Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (Best Book)

Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats #2 (Doug Wright Spotlight Award aka “The Nipper”)

Hellberta by Michael Comeau (Pigskin Peters Award for experimental or avant-garde comics)

Hosted by writer and critic Geoff Pevere, the ceremony took place at the Art gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall and featured a Who’s Who of Canadian cartooning, including Seth and Chester Brown.

A feature event of the 2012 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), the evening also saw legendary political cartoonist Terry “Aislin” Mosher enter The Giants of the North, the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame. Mosher was on hand to receive the award and took part in an on-stage discussion with Toronto Star columnist Rick Salutin about his colourful career and life. 2012 is Mosher’s 40th anniversary of publishing his acerbic and often hilarious cartoons in The Montreal Gazette.

The winners were decided by a jury comprised of visual artist Shary Boyle, cartoonist John Martz (A Doug Wright Award Best Emerging Talent nominee in 2010 and Pigskin Peters Award nominee in 2008) and book artist and professor George Walker.

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Shary Boyle praised Beaton book. “The world of comics can be a sequestered and dusty place,” she said. “As the comic community bemoans its shrinking readership and dying forms, Beaton rises up and throws open the doors to a whole new audience – welcoming one and all with her generous vision and sense of sophisticated, inclusive playfulness.”

Jurist John Martz had this to say about Rilly:

“Rilly is a cartoonist who takes his time to get it right, and what we as fans might lose in quantity, we most definitely gain in quality. This scrutiny and attention to detail did not go unnoticed by the jury, who recognize and applaud his skilled draughtsmanship and the maturity of his writing. It can be no easy task to write a story about an introspective Toronto law clerk, and have it be so compelling, so rewarding to study, and be filled with such warmth. It is most deserving of this award.”

Jeet Heer, of the Wright Awards nominating committee which chooses the annual Pigskin Peters Award, described Hellberta as “Many things — a pastiche of superhero comic, a political satire, a post-apocalyptic fable – all melded together to form a single nightmarish vision. … Michael Comeau brings to this tradition an energetic line, a fertile imagination, and the courage to put his most outrageous ideas on paper.”

And of course, the Wright Awards will be announced live! The only question left is: will you be there to witness it, or hear about it second-hand?

2012 nominee (and 2011 winner for Best Book) Pascal Girard provides his prediction of the evening’s events below:

Full details below:

What: The 2012 Doug Wright Awards

Where: Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario (Directions from TCAF)

When: Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:30)

Admission: FREE!

The Poster: Poster Design for the Awards was done by previous Doug Wright Award winner Michael DeForge. Copies of the poster will be available for sale at the ceremony for the low, low price of $20.00 each.

The Details

Nominees for the 2012 Wright Awards in attendance include: Seth, Chester Brown, Kate Beaton, Pascal  Girard, Michael DeForge, Joe Ollmann, Zack Worton and many more! Come on out and help celebrate this once-a-year extravaganza of the best in Canadian comics and graphic novels.

Come see what everybody is talking about!

“The best awards presentation I’ve ever attended. For anything. Worth the trip to Toronto alone”
- Dan Nadel, PictureBox Inc.

“Two hours of pure comic book entertainment that kept the entire audience captivated. Quite, simply the best comic awards show in the world.”
- Peggy Burns, Drawn and Quarterly

“I wish there was an American comics awards that took itself as seriously as the Doug Wright Awards, but there isn’t.”
-  Dustin Harbin, cartoonist

Behold, Mr. DeForge’s poster for the 8th Annual Doug Wright Awards!

My favourite is the body-parts, pizza guy in the bottom row. Many thanks to Michael for this!

If you’re interested, we’ll be selling limited-edition prints of these at TCAF and during the awards ceremony, which will be held Saturday May 5 at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall (317 Dundas St. West). Admission is FREE, but seating is limited — doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Pevere has spent more than 30 years inspiring and challenging people across the world to support the arts, whether it’s as a CBC Radio host, TVOntario personality, Toronto Star movie critic, co-host of Rogers Television’s Reel to Real or as  co-author of the the best-selling classic Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey.

He has also written about everything from movies, music, comics and TV and has been published in books, magazines and newspapers in several countries. Pevere is a long-time reader and supporter of comics, having served on the jury for the 2010 Wright Awards (in addition to delivering an appreciation of Best Book winner Seth at the ceremony).

