented last night at at the Long Beach Comic Con. Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work: Diana Nock, The Intrepid Girlbot Best Female Character: Ramona...

The Eagle Awards were presented at the MCM Expo in London Last night,. And the winners are: Roll of Honour – Brian Bolland Favourite Newcomer Writer...