Tag Archives: the prism awards

The 2021 Prism Award Winners and Finalists Announced

Posted on by
Prism Awards 2021

The Winners and Finalists of the 2021 Prism Awards were announced Monday night, December 27, 2021, in a virtual presentation on the Prism Comics YouTube channel and Prism Comics Prism Awards page.

The program featured video appearances from both Winners and Finalists in six categories – webcomics; short form comics; small to midsize press; mainstream press; anthology; and a new category this year – young readers (13 and under). The program will remain online for future viewing.

The Prism Awards were founded by Prism Comics, The Queer Comics Expo, and The Cartoon Art Museum to recognize, promote, and celebrate diversity and excellence in queer comics and graphic novels. Winner and Finalist Awards are presented to comic works by queer creators that promote the growing body of diverse, powerful, innovative, positive or challenging representations of LGBTQAI+ characters and stories in fiction or nonfiction comics.

Award Recipients are voted on by six diverse panels of comics professionals, educators, librarians, journalists and writers. Prism Awards Chair Person, Gladys Ochoa, shared the Awards Committee’s gratitude for everyone involved in this year’s Awards presentation: “Prism Comics, The Queer Comics Expo and The Cartoon Art Museum would like to thank the creators, publishers and judges for all of their contributions to this year’s Prism Awards. The quality of the works submitted and the representations of identities, backgrounds and genres were amazing. We were also pleased to add the Young Readers category this year. There are so many terrific comics and graphic novels for young readers coming out, and it’s vitally important for young queer kids to see themselves in comics.”

Here are the Winners and Finalists for the 2021 Prism Awards:

Webcomics
Winner: Superpose (Artist & Writer: Seosamh; Artist & Writer: Anka)
Finalist: Shaderunners (Artist: Alex Assan; Writer: Lin Darrow)  
Finalist: A Guide To A Healthy Relationship (Creator: Copper)

Short Form Comics
Winner: God Sees Me Crying in the Bathroom Stall (Creator: Vincy Lim)
Finalist: QAT Person number 3 (Creator: Dylan Edwards)
Finalist: The Unfading Flower (Creator: Hari Conner)

Small/Midsize Press
Winner: To Cut (Creator: Noella Whitney)
Finalist: How To Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual (Creator: Rebecca Burgess)
Finalist: Sasha From The Gym (Creator: Otava Heikkilä)

Mainstream Press
Winner: The Low Low Woods (Publisher: DC Comics, Written by: Carmen Maria Machado & Joe Hill Art by: Dan McDaid & Dani Strips)
Finalist: The Deep & Dark Blue (Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Creator: Niki Smith)
Finalist: Juliet Takes a Breath (Publisher: Boom Studios, Writer: Gabby Rivera; Illustrator, Celia Moscote; Colorist, James Fenner; Letterer: DC Hopkins)

Anthology
Winner: A.B.O. Comix: A Queer Prisoners Anthology Vol 4 (Publisher: A.B.O. Comix, Editor: Casper Cendre,)
Finalist: Ambrosia: Trans Masc & Non Binary Erotic Comics (Edited by: Tab Kimpton and Jade Sarson)
Finalist: Confined Before COVID19: A Pandemic Anthology by LGBTQ Prisoners (Publisher: A.B.O. Comix, Editor: Casper Cendre)

Young Readers (13 and under)
Winner: The Deep & Dark Blue (Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Creator: Niki Smith,)
Finalist: The Magic Fish (Publisher: Random House Graphic, Creator: Trung Le Nguyen)
Finalist: Space Battle Lunchtime Vol. 3: A Dish Best Served Cold (Publisher: Oni Press, Creator: Natalie Riess)

Submissions are Now Open for 2019 Prism Awards & Queer Press Grant

Posted on by

The Prism Awards are presented annually by The Cartoon Art Museum, Prism Comics, and The Queer Comics Expo to both fiction and non-fiction comics works by queer authors.  The goals of the Awards are to recognize and celebrate diversity and excellence in the field of queer comics and to promote powerful, innovative, positive, challenging stories and representations of LGBTQAI+ characters. 

One award will be given in each of the following categories: Best Short Form Comic, Best Webcomic, Best Comic From A Small To Midsize Press, Best Comic From A Mainstream Publisher and Best Comic Anthology.  Finalists will also receive recognition. 

Eligible work must have been made or first published between January 1 and December 31, 2018 and never before submitted to these Awards.  All submissions will be reviewed by an impartial panel of judges made up of professionals in the field of comics, including authors, scholars, reviewers and librarians. 

THE SUBMISSION PERIOD FOR THE PRISM AWARDS CLOSES FEBRUARY 15, 2019 AT 11:59 PM PST.  Three Nominees in each category for the Prism Awards will be announced at the Queer Comics Expo in the San Francisco in April 2019 (dates to be announced).  Winners and Honorable Mention will be announced at Comic-Con International San Diego, Thursday, July 18 – Sunday, July 21, 2019 (date to be announced).

Additional information and guidelines for submission can be found here.

SUBMISSION ARE ALSO OPEN FOR THE 2019 PRISM COMICS QUEER PRESS GRANT.

The Grant is awarded annually to help emerging independent queer comic book creators publish and promote their comics.   Since its inception, the Queer Press Grant has fostered many important works representing excellence and diversity in LGBTQAI+ comics:

Comic books, comic strips, webcomics and graphic novel projects are all eligible. Entries are judged first and foremost by artistic merit and contributions to the LGBTQAI+ community, followed by evaluation of financial need and proposal presentation.

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE QUEER PRESS GRANT CLOSE AT 5 PM PST ON MARCH 1, 2019. Entries are judged first and foremost by artistic merit, followed by concerns such as financial need, proposal presentation, and the project’s contribution to the LGBT community. The judges also lean towards projects that are more fully realized — we want to see many pages of sequential art, rather than an idea with sketches. The Queer Press Grant is awarded to an amateur artist who hasn’t yet gotten a mainstream publisher.   They are reviewed by the Prism Board, past recipients of the Grant and Prism’s Advisory Board.  

The Recipient of the Grant will be announced at one of Prism Comics’ panels at Wondercon Anaheim– March 29 – March 31, 2019 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California.