Geoff Pevere

“Geoff is as smart and witty in person as he is in print and he is a big fan of comics and graphic novels” said Wright Awards Director Brad Mackay “We couldn’t be happier to have him as the anchor for our ceremony this year.”

This year’s Doug Wright Awards, which take place Saturday May 5 as a feature event of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is gearing up to celebrate the best and brightest in Canadian comics. This year’s nominees include Seth, Chester Brown, Kate Beaton, Joe Ollmann, Pascal Girard and Michael DeForge – who will be in attendance at the ceremony.

Also in attendance will be Terry Mosher, the legendary political cartoonist who works under the pen name “Aislin”, who will be on hand May 5 to be inducted into The Giants of the North, the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

Geoff Pevere as drawn by Chester Brown

Founded in 2004, The Doug Wright Awards recognize the best in English-language comics (or translations of French) by Canadians living in the country and abroad. Now in their eighth year, the awards will take place on May 5, 2012 in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall. Attendance is free to the general public, and the doors will open at 6:30.

Media contact: Shireen Cuthbert – sfcuthbert@gmail.com / 416-726-4606

But this year we had a problem. Since Chester was a nominee (his Paying For It is nominated for Best Book) we couldn’t really ask him to draw an invite, cause that’d be … weird. So we tapped on Keith Jones’ (2011 DWA nominee for Catland Empire) virtual door and he stepped up to the challenge — in a big, big way!

Not only did he design the invitations — but he coloured them as well. I mean, Holy Crap. This dude is a trooper! We’re happy to give you a first look at these right here (courtesy of Joe Ollmann). I can only imagine the look on Chester’s face as he opens his envelope … Chet’s gonna have to step it up next year!

Many thanks to Keith Jones. I suggest you check out his website, and purchase his amazing books, Catland Empire and Bacter-Area. And don’t forget Colour Me Busy, his homage to classic colouring books.

Legendary cartoonist Terry ‘Aislin’ Mosher to be inducted into Hall of Fame during annual ceremony

Toronto, ON — The Doug Wright Awards, Canada’s premier comics awards, are proud to announce their finalists for 2012. The 15 nominees include established heavy-weights and past winners (Chester Brown, Seth, Marc Bell, Joe Ollmann, Kate Beaton) and a slate of extraordinary younger talent that together represent the finest in Canadian comics.

The nominees for the 2012 Doug Wright Award for Best Book are:

• Hark! A Vagrantby Kate Beaton (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Lose #3 by Michael Deforge (Koyama Press)
• Mid-Life by Joe Ollmann (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Paying for It by Chester Brown (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Reunion by Pascal Girard for (Drawn and Quarterly)
• The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly)

The nominees for the 2012 Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) which recognizes talent deserving of wider recognition, are:

• Emily Carroll for “The Seven Windows” (from The Anthology Project vol. 2), “Margot’s Room” and “The Prince & the Sea” (and other comics at emcarroll.com/comic)
•  Patrick Kyle for Black Mass # 5 – 6
•  Betty Liang for Wet T-Shirt #1, “It’s Only a Secret if You Don’t Tell Anyone” (in š! #9), “Anna Freud’s Recurring Dream” (and other comics at bettyliang.tumblr.com)
•  Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats #2 (AdHouse Books)
•  Zach Worton for The Klondike (Drawn and Quarterly)

And the nominees for the 2012 Pigskin Peters Award, which recognizes the best in avant-garde or experimental comics, are:

• Hermoddities by Temple Bates (Conundrum Press)
• Pure Pajamas Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Hellberta by Michael Comeau (Koyama Press)
• ‘Untitled’ by Mum Pittsburg, Jupiter Leucetius! Send Us a King. We Are So Bored (and other comics at connorwillumsen.com) by Connor Willumsen

Founded in 2004, The Doug Wright Awards recognize the best in English-language comics (or translations of French) by Canadians living in the country and abroad. Now in their eighth year, the awards will take place on May 5, 2012 in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall as a feature event of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF.)

