Congratulations

to the

2009 Glyph Comics Awards Winners

Friday evening, May 15, 2009, 7 - 9 p.m. with a FREE reception and awards ceremony at the Main Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia,  1901 Vine Street, located between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway in Philadelphia.

Click here for a history of Glyph Comic Awards nominees and winners

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2009 GLYPH COMICS AWARDS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED; JUDGES NAMED

This past May, in the closest race in the brief history of the Glyph Comics Awards (GCA), Sentences, the autobiography of underground rapper MF Grimm, a.k.a. Percy Carey, walked away with the grand prize of Story of the Year. This year promises just as competitive a race.

The GCA Committee has selected their panel of judges for the 2009 competition. They are:

• Valerie D’Orazio, president, Friends of Lulu
• Mathan Erhardt, writer, Comics Nexus
• Ed Mathews, columnist, Pop Image
• Tim O’Shea, writer/interviewer, TalkingWithTim.com
• Elayne Riggs, comics reviewer and commentator

Any comics publisher – small, large, corporate, independent, self-published – as well as online comic creators and cartoonists for newspapers and other periodicals, are invited to submit black-themed material released from January 1-December 31, 2008 for consideration for award recognition. The Committee defines black-themed work as any comic with any combination of the following: a black protagonist(s), or at least a black character(s) pivotal to the direction of the story; a setting(s) or a theme(s) that explores the black experience within the United States and/or abroad, past, present, and/or future; and/or a comic of any kind written and/or illustrated by a black creator(s).

Anyone wishing to submit their comic book or comic strip for consideration in the 2009 competition should e-mail GCA Committee Chair Rich Watson for further information. Hard copies are preferred, though submissions of e-files will also be accepted. Online comics creators and newspaper/periodical cartoonists with websites should send a direct URL link to their site or page. Daily cartoonists must have a minimum of one month’s work archived and available for viewing; weekly cartoonists a minimum of two months. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 31, 2009.

The 2009 Glyph Comics Awards ceremony will be held at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in May 2009.

Congratulations

to the

2008 Glyph Comics Award Winners

Photo taken by Marc Manley

The Glyph Comics Awards Committee is proud to announce that Jamar Nicholas will return to host this year’s awards ceremony at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia.

Nicholas, a Philly native, is best known for his hip hop comic strip Detective Boogaloo, as well as his autobiographical series The Jamar Chronicles. In 2007 he hosted the Awards for the first time, delighting the audience with his unique brand of humor while serving as emcee of the evening’s entertainment, which also included performances by spoken word/rap artists Grayson Board, Randy Moore, and Brother G.

“I’m very excited about having the opportunity to host the 2008 Glyph awards, and am honored to be asked,” says Nicholas. “I had a great time hosting last year’s awards, and to have it take place in such a historic institution as the African American Museum makes it even greater.”

“We really couldn’t ask for a better host,” says Committee Chair Rich Watson. “Jamar’s local, he’s a cartoonist himself, and he’s funnier than anybody hosting this thing has a right to be, so we hope to have him as our go-to guy for a long, long time.”

The Awards ceremony is free and open to the public and will be held Friday, May 16 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the night before the full day of the ECBACC convention, which will be held the next day, Saturday, May 17, at Temple University’s Anderson Hall.

The Committee also wishes to remind everyone that the poll for the Fan Award remains open until March 31. Everyone is encouraged to head over to the ECBACC website (http://ecbacc.com/wordpress/?page_id=76) and vote for your favorite black comic from 2007.

Sign up for Jamar’s mailing list and find out more about his work at http://www.sweatshoppress.com/.

Click here for a history of Glyph Comic Awards nominees and winners

If you have a preference for another black comic not on the ballot, please send your write-in choice to rich.watson@gmail.com.

This is ONLY for nominations not on this ballot. Any write-in ballots containing any of the above five nominees will be discarded!

The deadline for voting in the Fan Award is Sunday, April 15, 2007.