While a trio of awards were handed out at Friday night’s opening reception for this year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus festival, one prize remained. On the expo floor yesterday the Emerging Talent Prize was awarded by Bone creator and CXC Artistic Director Jeff Smith to cartoonist Victoria Douglas.
As CXC describes it, the Emerging Talent Prize “recognizes artistic accomplishment, potential growth, and the uniqueness of a cartoonist’s achievements early in their career.” Along with a prize plaque, the creator also receives a $7,500, no-strings-attached honoraria to do with as they will.
Victoria Douglas (they/them) is the cartoonist behind such books as Cinnamon and Templar Vitae. In accepting the prize, Douglas described walking into CXC in 2018 by accident, having come to the library to study. There they met Nate Powell, and between talking to him and experiencing the festival Douglas decided to pursue cartooning. The Central Ohio native said that CXC has changed their life, and praised the comics community in Columbus for being so welcoming, supportive, and passionate.
Previous CXC Emerging Talent Prize winners include Katie Skelly, K Czap, Kat Fajardo, Keren Katz, Carta Monir, Gabby Metzler, and Robyn Smith.
You can check out Victoria Douglas’s work on their website. Congratulations to Douglas on a prize well-deserved.
