HERE ARE THE NOMINEES FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL PRISM AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN LGBTQ+ COMICS!

PRISM COMICS, THE QUEER COMICS EXPO and the CARTOON ART MUSEUM are excited to announce the Nominees for the THIRD ANNUAL PRISM AWARDS.   The Prism Awards and the Prism Award Honorary Mentions will be presented at COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: SAN DIEGO, July 18 – 21, 2019 at the San Diego Convention Center.  The date and time of the Awards Presentation will be announced with the release of Comic-Con’s programming schedule.

The Prism Awards are presented to comic works by queer authors and works that promote the growing body of diverse, powerful, innovative, positive or challenging representations of LGBTQAI+ characters in fiction or nonfiction comics. 

The goal of the Awards is to recognize, promote, and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics. 

The Nominees and Awards are voted on by diverse panels of comics professionals, educators, librarians, journalists 

and writers.

The nominees for the 2019 Prism Awards are:

SHORT FORM NOMINEES: 

You Don’t Have To Be Afraid of Me by Victor Martins  https://helloboyfriend.itch.io

Fazenda De Sangue Azul by H. Pueyo and Dante Luiz  https://danteluiz.com/tagged/comics

see me by e Jackson  https://eshiel.itch.io/seeme

WEBCOMIC NOMINEES

SuperButch by Barry Deutsch & Becky Hawkins http://superbutchcomic.com

After the Fog by H-P Lehkonen   https://hplehkonen.com/blog/after-the-fog

Null Point by Amara Sherm  https://sparklermonthly.com/series/null-point

Small To Midsize Press Nominees:

It Will Be Hard by Hien Pham(self published)  https://wavingpeople.itch.io/it-will-be-hard

Meal by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho (Iron Circus)  https://ironcircus.com/product/meal

The Lie and How We Told It by Tommy Parish (Fantagraphics)   http://www.fantagraphics.com/thelie

MAINSTREAM NOMINEES:

Runaways #12 by Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson and Joe Carmagna (Marvel)  https://www.marvel.com/comics/characters/1010747/runaways

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #6 by Mark Russell, Brandee Stilwell, Paul Mounts, Jeremy Lawson, Rose Campbell, Ben Caldwell, Mark Morales, Gus Vazquez, Sean Parsons and Mike Feehan (DC)  https://www.dccomics.com/comics/exit-stage-left-the-snagglepuss-chronicles-2018/exit-stage-left-the-snagglepuss-chronicles-1

Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges, polterink, and Jim Campbell (Boom! Studios)  http://www.boom-studios.com/2018/10/31/lumberjanes-the-infernal-compass-on-sale-now

Anthology Nominees:
ABO Comix Vol 2: A Comic Anthology by LGBTQ Prisoners edited by Casper Cendre   http://www.abocomix.com/store/p2/abo1.html

Group Chat edited by Carolynn Calabrese, Jenny Mott, Ashley Gallagher, Rachel Weiss  https://pome-mag.com/pome-press

Being True: LGBTQ+ Comics From The Boston Comics Roundtable edited by Renie Jesanis, Kyri Lorenz, and Steph Rose Glass  https://bostoncomics.com/bcr-at-fanexpo-boston-being-true-debuts

Top: Prism Awards Organizing Team – Nina Kester, Maia Kobabe, Ted Abenheim in illustration by Ellis Kim and photo by Ellis Kim
Lower L-R: James Tynion IV, 2017 Prism Award Winner for The Backstagers (illustrated by Rian Sygh)
Molly Knox Ostertag, 2018 Prism Award Winner for The Witch Boy
Nina Taylor Kester with Dylan Edwards, 2017 Prism Award Winner for QAT Person

We were honored to work with a talented group of 15 judges who read and evaluated this year’s submissions:

Short Form Judges:

• Mey Valdivia Rude (writer at them, Autostraddle)
• Joamette Gil (Heartwood: Non-binary Tales of Sylvan Fantasy)
• Sfé R. Monster (The Beyond Anthologies)

Webcomic Judges:

• Matt Lubchansky (The Nib)
• Ajuan Mance (Gender Studies)
• Zora Gilbert (Dates: An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction Stories, Books 1 and 2)

Small to Midsize Press Comic Judges:

• Juliette Capra (Crowded)
• Noella Whitney (Dates: An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction Stories, Book 2 )
• Heidi MacDonald (editor-in-chief of Comicsbeat)

Mainstream Publisher Comic Judges:

• Brian Andersen (Stripling Warrior)
• AJ Real (writer, Advanced Death Saves)
• Jack Baur (Librarian, Berkeley Public Library)

Anthology Judges:

• e jackson (Flux)
• Hazel Newlevant (Sugar Town)
• Rob McMonigal (founder and head writer at Panel Patter)

The Prism Awards Organizing Team:

• Ted Abenheim (Prism Comics)
• Nina Taylor Kester (Queer Comics Expo, Cartoon Art Museum)
• Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir).   

For further information – contact Maia Kobabe at redgoldsparks@gmail.com

*Admission to Comic-Con International San Diego is required to attend the Prism Awards presentation.

Prism Comics – Founded in 2003, Prism Comics is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that supports LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ friendly comics, comics professionals and readers.  Prism fosters diversity in comics and popular geek culture and is one of the only comics organizations that provides an annual financial grant to emerging comics creators – The Prism Comics Queer Press Grant.  Learn more at prismcomics.org.

Queer Comics Expo – The Queer Comics Expo (QCE) is an event to celebrate queer culture and promote diverse queer representation in comics, animation and other great ways to tell stories.  QCE is also a fundraiser for the Cartoon Art Museum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to preserving, documenting, and exhibiting the unique and accessible art form of cartooning in all its forms for over 30 years.  For more information please visit https://www.cartoonart.org/event/2019-qce

The Cartoon Art Museum – The Cartoon Art Museum’s mission is to ignite imaginations and foster the next generation of visual storytellers by celebrating the history of cartoon art, its role in society, and its universal appeal. The museum’s vision is to be the premier destination to experience cartoon art in all its many forms from around the world, and a leader in providing insight into the process of creating it. The Cartoon Art museum can be visited online at cartoonart.org and at its new location 781 Beach St, San Francisco, CA 94109.