The Doug Wright Awards and TCAF are also pleased to announce that legendary political cartoonist Terry Mosher (who works under the pen name “Aislin”) will be on hand at this year’s  ceremony to be inducted into The Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

This year marks Mosher’s 40th anniversary of publishing his acerbic and often hilarious cartoons in The Montreal Gazette. The Doug Wright Awards, along with its partner TCAF, are proud to have him in-the-flesh for an on-stage discussion about his colourful career and life with writer and Toronto Star columnist Rick Salutin.

Spirited, smart, and always controversial, Mosher will also be a Featured Guest at TCAF which will be held May 5-6, at Toronto’s Reference Library. 

The nominees for the 2012 Doug Wright Awards were chosen by a committee from a long list of nearly 100 works and submissions published during the 2011 calendar year. This year’s nominating committee included Jerry Ciccoritti, Jeet Heer, Bryan Munn, Chris Randle and Sean Rogers.

The 2012 winners will be decided by a jury that will include: visual artist Shary Boyle, cartoonistJohn Martz (A Doug Wright Award Best Emerging Talent nominee in 2010 and Pigskin Peters Award nominee in 2008), book artist and professor George Walker and Julie Traves, deputy arts editor for The Globe and Mail.

Media contact:

Shireen Cuthbert sfcuthbert@gmail.com

 For more information about the DWAs:

www.wrightawards.ca

Ever since then we’ve had numerous requests for a copy — video, audio or otherwise — of his presentation. Sadly, we had none to give. Until now.

The latest issue of The Devil’s Artisan (#69 for those keeping score) features a long comtemplative essay by Seth about his approach to design and how it’s been influenced by early 20th century Canadian artists and illustrators. The centrepiece of the piece is Seth’s attempt to represent the talk he gave in 2009 about the Wright book, and the role  that the Vimy Ridge war memorial played in its design. It’s intelligent, insightful and moving.

And now that section of the essay is up over at The Comics Journal website (though I would strongly urge you to seek out a copy of the actual DA issue as well — it packs more of a punch on the page somehow).

- Brad

For decades the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), a branch of United Media and sister company to United Features Syndicate, would commission a Christmas themed strip that they would offer to subscriber papers as a bonus feature come December. It would typically run for two or three weeks and star characters pulled from the company’s stable of strip stars.

But in 1940 the NEA’s annual offering was more unique. “The Quints’ Christmas”, by writer Brandon Walsh and cartoonist Royal King Cole, cast the oft-exploited Ontario-born sisters as adorable moppets who lead a campaign on behalf of the children of the world to convince Santa Claus to come out of his self-imposed retirement.

The 26 daily strips, which were recently posted on the Hogan’s Alley website, are above-average fare for this type of thing; well-crafted and nicely rendered in a pleasant mid-Century manner.  They also exude charm, with the sisters exploring a world populated by candy mountains, ice cream waterfalls and parrot chutes (yeah, I spelled that right).

In the end, you just can’t resist the Quints irrepressible optimism and zest for life in the face of a Santa-less Christmas–not to mention a raging global conflict. Anyways, consider this the Wright Awards holiday greetings for 2011 (albeit via 1940).  A hearty thanks goes out to Hogan’s Alley, whose website features a range of old school comic strippy treasures — including this amazing collection of Christmas cards from Little Orphan Annie‘s Harold Gray.

I am not ashamed to say that I am one of those people.

Loaded with arcane logger slang like “wooding them down”, and packed with period details (see above) it’s near-irressistible to anyone who ever read classic adventure comics as a kid. The world it creates is completely alien and irresistible. One of it’s biggest fans is the cartoonist Seth, who is known to work the title of the book into his lexicon as a unique form of enthusiastic encouragement (“That’s it! Now you’re logging!”).

Anyway, earlier this year I finally got my hands on a copy of this forgotten graphic novel and I was so moved I wrote a piece about it. The Comics Journal published it recently, so if you like that sort of thing I suggest you check it out.

- Brad Mackay

The Doug Wright Awards inducted Feyer into our Giants of the North Hall of Fame back in 2006. Back then, the only person we could think to get to come and talk about him was Lister Sinclair, a CBC broadcasting legend and Feyer’s long-time friend. Sadly, Sincliar had a stroke and couldn’t make it to the ceremony — so we soldiered on without him. (Jeet Heer stepped into the breach.)

Ever since we’ve felt that George, who died well before his time, deserved more attention — and this certainly qualifies. So go check it out.