Prism Comics and the Cartoon Art Museum have announced the Winners of the Second Annual Prism Awards. The Awards announcements took place at the Prism Awards panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 on Saturday July 21, 2018.

Prism Awards Chairperson, Maia Kobabe, moderated the panel which included Prism Awards Founders Ted Abenheim and Nina L. Taylor Kester and judges Ajuan Mance; William O. Tyler, Heidi McDonald,  Mey Rude, and Rob McMonigal.

The ceremony began by re-announcing winners from last year’s 2017 Prism Awards and honoring the judges of this year’s awards. As the 2018 nominees and winners were announced, Molly Ostertag and Zora Gilbert accepted winning their 2018 Prism Awards in person with heartfelt speeches on the importance of the awards to themselves and the community at large. Videos were presented to the audience for acceptance speeches by those 2018 winners who were unable to be present in person, including Blue Delliquanti, Noella Whitney, Weshoyot Alvitre and Daniel Heath Justice .

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.  In keeping with the creative spirit of LGBTQAI+ comics creators, the Awards themselves are hand-crafted with design by Nina L. Taylor Kester including a glass rainbow by Amy Karadbil and etched comic book base by Barry Figgins.

The panel closed with encouragement for submissions for the 2019 Prism Awards which will open next Spring 2019 and will be announced through the Prism Comics website. The Queer Comics Expo in partnership with the Cartoon  Art Museum which held the first Prism Awards ceremony in 2017 was also announced to return in 2019 with newsletter signups for updates.

The Winners and Nominees for the 2018 Prism Awards are:

SHORT FORM COMICS –
WINNER:
To Measure by Noella Whitney, 2017
NOMINEES:
Contact High by James F Wright and Josh Eckert, August 2017 –
Figurinha by Dante Luiz, May 2017 –
There’s More Than One! by Justin Hubbell, June 2017 –
It Was 1973, and Tiffany Banks Was Totally Winning at Gender by Ajuan Mance, 2017 –

WEBCOMICS – 
WINNER:
O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti, (excerpts from 2017)
NOMINEES:
Cans of Beans chapter 9 by Tamara Go, 2017
SuperButch Issue 1 by Becky Hawkins and Barry Deutsch, 2017
Monster Pop! by Maya Kern, (excerpt from 2017)
Superpose by Ciaran and Anka C, (excerpt from August 2017 – November 2017)

SMALL TO MIDSIZE PRESS COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS
WINNER:
The Boys Who Became Hummingbirds by Daniel Heath Justice and Weshoyot Alvitre, Alternate History Comics Inc., June 2017
NOMINEES:
Steam Clean by Laura Ķeniņš, May 2017
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, Fantagraphics, February 2017

MAIN STREAM COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS – 
WINNER:
The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag, Scholastic Graphix, 2017
NOMINEES:
Iceman by Sina Grace (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Kevin Wada (artist), Marvel Comics, 2017
Heavy Vinyl by Carly Usdin (Writer), Nina Vakueva (Pencils), Irene Flores (Inker), Rebecca Nalty (Colorist), Jim Campbell (Letterer), Boom Studios, 2017

ANTHOLOGIES – 
WINNER:
Dates: An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction Volume 2 edited by Zora Gilbert and Cat Parra, August 2017 –
NOMINEES:
Power & Magic: IMMORTAL SOULS edited by Joamette Gil, 2017
Oh Joy Sex Toy, Volume 4 edited by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, 2017