The judges — who included “Fun Home” author Alison Bechdel this year — stated “Goldsmith’s rich, funny, plangent story isn’t only beautifully drawn; its subject, though highly particular, also has a universality that speaks to the past two years, a period during which too many of us have had to organise funerals at a distance.” Goldsmith, who now intends to turn the comic into a full-length graphic memoir, commented, “Death is so raw and emotional, and yet you’re also greeted with this bureaucracy. If you’re lucky, the people helping you through will be great. But our experience really wasn’t; when we went back to Germany for the stone setting a year later, it was just as bad.”
The runner-ups were “Andrew,” a reflection by A. Wolfgang Crowe on his relationship with his troubled uncle; and “Cancer Sells!,” in which Tat Effby satirizes the publishing industry while depicting her battle with cancer. You can read those respectively here and here, as well as “A Funeral in Freiburg” here, and learn more about Goldsmith’s work at her official site here. Congratulations to all the winners!
