Excellence in Graphic Literature Award Finalists Announced

Pop Culture Classroom, the educational non-profit behind Denver Comic Con, has revealed the finalists for the inaugural Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards. The winners will be announced at Denver Comic Con in June.

The nominations were streamed on KidLit TV on March 15. Judges for each category — Children’s Books, Middle Grade Books, Young Adult Books, Adult Books, the Mosaic Award, and the Book of the Year — announced the finalists from local bookstores, libraries, and comic shops. (Watch for Tattered Cover Book Store co-owner Len Vlahos, who serves on the Pop Culture Classroom advisory board, announcing the nominees for Book of the Year.)

Pop Culture Classroom created the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards to help grow awareness, legitimacy, and respect for the comics medium, the graphic novel format, and its creators, and drive growth for the graphic novel publishing category.

“Since our very first meeting to develop Denver Comic Con as a fun way to support our programs and spread the word about our educational non-profit, we have been planning an awards program to truly showcase the best in graphic novel publishing,” said Bruce MacIntosh, director of programming for Pop Culture Classroom. “We waited until the time was right to create a program that not only validates the comics medium and graphic novel format, but also provide educators, librarians, and booksellers with a resource to identify the most effective books, and in turn drive sales and growth opportunities across the industry.”

The finalists for all six categories are:

Best in Children’s Books:

Fiction

• Bolivar by Sean Rubin (BOOM! Studios)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON Books)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• The Big Bad Fox by Benjamin Renner (Macmillan)
• Where’s Halmoni? by Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Nonfiction

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn (Koch First Second)

Best in Middle-Grade Books:

Fiction

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Dawn and the Impossible Three by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan (Scholastic Graphix)
• Solution Squad by Jim McClain (Solution Squad Publishing)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag (Scholastic Graphix)
• Brave by Svetlana Chmakova (YEN Press) (*Honorable mention)

Best in Young Adult Books:

Fiction

• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson, and John Jennings (TU Books/Lee & Low)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne and Veronica Fish (Supergenius/Papercutz)

Nonfiction

• Fire! The Zora Neale Hurston Story by Peter Bagge (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (Lion Forge)
• Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Finakly and Lewis Trondheim (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Senses by Matteo Farinella (Nobrow Press)
• Spinning by Tillie Walden (First Second)

Best in Adult Books

Fiction

• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Park Bench by Christophe Chaboute (Gallery 13)
• Roughneck by Jeff Lemiere (Gallery 13)
• The Sound of the World by Heart by Giacomo Bevilacqua (Lion Forge)

Nonfiction

• Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary by Christian Perrissin and Mattheiu Blanchin (IDW Publishing)
• Hostage by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 (Penn State University Press)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)

Mosaic Award

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON-Books)
• Monstress Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu and (Image)
• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• Where’s Halmoni? by Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Book of the Year

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn Koch (First Second)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)